AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

DRUGS AND NARCOTICS

Pan.

Pan (betel leaf) is obtained from a creeper known as panvel or nagvel cultivated for its leaves that are used along with supari as a masticatory. The soils generally favoured for this crop are clayey and alluvial. They should be well-drained and have a good depth. The areas selected are generally those having cool, moist and shady conditions. This shade is often provided by the trees on which betel vines are allowed to climb. The crop needs an abundant supply of water. The garden has to be protected by a thorny hedge. Inside the garden, rows of living plants, like papaya, plantain trees, etc., are grown. In order to support the vines, numerous trees are planted, the important ones being shevri, pangara, hadga, shevga, etc., which serve well as a support due to their good growing ability. The garden is planted with cuttings obtained from the best shoots of the older plants. This is generally done in October. The young vines are later trained to support themselves on trees planted for the purpose. The former are tied to the latter by means of sedges. Hoeing, weeding and manuring must be repeated after every three or four months. Leaf-picking may be started, when the crop is eighteen months old; but the same is generally put off till the end of the second year. Each vine is picked at short intervals of from two to five months. The leaves are picked together with the petiole. For this purpose, a sharpened steel nail is fixed by the picker on his right thumb with which he cuts off the leaf from the stem. The vines continue to bear for twenty to thirty years, if they are properly cared for. The cultivation of betel-vine is very costly and cannot be carried on except with a considerable investment. On the other hand, being a cash crop it yields profitable dividends, if cultivated on sound commercial lines.

Supari

Supari (areca-nut or betel-nut) is a product of the areca or betel palm (pophali). It requires ample supply of moisture in the soil. A cool and somewhat shady and moist climate is suitable for its growth. An areca palm is very sensitive to drought and hence an assured supply of water in summer months is essential. It grows in a wide variety of soils but alluvial light loams and lateritic soils are most favourable. The betel-nut crop is obtained from the nuts. Best nuts are chosen as seed and buried about two inches deep in loosened and levelled soil of the garden. When seedlings become one year old, they are planted about two feet deep at a good distance. The soil is then enriched by a mixture of salt and ragi (nachani or nagli) and at times by cow-dung, too. The plant is not required to be irrigated during the first four months, whereafter irrigation is done daily or at intervals of one or two days. A well-irrigated betel-palm begins to bear fruit from the fifth or sixth year. However, if irrigation facilities are stinted, the palm does not bear fruit till it completes eight years or even ten years in some cases. The tree yields fruit twice or thrice in a year. Areca-nuts are harvested just before they are fully ripe. The quality of nuts depends upon the stage at which nuts are harvested. After drying the half-ripe nuts for about three days, the kernels, are removed from the husk by cutting the latter into two halves. In Alibag taluka, the fruit is harvested a little earlier, shelled and then boiled. In Murud peta, the fruit is harvested not until it is fully ripe. Later, its outer skin is removed and the supari thus obtained is shelled and sold in the market. The boiling of kernels is said to reduce its tannic acid contents. The betel-palm lasts for about fifty years. One plant yields on an average four pounds, while an acre of plantation, about five hundred pounds of dry nuts. The kernel of the areca-nut has valuable medicinal properties. It contains about sixteen per cent of tannic acid and fourteen per cent of fat and different alkaloids.

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