Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/90

82 PAR "* Fibres, indigo, and cotton. Regarding the cultivated fibres, sanki and patwa, indigo and cotton, Mr. King writes as follows :- "Hemp, sanai, a tall plant, with a light yellow flower. The fibre is used for well ropes and is called san. " Patva is grown in juár fields. It has a bell-shaped light yellow flower, and the fibre, which is called san, is used for common pur- poses. The above are cultivated fibres. Dyes.- Indigo is grown a little, and is made up in the native method. There are indigo planters' lands to the extent of some 3,000 or 4,000 bíghas in the district. The produce is sent to Calcutta. " Cotton is not much grown. A return made in 1866-67 showed an estimated area of 2,693 acres, and an outturn of 2,430 maunds of cleaned cotton, which shows that the crop is not a heavy one in this country Uncultivated fibres. Of uncultivated fibres may be here mentioned the silmil , one of the Leguminosce, a tall, thin looking plant, which is found here and there in the “kachhár" lands bordering the Ganges. It seeds in the cold season, the seeds being contained in very long narrow pods. Mr. G. P. Gartlan, Manager of the Palmerland Estate, showed me some of the fibre. It was very clean, and apparently of considerable strength; but it would, he informed me, scarcely repay cultivation, the yield of fibre being too small. The fibre comes from the corticate casing of the stem, after a certain period of immersion. It bas been already mentioned that the "dhák" tree furnishes a coarse fibre. There remains the sarpat grass, producing, as Mr. King writes, "a fine fibre, which is made up and called bádh, used for stringing the common native charpoy or bed, and for making up the bamboo frame-work of roofs.” Pún gardens.- Plantations of the succulent creeper called pán (Piper chavica) are very common in the district. The plant thrives best in a stiff soil, which is retentive of moisture. The site selected is generally an elevated spot with a good slope. The Tamboli or Barai then proceeds to plough, level, and clean the land thoroughly : this done, he encloses it with stakes and brushwood, and he then covers it in with a roof of sentha grass. Shallow trenches are next scooped out about two feet wide by five or six inches deep. These trenches are about five feet apart. Water is then let into them, and when the soil is thoroughly saturated, the planting commences, which is performed in this wise. A full-grown plant, after it has been sufficiently stripped, is cut down close to the root. It is then divided into three or four portions, and these are laid horizon- tally in the trenches and covered over with earth. In the course of a few days, at each knot or excrescence, sprouts will appear, and each of these sprouts becomes a separate plant, and is trained to grow up sticks fixed in the ground for the purpose. Pán planting goes on from February There are three kinde of cotton grown in this district, viz., radhia, banwa, and kuári kapás. The first is the most productive and the most highly esteemed.