AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

IMPLEMENTS

Agricultural implements and farm tools used in this district, are of old and indigenous type. These include ploughs, harrows, seed drills, slit hoes, entire blade hoe aduba, leveller, etc. Improved types of ploughs and cane-crushers have also made their way. Besides, several hand tools are used for sundry jobs on the farm. The following figures give the number of implements, in the district, in 1958-59:―

Plough.

The wooden plough (nangar) consists of several pieces like the khod or khunt (body), dandi (beam or pole), ju (yoke), phal (share) and rumane (stilt). The share (phal) is made of iron and the remaining parts are made of wood. The body (khod or khunt) is three feet long and consists of doke (head) and dant (shoe). The former is thicker and the latter is tapering to a point, flat at the top and triangular at the bottom. The share which is flat and sharp at the end is fixed to the shoe and secured to the main block by means of a piece of wood. The front end of the share projects about six inches beyond the point of the shoe and is secured to the shoe by means of a vasu (an iron ring). The beam is highly curved at the back and fixed to the doke (head) so as to form an acute angle. The back end of the beam is projected about three feet beyond the head on which the rumane (stilt) rests. The stilt, three and a half feet long, is separate and a muthya (short grip) is fixed on the top to facilitate handling. The yoke eight and a half feet long is tied to the front end of the beam by means of a big rope called vetan.

A small plough called ' nangari' is used in the western part of the district where the soils are lighter and not deep.

The indigenous plough opens a triangular furrow with a depth of 6-9 inches. Three or four pairs of bullocks are required for heavy soils and two pairs for light soils in the western part of the district. The wooden ploughs prepared locally by carpenters are now mostly replaced by iron ploughs. The latter are supplied by Messrs. Kirloskar Bros., Kirloskarwadi and Messrs. Cooper Engineering Works, Satara Road. The iron ploughs No. 9 and No. 100 of Messrs. Kirloskar Bros, are both useful, the former in heavy black-soils of the Krishna valley and the latter in lighter soils of the western part of the district. The " Jagat Ridge " of the same manufacturers is used in sugar-cane cultivation for preparing furrows. The " Bahadur " plough of Messrs. Cooper Engineering Works, is used mainly' in Satara and Koregaon talukas. Tractors have also made their way in the district.

Harrow.

The harrow (kulav or pharat) is used after ploughing for crushing the clods of earth. Its main part, the dind (head piece), is three feet in length. Two beams (dandyas) eight or nine feet long are fixed to the head. One small beam two and a half to three feet long is attached to the large one. Two prongs 18" each, are fixed at the bottom of the head-piece and fixed in a slanting direction downward at 50°. A steel blade, sharp at the lower end. is 12" long. It is fixed to the ends of prongs by an iron ring called vasu. One stilt is fixed on head-piece for putting pressure required for harrowing deep. All parts except the blade are made of babhul wood. The big harrow (kongya kulav), 80-120 lbs. in weight, has its head-piece built upwards. The head-piece is 32" long and the blade about ten inches less. This harrow is used in Satara, Wai and Koregaon talukas and worked by two pair of bullocks. It is also useful for harvesting the spreading varieties of groundnut. Another harrow (pharat) has head four feet and blade three feet long. It is used for covering seeds after sowing and for removing tender weeds. It works to a depth of one and a half to three feet.

Beam Harrow.

The beam harrow (maind) is used for breaking the clods of earth. after ploughing. It is a rectangular log of babhul 10" long, one foot broad and nine inches thick and weighs 170-200 lbs. A wooden beam eight feet long is fixed to the log in the centre for putting pressure by the yoke. As it is not an effective clod crusher, the Agriculture department has introduced the Norwegian harrow. The new harrow is used by progressive tillers for sugar-cane.

Seed-drill.

The seed-drills (pabhar) are mostly made of babhul wood and used for sowing in lines and at uniform depth. Its head-piece (pabhar) is round in shape. The coulters or phans are flat to the front side and fixed to the head-piece. Hallow bamboo tubes are fixed for allowing the seed to pass to the soil, and held in a bowl-like wooden structure (chade). The seed bowl and the tubes are firmly tied and fixed to the centre of the head-piece by a thin rope (chade-dor). For traction, a beam is fixed to the centre of the head-piece with side braces for support. On the top of the head-piece a handle (rumane) is fixed for guiding and pressing the drill. A yoke of suitable length is tied to the beam by a thick rope passing over and round the head-piece making the entire frame rigid for work. The seed drill requires two men, one to drive a pair of bullocks and the other to feed the seed bowl uniformly. Three or four acres can be sown in a day. Seed-drills are light or heavy according to the season and the crops to be sown. Kharif season requires a lighter seed-drill, as seed is to be deposited in the wet and soft soil upto a depth of two or two and a half inches. Rabi season requires a heavy seed-drill, as seed is to be deposited upto a depth of six or seven inches. A seed-drill with four coulters, each at eight inches from the other, is used in the western part of the district. It is used commonly for sowing kharif crops like chavli, mug, paddy, udid, etc. In Wai, Satara, Koregaon, Khatav, Man, Phaltan and Karad talukas, a seed drill with four coulters, each at twelve inches from the other, is used for sowing kharif jowar, bajra, udid, etc. Its head-piece is 15-18 inches in circumference and five inches in length. The beams of poles are six feet long.

Tifan is a seed-drill introduced by the Agriculture Department. It has three coulters each at eighteen inches from the other, a head-piece four and a half feet and beam eight and a half feet and demands the yoke six and a half feet long. It is becoming popular day by day.

Hoe.

The hoe is used for inter-culturing the crops which are sown and dibbled. Inter-culturing helps to remove weeds, loosen the soil and conserve moisture in it. The slit hoe (phaticha kolpa) is operated till the crop grows 12-15 inches high and, the entire blade hoe (duba kolpa), afterwards. The size of the hoe depends upon the distance between the two crop lines. The prongs and half the portion of the blade are made into one piece and two such pieces are fixed on the head-piece. A slit is about three inches wide. The prong is 15" long and made of iron. Two poles each about eight feet long are fixed to the head-piece Generally, two hoes are worked on one yoke. The length of the yoke depends upon the spacing between the lines or rows of crops. The yokes used are straight. The hoes are tied to the yokes by means of a rope passing over the handle and the head-piece of the hoe. The rein by which the bullocks are controlled is tied to a V-shaped structure of sticks. Hoeing requires to be done carefully, especially when the crop is young and tender. Two persons with a pair of bullocks inter-culture four or five acres of cropped land in a day.

The Phanet Junior hand-hoes, spiked tooth hoes and Karjat hoes introduced by the Agriculture Department to suit wider spaced crops like sugar-cane, paddy, jowar. etc. have also made their way in the district.

Stone Roller.

The stone roller is used in the threshing operation. It is a big piece of stone, about three feet long, with a diameter of 18" at one end and of 15" at the other. Two axles are fixed at the centre and an iron bar frame, with a wooden pole about eight feet long on its side, is fixed to them. The yoke (shival) is attached to the other end of the pole. The roller is worked by a pair of bullocks and threshes 100 Bengali maunds of Jowar ear-heads within four hours. It is becoming popular among the tillers.

Water Lifts.

The main water lifts used for irrigating the fields are mots made of iron or leather. Leather mots are manufactured locally by village cobbler. Iron mots of Sangli district are in common use and cost the tiller Rs. 60 each. A number of pumping sets for lifting water from wells or rivers have also been installed in the district.

Hand-tools.

Hand-tools are required in various minor operations. The axe (kurhad) is used for cutting and chopping trees and wood and for harvesting sugar-cane. The spade (phavadi) is used for repairing and making bunds and water channels and for filling the fields with soil and manures. The pick-axe (kudal) is used for digging earth, harvesting various root crops such as potato, sweet-potato', etc. and deep-rooted weeds like harali. The weeding hook (khurpe) is used for removing weeds in the crops. The sickle (vila) is used for cutting the grass and ear-heads and for harvesting jowar, paddy, wheat, bajri, sugar-cane, etc. The crow-bar (pahar) is useful for digging, fencing, planting fruit-trees, etc. The rake (dantale) is used for spreading compost and farm-yard manure, making heaps of ear-heads on the threshing yard, collecting straw and other waste material and for preparing ridges in the fields. The sugar-cane cutter is used for cutting sugar-cane as well as trees in the hilly tracts of the district. The weeding hook (khurpe) and the sickle (vila) are, however, among the most common hand-tools used in the district.

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