|
CROPS |
|
Cotton Varieties |
Cotton (Gossypium) is
the most important crop in the District that at presents the source of
its especial prosperity. The area under it has increased from 70,000
acres in 1863 to 140,000 at the settlement of 1892-94 and 470,000 in
1905-06. In recent years the increase in this crops has been
extraordinary as shown by the following figures: - 1897-98, 125,000;
1899-1900, 159,000; 1900-01, 238,000; 1902-03, 303,000,
1903-04,305,000, 1904-05,404,000 acres. The principle variety is that
know as jari, a mixture to our varieties G. neglectum varsvera, malvensis
roseua and culchica, its
lint is strong but short and coarse, it gives the larger outturn than
the varieties and the plants are also more vigorous and hardy. The
comparatively long- stapled variety known as bani (Gossypium indicum) is little
grown. In Katol the third variety is known, designated as gholgli or vilayati jari by the people. It
grows mixed with jari and is the upland Georgian (Gossypium hirsutum) of which Mr. Fuller distributed seed in 1887. The
leaves are large and entire, not divided into segments, and it is said
to have a white and pink flower. The people do not grow it willingly
as they say that the outturn of the lint is small compared to jari. Hinganghat bani will
produce counts of yarn of 40’s and jari of 10’s and 12’s,
though the cotton is frequently used for spinning lower counts than
those of which it is capable. Bani
have a staple of 7/8ths of an inch and jari of ˝ to ľ ths.
|
|
Methods Of Cultivation |
The land is prepared
for the cotton with the banker or
paring-plough, which is taken over it two or three times before the
breaking of the rains. The seed is sown through a hollow bamboo tube
called sarta, which is trailed in the wake of the bakhar and held up by a woman
who drops the seeds through it. The seeds are previously washed in cow
dung and water to prevent them adhering together by the threads of
lints. The proper season for sowing cotton is from first to the third
week in June in Mriga Nakshtra. Some cultivators sow before the
breaking of the rains. Cotton is often mixed with tur or arhar in the
proportion of one line of the latter after nine, eleven, or fifteen
lines of cotton, the smallest proportion of tur being sown in the best
soil. Double lines of the tur are no usually confined to inferior
soils, where the plants will not grow so high, and will therefore be
less liable to stunt the cotton.
A few plants of the ambari fibre (hibiscus cannabinus) or of castor are
sometimes mixed with the tur. It is not considered locally that this
practice is of any advantage to the cotton, but was rather adapted in
order to give the bushy tur plants room to spread. In fact as already
stated the cotton plants growing, next to the tur are stunted but it
is known that arhar like other plants of the order lrguminosś contributes to the
fertility of the soil of the power which its roots have of attracting
nitrogen. Further the
ground is said to be opened up by its deep penetrating roots and to
drive some advantage from the decayed foliage. It is also the favorite
food pulse of the Nagpur country. In the best soil cotton is now sown
alone to an increasing extent. Unmixed cotton is called mari parhati.
The crop is weeded
several times by passing the daura
or dundia, the small scarifies, backwards and forwards between the
lines, this operation being sometimes carried out as many as ten
times. The growth of the plants is rendered more vigorous by the
disturbance of their roots. The space between the plants is weeded by
hand .The plants flower in September and the harvest lasts from the
beginning of November to the end of February. Each field has four or
five pickings varying with the rainfall, of which the second and third
usually give the most lint.
The first picking is
called Sitadevi because the cultivator goes to the field, he makes a
small mound of earth, place a little cotton on the top and offers
curds and milk to the goddess. The lint can be picked clean in the
early morning owing to the effect of dew on the foliage. Latter in the
day the mature stipules and leaves get dry and crisp owing to the heat
of the sun and stick to the lint. Woman and children who worked more
deftly than men usually do the picking. Each plant has about 20
branches and each branch of 3 bolls of an average. Cotton is an
exhausting crop, and if sown in two successive years the land must be
turn up with nagar or
regular plough and manure.
The crop is generally
benefited by manure and the cultivators give it as much as possible.
Fifteen loads per acre may be considered a full average application.
It is sown alternately with juar, and also after wheat with juar in
the third year. It dose not do well after linseed. The crop thrives in
comparatively shallow block soil with a light rainfall. With prolonged
wet weather the plants rapidly turns yellow and yields suffer both the
quantity and quality. Heavy rain in November when the bolls are
bursting is the most disastrous; the cotton that has formed is
discolored and spoilt and many immature bolls are battered to the
ground destroyed. A proverb says ‘If rain falls in chitra or Swati
Nakshatras (9th October and 6th November) there own be
enough cotton for lamp wicks‘. This saying must be taken, however,
to refer only to heavy or excessive rain which fortunately rare.
|
|
Cotton Pests |
The following
description of pests is taken from Mr. H. B. Maxwell-Lefroy’s
‘Indian Insect Pests’ (Calcutta, 1906), to which reference may be
made for full description of cotton pests and of the beneficial
insects which you prey on them. The cotton aphis is small insect
colored in dull yellow or black. The insects appear in the rains and,
if cotton plants are available, often remains on them till the end of
the cold weather feeding on the leaves. The growth of the plants is
stunted. In cloudy weather are winged insects fly from over the field
and found new colonies. Hence it is that after cloudy weather the
aphis becomes abundant and suddenly appears over large areas. They
excrete the sugary liquid, which following on the leaves below, dries
to a sticky coating. This appearance is familiar tot the cultivators
and is known as mowala,
though they often do not realize at all that the plants are attacked
by an insects, and consider it to be a disease produced by cloudy
weather. The insects are prayed on by various enemies, as the ladybird
beetle and others. The only sound artificial remedy is spraying the
plants. Another pests, Sphenoptera
gossypii or the cotton stem borer, attack the plants. The imago lays eggs on he bark of
the stem, which hatches into a small white grub. This grub tunnels
into the interior of the stem and feeds on the inner protoplasmic
substance of the plant, going on boring until it turns into the pupa,
when the plants are killed. The imago is a beetle of the copper
metallic color. Plants, which turn yellow and wither in August or
September usually, contain tis grub and they should be pulled up
burned. The commonest pests, however, are the pink and spotted
boll-worms which described by Mr. Maxwell-Lefroy as follows: - In
August we find the spotted boll-warms eating the top shoots of the
cotton and feeding in the flower buds. They are short and thick, not
more than two thirds of an inch long when full grown. The color is
very variable, mixture of white, green and black with orange spot. The
predominant color may be a dull greenish white with black marks, or
black with an irregular band of greenish white from head to tail .The
pink boll-warm is of a white color with bright pink spots, more
slender than the other. The moth that comes from these caterpillars
lays eggs on the first bolls and the attack begins. As the bolls
develop more moths hatch out both boll-warm become plentiful in the
cotton. This goes on till the cotton ripens when probably the
caterpillars hibernate. The spotted boll-warms hide away in the ground
and there became pupae, while the pink boll-warms curl up in the seed
of the cotton and make a cocoon there. In the next March the spotted
boll-warms comes out, lays its eggs on the brinjal or some other plant
on the order Malvaceca or in
the old cotton plants standing in the field and gross on breeding.
When the rains break the pink boll-warm moth comes out from its
cocoon. The bolls first affected should be pulled off and burnt. Seed
should not be taken from injected plants. Another pests are the red
cotton bugs. This is a small insect of vivid red color, which runs
about the plants and cluster on leaves or bolls, sucking out the juice
and rendering the seeds useless and sometimes also the lint stained or
bad. Where either cotton or brinjal are plentiful, the insects become
very abundant, increasing rapidly in warm weather. This dose not does
so much damage as the other pests and is frequently not recognized by
the cultivator. It can be shaken off the plants into the basket and
then drowned in little kerosene oil and water. The cotton leaf roller
is slender caterpillar of pale greenish colored with a dark colored
head, which lives upon the lower side of the cotton and brinjal
plants, folding the leaf over and eating it. As it grows larger, it
binds more and more folds together, forming a kind of nest of rolled
leaf in which it feeds. The best remedy is to pick of the attached
leaves, as soon as they are seen, and if done early this is entirely
effective. The dusky cotton-bug is another insects which sucks the
green bolls and injures the lint and seed. It is found especially in
bolls, which open prematurely after they have been injured by the
boll-warm. Large number of small brown insects run out of such bolls
when they handled and either fall to the ground, or, if they are
fully-grown, fly away. These insects are also best shaken off the
bolls into a tin containing kerosene oil and water > The least
noticeable pest is the cotton leaf hopper, a tiny green fly, which
lives on the cotton leaves and files or leaps out when the plant is
shaken. It usually attacks only weakly plants, sucking the sap of the
leaves, which curl up, wither and fall off.
|
|
Seed And Outturn |
The seed sown an acre,
Mr. Craddock states, varies from two to four paresis 8 to 16 lbs.) , But if
the larger amount is sown, the plants will be require thinning. The
outturn varies enormously with the nature of the soil and the
character of the season, and owning to the distribution of yield over
three or more pickings, it is difficult to make reliable crop
experiments. The standard taken at the settlement was 240 lbs. of seed
cotton, yielding 72 lbs. Of
lint and 168 lbs. of seed. In
1905 the commissioner of the settlements raised the estimate of the
outturn to 300 lbs. of seed cotton and 99 lbs. of lint. The value of
the cotton according to the prices of 1906 would be Rs. 22-8, and that
of the seed Rs. 5-8 per acre. Even the estimate now fixed is probably
a moderate one, in a view of a statistics of export of row cotton. It
may reasonably be supposed to that the increased care exercised in its
cultivating during the last few years on account of high returns and
the more liberal application of manure have had some effect in
improving the outturn.
|
|
Juar- Varieties And Methods Of Cultivation |
The large millet juar
(sourghum vulgare) is the second crop in importance and the principle
food-grain of the District. It was extensively grown at the 30 years
settlement, occupying 473,000 acres, from which figure a decline to
317,000 acres was recorded
at the settlement of 1891-94, the crop having apparently been found
less profitable than wheat and linseed. The bad spring harvests of the
next decade increased the popularity of juar, however, and in 1902-03;
493,000 acres or more than a third of the cropped area were devoted to
it. In 1905-06, in consequence of the enormous expansion of the cotton
crop, the acreage of juar fell to 423,000. The principle local
varieties of juar are ganeri, generally
grown on good soils, dukeria
or banor. White juar sowed
in poor soils, and red juar or lalpakri,
a variety which is not extensively grown, but which has the merit of
not finding the favor with birds. Another variety occasionally found
is moti-tura or moti-chura. This has spreading hands upon which birds cannot obtain
a footing. Its grain is used solely in the manufacture of sweetmeats. Dukria gives the proper crop
than ganeri, but will yield
something in a dry year. Another variety called wani sold only as a delicacy.
There are a number of District varieties and the determination of the
best once for grain and the fodder is important. For the cultivation
of juar the field is prepared with the bakhar or paring plough in the same manner as for cotton. The land
is bakhared two or three
times in the hot weather, the cotton stalks of the preceding year
being removed. Two more dressings with the bakhar are given in the June
and by the end so the month the seedbed is ready. Sowing begins in the
first week of July and lasts during the month. The seed is sown with
the tifan or three-coultered
sowing drill, each prong having a hollow bamboo tube behind it. It is
sometimes also sown with the banker
like cotton. After the seed is sown a brush harrow consisting a bundle
of branches of the babul or
tamarind tree weighed down with stones is dragged over the fields and
covers the seed with earth. This process of leveling is called bhasoti. Sometimes the bakhar is taken over the field
after sowing and this improves germination. When grown principally for
fodder as is the case round Nagpur, the seed is put in plentifully, so
as to increase the number of stalks, but in good soil and in the west
of the District it is sown sparsely for the yield of grain, and the
plants are further thinned to increase their vigor and the size of the
cobs produced. The crop is weeded with the daura or a small scarifier, in
the same manner as cotton, when the plants are 6 inches high, and
again with the dhundia, a
slightly larger implement of the same nature, about a fortnight
afterwards, and this operation is repeated every fortnight if the
rains permits until the crops stands about four feet high. A firm
seedbed is important for juar, because if the crop is sown on loose
soil, there is considerable risk of ‘lodging’ by rain or wind. As
a rule on well prepared ground juar only requires on hand weeding. A
thriving crop soon shades the ground and weeds are more or less
suppressed. Still the seedlings are small or delicate when they first
spring up those weeds. If unchecked, soon make a greater progress than
the crop with disastrous result. The process of rakhwali or watching the crop
is most laborious in the case of juar. It is watched by night for
three month to keep off pigs and by day also for two months after it
becomes into ear to scare away birds. When the crop is ripe for
cutting, the stalks are lopped off a foot from the ground and tied up
in bundles, being allowed to dry for four to five days. Woman then cut
off the heads, which are threshed in the ordinary manner with
bullocks; or sometimes only the heads are cut off and the stalks left
standing, so that they remain fresh and can be cut gradually as
required. Each stalks usually bears only a single head, and if more
than one is produced, they are of small size. Each head contain about
2 oz. Of grain or little more. The harvest lasts about a month, from
the middle of December to the middle of January, and threshing goes on
till the middle or end of February
|
|
Ringni Juar |
A Distinct species of
juar, Mr. Craddock states, is the ringni or hot weather variety,
which is shown after the rains and ripens at the end of March. It is
sown thinly, about 5 or 6 lbs. To the acre, and produce extremely fine
cobs. The grains is said to be rather bitter, but during the bad wheat
seasons, this juar was increasingly grown as a mixture with or a
substitute for it . Some cold weather showers are necessary for the
welfare of the crop, but it is marvelous with what a small amount of
moisture it makes shift. It is generally grown in the Umrer and Ramtek
tahasils, and known as saru
and ringni. Saru is sown in
October and repines in March, while rengni may be sown in November
and harvested between March and May. The area sown with cold weather
juar is between 20,000 and 30,000 acres or about 6 percent of the
total crop.
|
|
Growth And Pests |
Juar is hardy plant,
but it is growth various immensely with the quality of land. The crop
in the landowner’s field near the village may be so high as to
conceal a man on horseback, while a patch on an outlying stony ridge
will be hardly afford covered to a jackal. ‘ On a good soil,‘ Mr.
Craddock writes, ‘ when the crop is well drained, the cultivator can
count on steady yields, if takes due care with the ploughing and
weeding of his land. A very large portion of the juar grown in Nagpur
however, is produced on sloping lands or in moist wheat fields, and so
the dry season in the former, or excessive rain in the case of latter,
will have disastrous results on the grain yield of the crop. Weeding is neglected by idle
or impoverished cultivators, about thus it is that the casual observer
who has seen the crop in Berar will be struck by the poverty of its
appearance in the country round Nagpur’. Juar is favorite food and
the perched grain is very good eating. Farm-servants and their
children are allowed by custom to go to the field and pluck enough to
eat while the crop is standing, while the harvests always receive some
heads fro their midday meal. The labor involved in the cultivation of
juar is very great, and the crop is frequently given out on contract
to laborers on the condition that they do all the work of cultivation
and the half the produce less the seed grain. On the other hand the
crop is popular because there is a practically on initial expenditure
on seed-grain, the outturn is nearly as large as that of wheat and it
dose well in dry year. Juar is liable to smut when it is flower and
also to attacks from caterpillars and a green fly and to damage from a
weed called again (striga lutea)
in a very season. Its fibrous roots entwine round the roots of the
plant and check its growth. The most common pest is the sugarcane
borer (Chilo simpex), the
larvae of which eat the young leaves and bore into the steam, killing
the plant. It is found in
the caterpillar form, a slender caterpillar, not more than one inch in
the length of the dirty white color, with dark spot and a black head.
Smut is locally called kanhi.
The ear turns back and when shaken a black powder drops out. This
disease can be prevented by steeping the seeds in sulphate of copper
and some cultivators are adapted this remedy. A small white
caterpillar which attacks the plants after it comes into an ear is
called lendra. Excessive
rain occurring soon after the seed is sown prevents it from
germinating and rots the plants. Juar is usually grown mixed with one
of the pulses, arhar or mung, in the proportion of one-seventh of the
latter. From 8 to 12 lbs. Of seed are sown to the acre and the
standard outturn is 700 lbs. As in Wardha, this being the highest
outturn in the province. In a favorable season, Mr. Craddock’s
states, a yield of 1000 to 2000 lbs. is considered a full outturn on
land of good average quality. The value of the crop on one acre in
1905 was Rs.15. The stalks, which as known as karbi, and the chaff (kutar) from a very valuable
bye-product, supplying the fodder on which cattle depends for the
greater part of the year. The value of the stalks may be another Rs.10
or more, and the two combinations are worth not less than the standard
wheat crop on the same area. The yield of stalks is not definitely
known. Mr. Craddock takes
it as 450 pulas or bundles
per acre and gives their value as Rs.9. The people say, however, that
there are two different sizes, of bundle, according as it is made up
and carried by a man or a woman. And of the larger kind they state
that not more than 300 are obtained from an acre. The price has been
known to go up in the hot weather to Rs.80 a thousand, which would
make the fodder much more valuable than the grain; presumably however,
this rate is for larger bundles.
|
|
Wheat |
Wheat (Triticum satvum) is the third
crop in importance. At the thirty years settlement it covered nearly
374,000 acres, and at last settlement (1892-94) 320,000 acres or 25
percent of the cropped area. The harvests of the succeeding years
have, however, being very poor and the area sown gradually decreased
until in 1899-1900 it amounted only to 154,000 acres. Subsequent years
have witnessed a considerable recovery, and in 1905-96, about 211,000
acres or 15 percent of the cropped area were sown with wheat.
The following varieties
are grown in the Nagpur District: -Haura, katha, bansiand pissi. Mr.
Evance states: ‘the first two variety are by far the commonest, pissi and bansi being only
occasionally grown. The first there varieties belong to the Hard or
Macaroni wheat (Triticum sativumdurum) while pissi is of the same class as the common English wheats, vis., (T.
sat. vulgare). Haura is the commonest variety grown in the District
and is lax bearded wheat with shining white chaff and a large hard
yellow grain. This wheat is said to be well only on the south side of
the Satpura range and experiments seem to indicate that this is
probably the case, from when grown in the Nerbudda valley it dose not
seem to thrive. Whether this is due to the colder climate or the
heavier nature of the soil, however, has yet to be the ascertained. It
bears a close resemblance in outward appearance to one of the several
types which occur in Jalalia,
the common hard yellow wheat of the Nerbudda Division, but it
possesses several characteristics which, I think, show it is a really
a distinct variety. Large Quantities of this wheat are annually
exported to Italy and Mediterranean ports under the trade name
“Nagpur yellow “. The grain is very glutinous and possesses other
qualifications, which render it peculiarly suitable for the
manufacture of the macaroni, semolina and similar products. Sample of
this wheat are valued for export purposes according to the percentage
of hard yellow grain they contain, other point such as the amount dirt
and the condition of the grain being taken in to consideration. An
average sample of ‘Nagpur yellow ‘will contain only about 48
percent of hard yellow grain as it is much mixed as a rule with soft
and mottled yellow or hard red grains.
‘Katha is the other variety
commonly grown in this District and possesses a hard red grain. Two
types occur, one possessing dark brownish red shining chaff and the,
other which is commonest on the Chandra border, a white chaff. It
differs from the common types of kathia
grown in the northern District, having narrower and looser heads
and smaller harder grain of brighter color. This wheat does not fetch
such a good price as haura
and is mostly grown for local consumption.
Pissi resembles the ordinary Deshi pissi of the Nerbudda valley , being
white chaffed and bearded, but the heads are shorter and thinner and
the grain smaller and considerably harder. In consequence as pissi wheats unlike haura are valued mainly
according to the softness or starchiness of the grain, this variety is
not profitable to grow on the Nagpur plain where conditions are
apparently not favorable for its best development.
Bansi, the variety grown in Nagpur , is apparently the same as
the common hard yellow wheat of Berar which is variously known as baxi or bakshi . This wheat is much
more resistant to the attack of black rust (Puccinia graminis) then the
other three, but it is stated the compare unfavorably with haura , both in yield and
quality. It is white rough chaffed wheat black awns; its ear are short
and narrow and the grain a hard clear yellow.’
Wheat is principally
grown in the Umrer tahasil , and also in the south of Ramtek and
Nagpur. A little ringni juar
if often mixed with the crop , in the proportion one in forty of seed.
Very occasionally a border of linseed is grown to keep off cattle, or
one or two lines of coriander may be mixed with the wheat. The soil is
prepared with some care, being ploughed with the banker to clear it the stumps
immediately after the harvesting of the previous crop, again in the
hot weather and once a fortnight during the rains if the weather
permits. Before sowing the soil is leveled is dragging a pathar or plain log of wood over it. The nagar or regular plough is not used unless the field is much
overgrown with grass. Sowing usually begins about the 20th
of October, may people commencing their soil from the Dasahra
festival. The seed is sown through the tifan or three-pronged sowing
drill, but this is heavier and the larger size than the one used for
sowing gram and juar and it is drown by three pairs of bullocks. The
best rain for wheat is the first weak of October, and if the good fall
is received then a full crop will be obtained when even, without cold
weather rain, Neither wheat nor other cold weather crops are weeded,
and the seed is sown, little further labor is required till the
harvest. When the crop has come into ear, a man is employed to which
every twenty to forty acres. The harvests begin about the middle of
the February. Wheat is very rarely manure , as the cultivator cannot
afford to give this assistance to the whole of his land and he gates a
latter and he gets a better return from the application of manure to
cotton. It may be sown in the same field for several years in
succession without material loss, but it is commonly grown in rotation
with cotton and juar. Wheat is very liable to rust if heavy rain in
October or November as follows is followed by close, cloudy weather in
the cold season, and occasionally smut attacks a certain number of
plants, through this disease has never seriously damaged wheat. Its
chief danger in this District is a dry cold weather when the plants
are liable to be destroyed by the ravages of white ants. The
prevalence of high winds, when the plants are coming into ear causes
the grain to shrivel up. This is called sop, and also usually occurs in
dry season. Fifty-six pounds of seed are sown to the acre, and the
standard outturn is 580 lbs. Or more than ten-fold. The crop thus
yields a considerably better return than in the northern Districts
owing to the fact to the little more than half as much seed is used,
while the outturn only some 50 lbs. Smaller than on the Nerbudda
valley. It is said that the seed is sown more thickly in good land and
thinly in the poorer soils. The value of the standard of an acre of
wheat in 1905 was nearly Rs19-8-0.
|
|
Linseed |
Linseed (Linum
usitatissimum) become a popular crop during the decade ending 1890,
the area under it being over 152,000
acres at the time of the last settlement. Since then it has to
some extent been
supplanted by till which is now also in good demand for export and is
safer crop to grow . In
spite of high prices which have been obtained for linseed since 1891 , its acreage had declined to 67,000 in 1905-06. It is
usually sown in the black soil and the method of cultivation resembles that
of wheat , but the field needs to be prepared so carefully. Two
varieties are distinguished. One with the white seed and the flower and the other with a copper colored seed and
blue flower. The former is called locally haura and latter kathia . They are grown mixed, but the white variety commands a
better price in market. In Nagpur, however, Mr. Craddock states that
it cannot be obtained pure in any quantity. The crop is sown in
September and cut in February about a month before wheat. The plants
are pulled up by the roots and the taken to the threshing floor, where
the pods are pounded out with a wooded mallet. Little expense is
incurred in cultivation after the seed is sown, but the plants are
very liable to injure from damp and cloudy weather in the cold season.
During the wet years after 1892 they were destroyed by the virulent
red rust. The color of the rust which invades linseed is brilliant
scarlet and the fungoid parasite which causes it (Melampsora lini) is quite a different
genus to the rust which attacks wheat. The plants are also sometimes
attack by the small green insect. at the time of flowering. When once
the plants are successfully germinated, they require less moisture
than wheat, and if good rain is received in September linseed will do
well in dry cold weather. The crop is exhausting to the soil and
linseed should it sown twice in succession. If a field is cropped
continuously with it , a parasitic weeds appears which appears the again plant (Striga lutea). Only 8 lbs. of seed are required to an
acre, and the standard outturn is 300 lbs., the value of which in 1905
was Rs.15-8-0
|
|
Arhar |
Tur or arhar (cajanus indicus) one of the autumn pulses, is grown almost wholly as a mixture with
juar or cotton in Nagpur.
The net acreage under it was 120,000 in 1902-03 this being the largest figure
recorded. In 1905-06 it had declined to 115,000 thousand acres. Some
say that the mixture of arhar is doubtful advantage to cotton, as the
arhar plants grow quickly and overshadow their companions. But arhar
furnishes the chief pulse
food to the District and is a popular crop. It fertilizes the soil
both by fixing nitrogen and by the deposit of leaves, and the
cultivators fully recognize this advantage, s is shown by practice of
increasing the proportion or tur sown with cotton and juar with poorer
soils, while in rich once the number of lines of turs is greatly
decreased or it is omitted all together. This pulse, Mr. Craddock
remarks, is one of the most successful crop produced in the District; it grows both rich and poor
soils, in the cotton wheat and rice country, in wet and dry seasons.
It is liable to be attacked by blight when in the stage, though these
disease seldom affect more than a proportion of the plants. Close,
cloudy day in the early cold weather will produce caterpillars. Of
these there are several varieties. The tur pod caterpillar, which eats
into the pods, is of a greenish-brown color similar to that of the
pods, and is thus protected from observation. It develops into the tur
plum moth. The tur pod fly is a small white maggot, found feeding
inside the pod, they fly lays an egg in the pod, piercing a shell with
her ovipositor, an organ resembling the sting of wasp, and leaving a
single egg behind, The fly is very small back insects, the wings large
and comparison to the body. The tur leaf caterpillar feeds upon the
small upper leaves of the plants, webbing them together into a small
compact mass, within which it lives. Two webbed leaves are very
conspicuous, so that pest is at once recognizable. It dose not do much
harm, unless the top shot is bitten through, when the growth of the
plants is stunted. Tur is also attacked by the gram caterpillar (Chloidea obseleta), a
cosmopolitan pest, which infests an enormous variety of crops all over
the world. It is a large green caterpillar, which sits on the outside
of the pod and bites through it, eating the seeds. In the northern
Districts the crop may sometimes be killed by single night frost, but
the weather is seldom cold enough in Nagpur for it to be injured in
this way.
The tur grown in the
Nagpur plain and Berar is quite distinct from that of the Nerbudda
valley and the northern District of the provinces. The habit of growth
is quite different, the Nagpur tur being a dwarf bushy plant seldom
more than fore feet high, the side branches being set on the right
angles to the main stem, Which is very short. The northern variety has
a tall narrow columnar habit and is often 7 or 8 feet in height. The
inflorescences are also different in arrangement, being situated on a
small short shoots arranged at intervals along the side branches
instead of all being grouped together at the end of the branches as is
the case in the northern type of tur. The ordinary Nagpur tur really
consist of mixture of three varieties which have white, red and black
seed respectively. These types have been selected out and grown
separately and have been found to breed pure. The white seeded kind is
stated to be the most popular. Nagpur tur also differs from northern
tur in its period of ripening as it is ready for cutting in December,
whereas the latter dose not ripens until the end of March. This is
apparently a permanent character, and dose not depend on the climate,
for Nagpur tur has now been grown at Hoshangabad for three years and
still ripens at the same early date. Attempts have been made to
introduce this tur into the northern District as it escapes the
January frosts which are often disastrous to the Deshi tur, but they
have been partially successful, one of the chief reason, I think,
being firstly that the outturn of the local variety is much better
than that of the Nagpur tur and secondly that the Nagpur variety seems
more liable to injury from insect and fungoid attacks. The chief
disease affecting tur in the Nagpur plain In the tur wilt disease
which is said to be caused by a species of Nectar. This disease may
occur at all stages of plant’s growth, bur is most common when the
pods have formed and the plant is nearing maturity. Plant’s affected
first turn a paler green in color and then rapidly wilt or droop and
the whole plants dries up. Absence of proper rotation and
unsuitability of soil are probably two of the chief causes of the
occurrence of this disease. Tur sown in a land which is at all liable
to water-logging in the rain very liable to wilt.
Tur cannot sown with tifan, as the seeds are too
large, and the nari or
plough with a seed tube behind it
is used. When grown
separately about 10 lbs. Of seed are required for an acre and the
outturn is 500 to 600 lbs. The stalks, called turati, are soaked and dried in
the sun, and are used to construct grain receptacles, made into brooms
for sweeping, or plaited into matting for protecting the mud walls of
the cultivator’s house from the heavy downpour of the monsoon. The
stalks are also useful as fuel, the charcoal obtained from the being
prized for the manufacture of fireworks.
|
|
Til |
Til (Sesamum indicum) is a crop
which was growing in favor at last settlement, when it covered 36,000
acres. This area increased to 76,000 acres in 1902-03, but has since
largely declined to 24,000 in 1905-06. It is one of the crops which
have had to make a way for the cotton. There are two varieties, dhauri or white seeded til, which is rain crop and magheli or boria, red seeded til, which is sown in August or September and
ripens in the cold weather, being called magheli because it is harvested
in the month of Magh. The white seeded variety gives 49.9 and red
seeded 50.2 percent of oil. The former is sown poor soils at the end
of the June or the begging of July. It is little impotence in Nagpur,
the magheli til being
usually grown. This is profitable crop, but require favorable weather
at sowing time. If there is heavy rain at this time the seed cannot be
sown, or may be washed out of the ground, and the plants are stunted.
When August if a very wet the cultivator will not sow til, but will
keep his land for spring crop. When the crop is well established it
can do with very little rain. Thus in 1896-97 with no rain in
September or October til gave more than a normal harvest. A pound and
a half two pounds of seed suffice to sow an acre and the standard
outturn is 350 lbs.
|
|
Other Pulses |
Of pulses gram (Cicer arietinum) covers about 14,000
acre, having declined from 37,000 acre at settlement. This pulse
appears to be much less in favor in Nagpur than in the Northern
Districts. Tiura or lakh (Lytherus
sativus) covers about 30,000 acres, but its area reached 56,000 in
1893-94. The other pulses, measure or lentil and peas are very little
grown. All of these are sown with the aid of the tifan , the seed required for
gram and masur being
about 40 lbs. Per acre and for tiur and peas, 50 to 60 lbs. The
outturn varies between 360 to 720 lbs. , and 540 may , Mr. Craddock
states, be taken as mean. The standard outturn for gram is 600lbs. And
for tiura 400. This latter include two varieties, of which the larger
known as Lakh, is grown in the open wheat fields , while the smaller
called lakhori , is sown as second crop in the standing rice Lakh
supplies a useful food fro cattle, but is not fitted for human diet
except in small quantities, as it produces an incurable paralysis of
the lower limbs. But the
small variety, lakhori, is
beloved to be harmless. The difference in the properties of the two
grains is the more remarkable, as botanically the plants are
indistinguishable from each other. These pulses often thrives both in dry and wet years when linseed and wheat suffer, but
very dry and cold or cloudy weather, inducing the attack on insects,
sometimes prove fatal to them. Mung (Phaseolus mungo), urad (Phaseolus radiatus) and moth (Phaseolus aconitifolius) are autumn
pulses which are sown mixed with juar. Urad is also grown as second
crop after rice. Popat (dolichos tablab) and kultali (Dolichos uniflorus) are sown
separately, the latter being produced on the very poorest soil.
|
|
Rice |
Rice (Oryoa sativa) covered 21,000
acres in 1905-06 as against 32,000 at settlement. The recent dry
seasons have been unfavorable to this crop, but the construction of
the Ramtek reservoir will
no doubt give it a great impetus. It is grown in the Deolapar tract of
the Ramtek tahasil and the Ambora pargana of Umrer. About five-sixths
of the rice grown is transplanted. Transplanting operations are
carried or in the last part of July and in August, and if unduly delayed,
either by the neglect by the cultivator or for want for sufficient
water, the welfare of the crop is seriously endangered. If the plants
have been left too long crowded together in the nursery they become
unhealthy and do not thrive properly
in their new surroundings, and there is the further risk that, their
growth having been impeded, their coming to maturity will be delayed
so long that the heat of October will dry them up before the ear can
dully fill. The careful weeding of the rice crop is also most
necessary for its
welfare, or the plants will soon become chocked by weeds; but the
great essential in this crop is the water supply, and the neglect of
the cultivator to look of the small embankments with which rice-plots
are surrounded, is often fatal to the success of the crop if the
autumn be dry. Broadcast rice is sown near the Bhandara border in
embanked fields where the after-crop wheat is the main consideration,
and elsewhere in the District in low lying patches and pockets. In
some of this field’s quite phenomenally large yields are obtained,
but on the other hand much of the crop is sown on poor land. The seed
sown varies from 50 to 100 lbs. an acre and the standard outturn is
1200 lbs. The chinnur rice, the best quality of the Wainganga valley is grown to
some extent in Nagpur.
|
|
San-hemp |
A minor crop of some
importance is flax or san-hemp
(crotaloria juncea)which covered about three 3000 acres.
Cultivator of the higher castes will not grow this crop as it is
considered to be unlucky or unclean. The objection probably arises
from the dirty nature of the process of retting and separating the
fibre. This also requires a considerable amount of dexterity for its
rapid and successful accomplishment,
and a novice would find the drawing out of the fibre somewhat
difficult. The crop is, however, a paying one both for the yield of
fibre and from its fertilizing action on the soil. It is principally
grown by the caste of Bhamtas who also weave ropes and gunny-bags from
the fibre. Tenants who will not grow hemp themselves frequently sublet
their field to a Bhamta so as to get a crop of hemp taken off them.
The colony of Bhamtas in Makardhokala, who work up their own produce
into rope and sacking, was, Mr. Craddock stated, an extremely
prosperous one. The crop is sown very thick of matured rapidly. The value
of the fibre at settlement was
Rs.20, and of the seed, which is fed to cattle, Rs.8 an acre. The
price of the fibre has since increased.
|
|
Caster |
Caster (Ricinus communis) covers about 3000 acres caster seeds gives 46.4
percent of oil. Many cultivators grow a small patch of it in a corner
of one of their fields, and used the oil both as a medicine and as a
lubricant for the wheels and axles of carts. Castor oil is formerly
common agent for lighting, but it has generally been supplanted by
kerosene oil. It is sometimes grown as a regular crop in villages
bordering on the jungle as wild animals will not eat it. The oil exercising the same
disagreeable effect upon them as upon human beings. Caster is general
a healthy plant with few pests. Caterpillars are however fond of it
and sometimes come in vast numbers, clearing the plants of leaves a
very short time, Three species are represented, being totally distinct
and easily recognized.
|
|
Tobacco |
Tobacco (Nicotiana
tabacum) occupied about 600 acres. Its
cultivation is confined to patches of
land adjacent to the village and to gardens at the back of the houses,
which are naturally fertilized by drainage, while manure and sweepings
can easily be deposited on them. The seed is sown in July in
well-manure nursery bed, the seeding being transplanted in August. The
crop receives several
hoeing and dressings with fresh earth from time to time . In February
the plants are cut down and the leaves spread out for a week to dry,
after which they are made into heaps, damped again with a little water
to keep them soft, and covered with a grass or straw. After being
cured in this manner for a few weeks they are made up into larger
bundles and, so far the cultivator is concerned, are ready for the
market. The value of the crop on an
acre in about Rs.60 and the net profit Rs.20.
|
|
Sugarcane |
The cultivation of
sugarcane was never important in the District and has now almost
entirely ceased , the area under the cane in 1905-06 being less than
100 acres. It is all grown with well water in Nagpur, tank irrigation
being unknown. The Kachhis settled on the sewage farm near Nagpur, with unlimited
manure the chip irrigation, were almost the only cultivators, Mr.
Craddock wrote, who were able to produce sugarcane year after year
with undiminished vigor and profit, and he had known the crop on one
acre to sell for Rs.300. It is believed however that even they have
now given up its cultivation, being unable to compete against the
Northern India crop, irrigated from tanks and canals.
|
|
Condiments |
Chilies (Capscum frutescens) are grown
are about 6000acresboth are irrigated and dry crop. The seed is sown
in the hot weather and during June or even later the young seedlings
are carefully transplanted by hand . The crop repines from January to
March. The yield of green chilies from an acre is between 40 and 50 cwt. when irrigation is used and from a
dry crop about a third less. When
dried the weight shrinking
by 75 percent . The value of the crop on an acre is about Rs.100 and
the net profit half this amount. The selling price is Rs.30 to 35 a khandi of 480 lbs. Have dried
produce. Chilies are grown alone in Umrer and
in a Katol are commonly
mixed with castor. In Umrer they are cultivated almost like a field
crop, and most of the malguzars in
south Umrer have some favorite patch in their home farm in which they take grate pride. In Katol the Raghvi Rajputs grow chilies a
good deal, and their wives and children assist in their cultivation.
Turmeric is extensively grown in the garden village of Katol tahasil,
more especially in the neighborhood of Mohpa and Paradsingha. Its area
is about 200 acres. Twenty-eight cartloads of manure are required to
an acre and on an average the crop has to be watered forty-eight times
and well weeded three times. The roots have to be dug up and boiled in
a cauldron before they are ready for market, while the selection of
the seed involves some trouble and expense at harvesting. Turmeric
cultivation is therefore expensive and the price is very variable it
becomes speculation . A garden of an acre in extent would produce
about 800 lbs. Valued by Mr. Craddock at Rs.100, while the expenses,
exclusive or rents, would be about Rs.70. Onions, carrots, brinjals,
garlic and yams are some of principle vegetables grown.
|
|
Singhara |
The following extracts
are taken from Mr. Craddock’s description of the cultivation of singhara or water-nut and the betel-vine.
Singhra is shown in the
beds of tank by Dhimars or fishermen. In October-November singhara fruit is sown in the bed of
the tank, the
portion-selected havens
been free from singhara in the previous year. The nuts must necessarily be sown in shallow
water, or even in mud, on ground which will subsequently be flooded
during the fruit season. In three months time the shoots which spring
from the fruit have come to the surface of the water in the form of
creepers. Cutting from these creepers are then transplanted in another
part of the tank, which cleared of weeds and other rubbish for the
purpose. These, in their turn, spring up to the surface, and some of
their branches are tied together and planted again in the mud of the
tank by the side of the parent creepers. In this way the planting of the Singhara is carried out by the beginning of the rains. From the end
of July the earliest planted creepers begin to yield the nut; the
latter ones follow in October, and the crop continues from both up to
the middle of January. There is thus always singhara, at same stage or
other of growth, in tank devoted to its cultivation. He crop is
roughly computed to yield produce to the value of Rs.90 to Rs.120 per
acre in the course of the year. The chief expense of singhara cultivation consists in the clearing the transplanting
operations, and the work of clearing the creepers of weeds and insect
parasites is also troublesome, but the right of cultivating the nut is
generally leased along with fishing rights by families or communities
of Dhimars, and the labor is thus easily carried out by the
lease-holders themselves. The cultivation of singhara is said to foul the
water of a tank so as to renderi useless for irrigation purposes, and
this is especially the case when the water is required for pan cultivation. No pan
cultivator will allow the Dhimars to fish in their tanks to grow singhara. It was the matter for
consideration whether the Dhimar who held a lease of a tank, should
not been considered as a cultivator and awarded tenant right. But no
such claim had ever been put forward by the Dhimars themselves and Mr.
Craddock decided that such a grant would be contrary to immemorial
custom and prejudicial to the interests of the proprietor and the
community in general, whose rights of user might be infringed.
|
|
Betel-Wine |
The leading
characteristic of pan cultivation is that is not carried on by an independent
cultivator but depends for its success upon the community or a section
of it. The whole community is divided into sections, consisting of an
association of cultivators combined to make a tanda or enclosure, in which
the pan creepers or vine are
grown. Every pan tanda has a
corresponding area of fallow attached to it, and after the pan has held the ground for
three years, the tanda is
taken up and a new one made on the fallow, to be re-transferred to the
old site after three years have again elapsed. The material for
constructing the enclosure are collected during the cold and hot
season; the site for the enclosure being prepared by the deposit on it
of earth from the bad of tank. This is spread over it to the depth of
the three inches. The erection of the enclosure is a work requiring
almost mathematical accuracy. The stout bamboo supports, in height or
over six feet, have to be fixed in the ground at equal distances from
each other. The outside walls have to be thickly thatched with coarse
grass and bamboos, so as to effectively protect the plants from the
wind. A roof of bamboos has next to be made thinly and lightly
thatched with finer grass, so as to mitigate the sun’s rays without
unduly excluding the light. Meanwhile, the inner row of trellis-work
have been constructed, the supports of which perform the double duty
of bearing the weight of the roof above, and strengthening the
structure of the trellis on which the creepers climb. For the support
poles of khair or tendu wood are used. They are
fixed at distance of 4˝ haths,
or roughly seven feet, and between them are the thin uprights and
cross sticks (kamachis) made
of split bamboos, which make up the trellis. Those uprights are
erected, twenty-five on either side of the cross sticks, or fifty in
all, in the space between two poles, which is known as kuntar. There will thus be
fifty plants (one on each kamchi)
in each space or kuntar. The
tandais made up of a number
of rows, two feet apart, and a row being known as wali. The minimum holding of a
cultivator is one row, but as the rows are of unequal length, the
standard of the Iamb or row
of 1500 feet long with the ordinary width of two feet is taken. The lamb may be several actual rows
and a common from of it is six rows of 230 feet, when it is called the
chhepat or six-fold. The
area of a lamb is 3000
square feet, about 14 lambs going
to an acre.
|
|
Cost Of Cultivation |
The payment are
assessed on the lamb, the holding
remaining constant for
three years. The two outside rows of every tanda are held free, as the
yield, owing the exposure, is smaller than that of the inside rows.
The holders of these free rows or turned termed inamdars and it is their duty
generally to supervise the cultivation of the tanda in its co-operative
aspects. As regard the cost of cultivation, Mr. Craddock found that
the expenditure on making the tanda or garden was Rs.62 per lamb
in the first year and on its maintenance Rs.17 each of the two
following years. The
return was practically nothing in the first year, Rs.97 in the second,
and Rs.117 in the third. Taking the average of three years, the
average annual income per lamb was Rs.40 and rent Rs.6. The net annual profit was Rs.34 per lamb or nearly Rs.500 per acre.
One acre of cultivation supports five or six families. Two-third of
the expenditure on the garden consists of the cost of forest produce.
Oil cake and ghi are used to
manure the plants as well as slit from the bed of the tank. When the
plants have attained maturity, the plucking of the leaves goes on at
short intervals. The outturn is computed in lhasas or bundles, which are
said to contain 16,000 leaves each. During the first year only a few
leaves are obtained. In the second year each lamb gives 17 bundles of 16,000
leaves, and in the third year19. The wholesale price of one Lhasa or bundle was Rs.8 when
picked in the cold weather, Rs.5 in the rains, and Rs.4 in the hot
weather. The rate has no doubt increased since Mr. Craddock wrote.
|
|
Fruit Trees Mangoes |
Among fruit trees,
mangoes cover about 500 acres, oranges 1200, guavas 300 and plantains
500. The following interesting notices of these fruit trees are
reproduced from Mr. Craddock settlement report on Nagpur: - ‘It is a
meritorious act to the plant a mango tree on account of the fruit and
shelter which it yields. The young plants will require watering for
the first two hot weathers of their existence and fencing as a
protection from cattle from a longer period. The ownership of a mango
tree is hotly contested on grounds both of sentiment and profit. The
local fruit is externally unpalatable to Europeans, its substance
being stringy with a strong flavor of turpentine. They are, however,
largely eaten by the natives both raw and in the from of pickles, and
in a good mango season fruit sellers will offer some of their
over-ripe stock at the absurd
rate of two annas a hundred. Graft mangoes of esteemed
varieties are found in the gardens of a few rich men. It is common
saying that mangoes will produce a crop only every other year. This is
not strictly correct. A good crop is generally followed by a meager
one and occasionally the yield fails entirely. It would be more
correct to say that a period of three years sees a good crop, moderate
crop and a poor crop. It is impossible to estimate closely what a
mango tree should yield except by experiences of what it dose yield.
Some trees seem to resemble the barren fig tree of the parable while
others produce fruit worth Rs.25. The mango flowers profusely in
February and the fruit are ripe in April and May. High winds or
hailstorms during the following period are the chief danger to the
crop.’
|
|
Guavas |
Unlike the mango, the
guava (jam) is cultivated only
in gardens. It requires water and cares when young and is the better
for it afterwards, but when one established it would produce fruit
without irrigation. Some of the finest guavas in the District are
produced in the garden near Takalghat. It grows only in fruit soil.
The guava crop is at its height during the month of January.’
|
|
Plantains |
‘Plantain patches are scattered over the
District, the trees being allowed to stand so long as they produce
fruit. Systematic cultivation of the plantains is confined to the
valley of the Sur River, the tract near Kodamendhi in Ramtek tahasil
and the vicinity of Waroda on the Bhandara road. Here the plants are
propagated from shoots in a small patch, and every third year the
trees are cut down and fresh shoots planted in adjoining plot. The
local plantain is not remarkable for its quality or flavor, and of
late years its cultivation has declined in popularity.
|
|
Minor Fruits |
The Kanhan valley to
the north of Kamptee abounds in grafted wild plum trees, which are
grown both in plantations and along the border of field. The trees are
grown from seed and cuttings are grafted on to them. The fruit is sent
for sale to Nagpur and exported in small quantity to Bombay and
Calcutta, the price obtained being from 16 to 24 seers a rupee.
Lemons, sweet limes and the pumelo (citrus decumana) are all
produced in the District, but never monopolies a garden.
|
|
Oranges |
‘The fruit, however,
which requires the greatest outlay and labor on the part of the
cultivator is the orange. Nagpur oranges have an established
reputation. The outer peel is easily removed and inner skin is very
thin, while for juiciness and sweetness they cannot easily be matched.
Thousands of baskets of oranges are sent away daily during the orange
season to Bombay and other parts of India, and quite humble classes of
cultivators, will now start orange garden, which are formerly the
luxury of few well-to-do landlords. A drawback to the industry is the
time, which must elapse before the full benefit of the outlay is
reaped. For the first three years after the young cutting are set in
the ground no crop can be gathered, and there is large expenditure on
manure and irrigation which can only partly be recouped by sowing
vegetables between the young plants. After that period it is no longer
possible to grow vegetables in the orange gardens, but a small fruit
crop is obtained; the trees however, do not rich maturity till the
expiry of seven years. Two crops are obtained in the year, in the
early autumn and early hot weather.’
The following
particulars about orange cultivation are taken from an article by Rai
Bahadur R. S. Joshi, Assistant Director of Agriculture, Tradition
relates that the orange was first introduced into the Nagpur by the
Bhonsala Raja, Raghuji II, about the end of the 18th
century from Aurangabad and Sitakol. There is only one variety,
locally named santra. All
the plants propagated by building, growth from seed not being
practiced. The stock generally used is the sweet lime (Mitha nimbu), and less
frequently the common citron (samburi)
Buds of the orange cultivation grafted on the latter stock produce
trees which yields fruits with a very loose skin while those on the
former stock have a more closely adhering jacket, showing that the
stock has a District influence on the bud. The seeds are sown in
baskets and subsequently twice transplanted into seed-beds and nursery
plots, and in two years time are ready for budding, which should be
done between November and January when the sap is flowing upwards. In
the flowing August the young trees are planted out into the permanent
orchard. When the buds begin to grow freely the main shoot of the
stock is severed. The trees are planted from 15 to 18 feet apart and
from 100 to 200 go to an acre. The orange tree blossoms twice a year,
once in June-July and again in December-January. The first flowering
is called Mrig-bahar, because it occurs in the nakshtra or lunar mansion of mrig
or the deer. The second is called Ambia-bahar, because it occurs
in the February at the same time that the mango tree (am) flowers. The crop ripens
eight or nine months after the flowering in the March and December
respectively, and no occasion the fruits of the two crops may be seen
on a tree at the same time, one freshly forming and the other ripe.
But the good cultivator, Mr. Joshi says, dose not allow the tree to
bear two crops, and prevents this by exposing and cutting of the
smaller roots before the time flowering, so that the sap cases to
turn, the leaves drop of, and the flowering is postponed. For the
details of the cultivation the reader must be referred to Mr.
Joshi’s article. With careful cultivation, weeding and irrigation,
the young plants commence to bear fruit in the third year from the
time of budding or the sixth from that of sowing seed. While the trees are immature,
crops are sometimes are grown in the plantation, but this practice is
to be deprecated. In five years from the time of planting the trees
will gives a full crop, continuing from some eight or ten years, after
which the yields gradually lessens. It is advisable at this stage to
start new plantation in the intervening spaces. The orange tree has an
average height of 16 feet, with a girth of about 30 inches, while the
circumference of the crown is about 40 feet. A good tree in a full bearing
may give about 1000 oranges. The bulk of the crop is consumed locally,
but about 600 tons may be exported annually to Bombay and Calcutta.
The fruit is carelessly packed in rough bamboo baskets. It is not
export to Europe at present. The average price of Nagpur is about Rs.3
a hundred. The most serious disease of the Nagpur orange tree is
caused by fungus, which result first in withering of the tips of the
branches, the rote gradually extending down the branches until the
whole tree is worthless. This disease has not yet been studied, and at
present the remedy, which can be suggested, is to cut out and burn the
infected portion of the branches. The orange also suffers from the
attacks of several insects, the most harmful of which is borer beetle.
The female generally lays its eggs on the branch or stem of the plant;
as soon as the larva is hatched, it eats its way through the bark into
the wood. This attack on the bark and sap of the tree causes the
branch to wither and may kill the tree. Its attacks can generally be
discovered by the presence of saw dust at the mouth of the whole. The
branch may be cut off or if the hole is in the stem, an attempt may be
made to kill the insect by inserting a wire into it or syringing it
with kerosene and water. Another
caterpillar feeds on the leaves and there is also a minute pest, which
bores into the fruit. The best year for oranges is 1894 when nearly
all field crops suffered from rust and blight. The brought of 1900
severally affected the plantations and many tree died. The area of the crop is about
1200 acres.
|
|
Agriculture Implements |
The principle
agriculture implement is the bakha
or surface-plough. The share of this is called phas and consists of an iron
about 19 inches long and 2 to 3 inches wide fixed horizontally into a
flat block of wood called khod. It is drown by the pair of
the bullocks and is used both in preparing the fields for cultivation,
breaking up clods and harrowing the surface, and sowing cotton juar
and arhar. Deep ploughing is done with a nagar or ordinary plough. The
blade of this is called phal and consists of a pointed iron bar about 3 feet long and an
inch square, fixed into the heavy wooden body called data, beneath which is project about 6 inches pointing downwards and
forwards as the plough is driven through the ground. The nagar is used for the breaking
up of new land or occasionally for the eradication of weeds. It is
seldom employed in the heavy black soil because of the labor involved
to the bullocks, while if rain should hold off after land has been
ploughed with the nagar the soil will dry too rapidly and become unfit for sowing. No
risk is involved if a field intended for spring crop is ploughed early
in the rains, but the nagar is
seldom used, unless the field is much overgrown with grass. Experience
grained on the Nagpur Farm, so far as it goes, indicates that the best
results are obtained by a deep ploughing and harrowing in alternate
years, but this experiment needs demonstration over a wider area
before it can be decided weather the cultivator is right or wrong in
his sparing resort to deep ploughing. The nagar requires two or three
parts of bullocks to drow it. The bides of both ploughs are usually
made of babul wood (Acacia arabica). The tifan is
a treble drill rake by which three furrows are sown at once. The
drills are fixed into wooden sockets or datas projecting from the body
of the plough, and point downwards and forwards like the share of the nagar. Above each drill is fixed with
bamboo tube through which the seed trickles, and the tree tubes meet
in a circular wooden basin at the top into which seed fed. Two tifans are used, one for sowing
the autumn and the other the spring crops. The latter or rubi tafan is heavier, as the
ground is harder when the spring crops are sown and the drill must be forced into the soil It
has long pointed drill, each like the share of the nagar, but somewhat shorter.
The autumn or tusari tifan is
lighter implement with shorter and thinner spicks, as the ground is
quite soft at this time and the seed need not penetrate so delay. It
is used for sowing juar and til. The tifan has been improved in
recent years, the regular shares or spikes having been substituted for
pothalas or a small iron cup
which were formerly fixed on to the wooden sockets. These need not
penetrate into the ground properly and the substitution of long shares
has caused sowing to
be performed more efficiently, though at the same time rendering it
more laborious process. The tifan
used for sowing the spring crops must be drown by two, three or four
pairs of cattle. In the case of cotton the seed as already stated is
sown through a hollow bamboo tube or sarta trailing behind the bakhar, the space between the
lines of cotton being thus equivalent to the width of the share. Rice is the only crop-sown
broadcast. The daura or
hoe-plough is an implement like a small bakhar
with a horizontal blade 6 inches long and 2 or 3 inches wide. This
is used to weed the autumn crops as juar, cotton and tur and to turn
up the earth round their roots, first then the plants are few inches
above the ground and again a few weeks later. The bullocks are muzzled
and tread between the lines of the crop; two dauras will be often drowning
by a single pair of animals. Delicate manipulation is required to
guide the daura between the
lines of the crop without uprooting the plants. The space between the
plants subsequently weeded by hand. The dhundia is an implement like a daura , but with a table blade
of about 8 or 9 inches long which is used when the plants have grown
higher. But crops sown
with the tifan cannot be
weeded with the bhundia , as
the lines are to close. No improvement have at present been maybe in
the ordinary implement of agriculture , but an American fodder-shredding machine for
cutting up the stalks of juar has been introduced by a Agriculture
Department and may have been sold in the District. This machine has
the effect of greatly increasing the nutritive value of the karbi, which the staple food of cattle. Many properties in Nagpur
subscribe to the Provincial Agriculture Gazette
|
|
Manure |
The advantage of manure
are to some extent appreciated by agriculturists, and they do what
they can to afford a provision to the fields. The principle source of
the supply is from the dung of cattle, but this is also required for
fuel. Since the expansion of cotton cultivation, however, many
cultivators save the greater part of the cattle dung from manure both
in the rainy and open season and take their carts to the forests to by
supplies of fuel before and after the rains, bringing three or four
cart load on each occasion. The dung is the kept in surface heaps by
which much of its value is lost, and now also not infrequently in pits
either open or closed. The sweepings of the house are added to it, and
the earth surrounding the side of the pit is also dug up and placed on
the fields. The manure is taken out and spread on the fields in the
hot weather. It commands
a selling price in Nagpur, fetching from 8 annas to a rupee a
cart-load. The bulk of the liquid manure is wasted, The bulk of the
liquid manure is wasted, but few cultivators dig up slight from the
sides of tanks and spread it in the cattle stalls so as to retain the
urine, afterward removing it to the fields. The only other method of
fertilization, which is practiced, is the penning of flocks of goats
and sheep in the fields at night. The tenants hire these from the
Dhangars or shepherds and they are kept on the fields for a fortnight
to a month, one or two Khandis
(of 400 lbs.) of juar or from Rs.10 to Rs.20 been paid for their use.
The pens are frequently shifted during this period. A rate quoted in
Nagpur and Chhindwara is Rs.1 a day for the folding of a hundred
sheep. It varies with the facilities afforded at the hand of grazing
and water. The manure available is usually devoted to the cotton crop,
from which the largest return is obtained. Many cultivator keep goats
for the sake of their manure. The Kachhis who grow vegetables with the
manure the sewage farm in Nagpur, pay rents of as much as Rs.75 an
acre for their lands. One valuable source of supply is lost to the
Indian cultivator owing to the fact that cotton seed is not crushed
locally. The cotton-mill formed from the seeds after the oil expressed
is valuable feeding stuff and manure, but this is lost to India as the
seeds are exported whole. It is believed that foreign countries
discriminate in their tariffs between the oil and the seeds in order
to retain the pressing industry in their own hand.
|
|
Field embankments |
Embankment of land, Mr.
Craddock states, is not a general practice in the District, but the
cheap labor available in the Famine years gave an extraordinary
impetus to embankment in the Katol tahasil, and particularly in
certain villages of the Saoner group. ‘The cultivator of this
villages,’ a malguzar said, ’have begun to turn their field into
forts. The fields are surrounded by walls of stone, often picked off
the surface, and the walls are coated inside with weeds and brushwood
in such a way that water passes through in the rains, but not a
particle of soil is allowed to escape. By this means erosion is
prevented and surface gradually becomes
more even.’
|
|
Weeds of cultivation |
The principle weeds are
padar or kans (Saccharum spontaneum), nagarmoti
(Cyperus pertenuis), kunda (Ischoemum pilosum) and bouchi (Psoralea corylifolia).When the first name gets a firm hold
in the field, it is extremely difficult to eradicate it. Constant deep
plough is the principle remedy. Nagarmoti
is less difficult to deal with, but its intricate root system and
long-lived nodular roots make its final eradication difficult. Kunda is another troublesome weed, which has to be finally uprooted,
but it is generally appears in the patches and seldom spreads over the
whole field. The bouchi is a
noxious weed of very little use to man or beast. Chido (Scirpus maritimus) and luni (Portulaca quadrifida) are very
troublesome weeds of the garden crops. Chakravak , also known as
pig-feed, is a weed, which grow profusely throughout the cold weather,
many millions of seeds being clustered together in bunches on various
peduncles. Kaina is a
troublesome weed of the autumn crops. Through easy to uproot, its
succulent leaves will retain their vitality even for fifteen days, and
will take root again with a slight shower of rain. It is called
Diwalya, as it dies a natural death at the Diwali (November). Randhindi (wild bhindi), Ranbatana (wild batana),
and wild jute and a wild indigo are named from their resemblance to
the cultivated crop to the same name. Tore and sava (Panicum crus-Galli) are weeds of rice, which in the early stages of
growth are almost indistinguishable from the rice plant. Many of them
are transplanted with rice and are uprooted when come into flower. The
latter plant is also known as Deodhan or gods’ rice, as it grows
wild.
|
|
The Nagpur Agriculture
Farm |
The following notice on
the working of Nagpur Agriculture Farm has been contributed by Mr. G.
Evans of the Agriculture Department :- An old model farm existed at
Nagpur for many years, situated between Lendhra village and the jail.
This was abolished in 1883, and an experimental farm started on the
present site between the Maharaj Bag gardens and the Ambajheri road.
The farm was at first only 90 acres in extent, but in 1906 was
increased by the addition of another 190 acres. The land consists of
black cotton soil, of the moderate depth, but much of the new land is
uneven and in poor
condition. An agriculture College is situated in close proximity to
the farm, and practical training is thus afforded to the students.
The experimental work
which may be taken as the main business of the farm is carried on in
connection with manures, rotation, tillage, the improvement of crops
and the introduction of new processes and implements. Only a few
features of it can here be mentioned. The advantages of growing a
leguminous crop as a mixture such as arhar with cotton or gram with
wheat have been conclusively demonstrated. Juar grown after mixed with
arhar dose much better than after cotton alone; it dose still better
after snap-hemp. It has been
found that the Swedish plough which turns over the soil to depth of 7
or 8 inches gives a much better wheat crop than the cultivator’s nagar; but even this gives much
better results than the bakhar or scarifier, though the latter is generally used in Nagpur.
Improvement of the local crops by selection is being started and the
cultivators eagerly take the selected seed. Hybridisation has lately
been started, the local juar
and bani varieties of cotton
being crossed with foreign varieties, with the object of obtaining the
hardy constitution of the former combined with some of the good lint
qualities of the latter. In the case of wheat the main object in view
is to breed if possible rust-resistant wheat. Experiments are
continually made with new varieties of various crops from other parts
of India and foreign countries, and when favorable the seed is
distributed through the District Agriculture Association for further
trail. A good variety of juar from Saoner was discovered in this way
and its use is now spreading elsewhere. Cottons have generally proved
extremely disappointing and only one acclimatized American variety
shows any promise. A variety of maize introduced from Jaunpur has
yielded well and is now in fair demand. The cultivation of the
groundnut is becoming more popular and better varieties have been
introduced from the Madras Presidency. The method of preventing smut
by stepping the seed in sulphate of copper has been introduced by the
Agriculture Department and is now in a common practice. Efforts have
been made to improve the conservation of manure, and what is known as
the dry earth system seems to be the most effective. The floors of the
cattle stalls are covered with a thin layer of dry earth which is
removed every few weeks, and in this way a considerable loss of the
valuable volatile constituents from evaporation is prevented, as the
various gases are absorbed in the dry earth. Between the years
1898-1906 a large number of improved implements have been introduced
and sold through the agency of the Farm. Among these following sales
have been made to private persons, excluding those send to other
demonstration farms or a Government officials: - Of fodder cutters for
juari 112 have been disposed of, principally in the Nagpur plain and
Berar; in the Nerbudda valley 71 winnowers for wheat have been sold,
and last season the demand for a new sheet iron winnower was so great
that the Department could not comply with it ; of Swedish and
Turnwerst plough 82 have been sold, the latter being specially in demand for the eradication of Kans grass ; while other implement disposed of include hand
threshers (7), corn
shellers (19), sprayers (28), sugarcane mills (3) and bullocks gears
(18).
|
|
Total value of crops |
The following
statements is a rough estimate of the total value of the crops of the
District, taking the standard outturn on the area cropped in 1905-06
according to the prices ruling in that year. The values are not
accurate, because the wholesale rate is only available for the
impotent staples, and for the others the retail rates have had to be
taken. In order to make some approximation to accuracy however the
retail rates have been reduced by 10 percent. But it is probable that
another 15 percent should be deducted in order to arrive at the amount
actually received by the cultivators. The total value of the crops
cultivated by the above method come to more than 2˝ cores,
while the valuable bye-products of juar stalks and cotton seed are
worth another 90 lakhs or a total of more than 3˝
cores, as against two cores and thirty lakhs at Mr. Craddock
settlement, the increase is more than fifty percent
|
