AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

FIBRES

Cotton.

Cotton, since the latter half of the 19th century, has been the most important crop of the district and forms the source of its special pros- perity. The area under it has increased from 4,04,000 acres in 1904-05 to 4,43,342 acres in 1965-66 thus comprising over one third of the total cropped area of the district which stood at 10,29,365 acres in 1965-66. The crop is grown in the district on a variety of soils but it thrives well in medium to heavy black cotton soils. It is grown even in lighter type of soils in the district. Cotton requires about 25 to 30 inches of rainfall but it is most beneficial when well spread over the entire monsoon period. With prolonged wet weather the plants rapidly turn yellow and the yield suffers both in quality and quantity. Heavy rains in November when the bolls burst open are the most injurious, in that the cotton that has formed is discoloured and spoilt and many immature bolls are battered to the ground and destroyed. A proverb says " If rain falls in Chitra or Swati Nakshatras (15th October to 15th November) there won't be enough cotton for lamp wicks." This saying must, however, be taken to refer to only heavy or excessive rainfall.

About the varieties then grown in the district the Old Gazetteer [ Central Provinces District Gazetteers, Wardha District, Vol. A., 1906,pp. 95-96.] gives the following details: " The principal variety is that known as jari which covers about three-fourths of the whole acreage. Its lint is rough, weak and small, but it gives a larger out-turn than the other varieties and the plants are also more vigorous and hardy. In the neighbourhood of Hinganghat the comparatively long-stapled variety called bani was formerly grown pure and gave the cotton known as ' Hinganghats ' a considerable reputation. It is now, however, no longer sown separately, and in this neighbourhood as many as three varieties may usually be seen in the same field. These are jari, bani and the Upland Georgian. The presence of this last one is very interesting. About one plant will be seen in every 10 or 15 square yards, and they are the remnants of the crop produced from seed sent to Arvi by Mr. Fuller about 1887. The cultivators say that the lint is inferior to that of both jari and bani. The Upland Georgian seed which was distributed in that year germinated so badly that it was considered useless to distribute further consignments until it had been acclimatised. After cultivation extending over some years on the Nagpur Experimental Farm an acclimatised seed which germinates well and is fairly hardy has been produced and was distributed for the first time in 1902. Bani and jari have a large flower with yellow petals changing to crimson inside near the calyx and Upland Georgian has a very pretty pink to scarlet flower. The leaves of the cotton plant are palmate or divided into three or five segments toward the petiole or stalk, and in the shorter stapled varieties the segments are much more deeply cut than in those of long staple, the leaf being then of the shape called digitate. The cotton now sold as Hinganghat bani is a mixture of these three varieties. Hinganghat bani will produce counts of yarn of 40's and jari of 12's to 20's, though the cotton is frequently used for spinning lower counts than those of which it is capable. Bani has a staple of ⅞ths of an inch and jari of ½ to ¾ths. The crop of the former, however, yields a smaller proportion of lint. Kanta vilayati is so called because it has a small thorn at the end of the pod. It was formerly considered as a distinct variety but is now stated to be identical with jari."

Though many of the above noted cotton varieties continue to be grown the area under these is insignificant. The efforts of the agriculture department to persuade the agriculturists to adopt and plant improved strains of both Deshi and American varieties of cotton have largely met with success, and to-day, for the most part, one or the other of these varieties is being grown in the district. Among the Deshi varieties H-420, 197-3, 13-A are the most popular, and among American varieties Buri 0394, 296-7 and 147. Whereas American varieties thrive well in heavier types of soils, the Deshi on lighter to medium types.

About the deterioration of the quality of seed and the consequent decline in the output of quality cotton the Old Gazetteer has the following to say: "When the cultivator found that he could get his cotton ginned cheaply for him, he abolished his hand-gins entirely and now does not even gin what he requires for seed. The Banias now keep hand-gins and sell hand-ginned seeds for sowing purposes. It is probable that during the fall in cotton prices which followed the acute demand caused by the American War, the cultivators ceased to take any trouble of keeping the seed separate. " To-day the situation has been greatly eased by the set up of the government and Zilla Parishad owned seed-farms which largely meet the seed requirements of the cotton planters.

For cotton, the land is prepared carefully with the bakhar or the paring plough which is taken over it twice or thrice before the outbreak of the monsoon. Mrug Nakshatra is universally considered to be the best season for sowing cotton. The sowing operations which start by early June, after the first one or two showers are almost completed by the third week of June. However, sometimes, they extend up to the first fortnight of July. Some cultivators sow even before the breaking of the monsoon. Meticulous care has to be taken to separate every bit of lint from the seeds to be sown in order that they may pass through the sarta of the drill smoothly. This is obtained, firstly by pressing the seed through the meshes of a tightly woven baj or an ordinary country cot and later by washing them in cowdung water. This does not leave any chance for them to adhere together by the lint-threads. The seed is sown through a hollow bamboo tube called sarta which is trailed in the wake of the bakhar and generally held up by a woman who drops the seed through it, while some stones are dragged along behind to press it into the earth. Cotton is generally sown mixed with tur or arhar or jowar but mostly with the former in this district in the proportion of two lines of tur to every ten or twelve of cotton. A cotton field is thus divided into long narrow strips of cotton strewn with tur lines. Locally it is considered that this practice is not of any advantage to the cotton crop, but was rather adopted to give the bushy tur plant room to spread. It is, however, said that tur plants shelter cotton from the wind to some extent. It is also quite probable that tur plants like other plants of the order laguminosae contribute to the fertility of the soil by 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 derive some advantage from the decayed foliage. The crop is generally benefited by manure and every effort is made by the planter, to give it as much as is possible. Fifteen cart-loads of farmyard manure is considered to be a full average application. Of late the cultivators also give chemical manures. 100 lbs of ammonium sulphate mixed with 50 lbs. of super phosphate is required per acre. The dose of fertilisers has to be increased in case of irrigated crop. It is, however, believed that cotton derives more benefit from a residue of manure left in the soil than from its direct application.

Cotton requires repeated weedings, the number depending upon the degree of weed-infestation. It is weeded by passing the daura or the small paring-plough backwards and forwards between the lines, the space in between the plants being weeded by hand. When the plants grown higher a large paring-plough called dhunda is used. This operation is generally performed five times, the hand-weeding being done twice only. In between the line hand-weeding is wholly done by women by means of a khurpa which is a small sickle with its outer edge sharpened instead of the inner. While performing this operation the cotton plants are also thinned to a distance of six to twelve inches depending upon the fertility of the soil. Harvesting of the cotton crop begins by early November and lasts well upto the middle of February. The number of pickings varies but usually each field has about four to five pickings of which the second and the third yield the maximum lint. The pickings of indigenous variety are done at a fortnightly interval but the imported variety needs pickings at shorter intervals. Each plant has about twenty branches and each branch in turn about three bolls on an average. The first picking is called Sitadevi because when the cultivator goes to the field, he makes a small mound of earth, places a little cotton on its top and offers curds and milk to the goddess. The picking is done mostly by women and children who work more deftly than men. The lint can be picked up clean early in the morning owing to the effects of dew on the foliage. Later in the day the leaves become dry and crisp owing to the heat of the sun and stick to the lint with the result that picking becomes more difficult. In former times the labourers or pickers were paid in kind but now-a-days both the labourers as well as the farmers prefer the mode of cash payment. It may be added here that cotton is an exhausting crop, and if sown in two successive years the land must necessarily be turned up with the nagar or regular plough and manured, for the crop greatly benefits from manuring. The pests and diseases to which cotton is susceptible as also the remedial measures are suggested and discussed in a separate section entitled ' pests and diseases '.

About the seed and out-turn of cotton the Old Gazetteer [ Central Provinces District Gazetteers, Wardha District, Vol. A, 1906,pp. 100-101.] has given a detailed account and is reproduced below: " About 9 lbs. of seed are sown per acre in Wardha, this quantity being considerably less than in Nagpur where the amount of seed is given as from 8 to 16 lbs. The Wardha figure probably, however, represents the quantity of cotton required for an acre of the crop when sown mixed with tur and an acre of cotton alone would require more seed. Nearly 4 lbs. of tur seed also go to an acre of the mixed crop. The standard out-turn taken at last settlement was 280 lbs. of seed cotton, yielding 84 lbs. of lint and 196 lbs. of seed. In 1905 the Commissioner of Settlements raised the out-turn to 320 lbs. of seed cotton and 106 lbs. of lint. The value of the cotton according to the prices of 1904 would be Rs. 25 and that of the seed Rs. 3. The seed (sarki) is of great value as a food for cattle. Cotton is occasionally sown as a spring crop in the same manner as ringni juar, but this practice is more common in the adjoining District of Chanda than in Wardha.......... In a note on the cotton cultivation in the United Provinces (1905) Mr. Moreland states incidentally that the yield from an acre is between 6 and 7 mounds of seed cotton or 480 to 560 lbs. [ Yielding, at 33 per cent, 160 to 187 lbs. of fibre.] Elsewhere Mr. Moreland says 'The yield of fibre probably varies from 150 to 200 lbs. to the acre, but the crop is distinctly speculative, and much higher and much lower yields are probably common, while the length of the picking season makes it very difficult to ascertain the out-turn with any approach to accuracy.' The following extract is taken from Duthie and Fuller's Field and Garden Crops:-'There is no crop the out-turn of which has been so systematically underrated as that of cotton, and if we are to believe the District reports of the last three years, the Provincial average is only 60 lbs. an acre, in which case it may be demonstrated that it would not pay to grow it at all. After consideration of the estimates arrived at by Settlement Officers, which exhibit, it must be said, the most astounding discrepancies, and utilising the experience of two years on the Cawnpore Farm, an all round estimate of 170 lbs. of clean cotton per acre of irrigated and 150 lbs. per acre of unirrigated land is the lowest which can be safely struck except for Oudh and Benares Division where a hundred pounds may be taken as sufficient'. Elsewhere these authors remark that the best cotton in the United Provinces is grown in Bundelkhand but it is certainly not considered in the Central Provinces that the cultivation of this crop in Saugor and Damoh is as good as in Wardha. Mollison gives the out-turns as 390 lbs. of seed cotton per acre in Broach where it is commonly sown with rice, 360 in Surat, 300 lbs. in the Carnatic and 350 lbs. in Khandesh. It is obvious that the out-turn of cotton can be arrived at by crop experiments only with the greatest difficulty, and the sole means of making sure that the experiment was complete would be to place a guard over the field for a period of two months or more. It is desirable also to state that Mr. R. S. Joshi, Assistant to the Director of Agriculture, sees no reason to distrust the settlement figures of out-turns. All that is necessary here is to call attention to the fact the exports of raw cotton have in two years exceeded the whole crop of the district even on the revised standard outturn, a fact which seems to constitute sufficient reason for a further examination as to its adequacy". Now about 12 to 16 lbs. of seed is sown per acre and the yield ranges from 200 to 300 lbs. Under irrigation the yield can be increased up to 1000 lbs. per acre.

In former days the cotton planter was not assured of a fair return for his produce. The business was entirely controlled by the merchant community and the intermediaries and there being no storage facilities the agriculturist was obliged to sell the produce at whatever price offered by them. To-day, however, the conditions have changed immensely and the warehousing facilities made available as also the market yards where the commodity prices are regulated after proper gradation have assured and given the cotton planters remunerative prices for their produce.

Sannhemp.

Sannhemp is a minor fibre crop of some importance of the district and occupied 1,270 acres in 1965-66, the tahsil-wise distribution being 935 and 269 acres in Arvi and Wardha tahsils respectively and 66 acres in Hinganghat. It is a kharif crop and can be grown in a variety of soils and under varied climatic conditions. The acreage under this crop in 1965-66 was 1270.

The land for this crop is prepared by giving two to three bakharings and the seed is sown in June by broadcasting at the rate of about 40 lbs. per acre. Within four to four and a half months of sowing the crop is ready for harvest. The plants bear pods from which seed is obtained. Fibre is beat out of the plants after allowing them to rot in water for about a week. About five to eight maunds of fibre and 300 to 400 lbs. of seed are obtained per acre. The crop is of importance both from the point of yield of fibre and from its fertilising action on the soil. The other fibre plant raised is ambadi or Deccan hemp. However, the area under it is negligible.

Tables No. 13 and 14 give tahsil-wise area and out-turn of fibres in Wardha district.

TABLE No. 13.

TAHSIL-WISE AREA [Area in acres.] UNDER FIBRES IN WARDHA DISTRICT, 1957-58
TO 1965-66.

TABLE No. 14

TAHSIL-WISE OUT-TURN OF FIBRES IN WARDHA DISTRICT, 1957-58
TO 1965-66.

*Out-turn in bales of 392 lbs. each.

**In tons.

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