BY
Rai Bahadur K. RANGA ACHARIYAR, M.A., L.T.,
Indian Agricultural Service, Agricultural College, Coimbatore, and
Fellow of the Madras University
ASSISTED BY
C. TADULINGA MUDALIYAR, F.L.S.,
Agricultural College, Coimbatore.
MADRAS:
PRINTED BY THE SUPERINTENDENT, GOVERNMENT PRESS.
1921
Price, 4 rupees 8 annas
This book is intended to serve as a guide to the study ofgrasses of the plains of South India. For the past fewyears I have been receiving grasses for identification, almostevery week, from the officers of the Agricultural and ForestDepartments and others interested in grasses. The requirementsof these men and the absence of a suitable bookinduced me to write this book.
I have included in this book about one hundred grassesof wide distribution in the plains of South India. Many ofthem occur also in other parts of India. The rarer grassesof the plains and those growing on the hills are omitted, witha view to deal with them separately.
The value of grasses can be realized from the fact thatman can supply all his needs from them alone, and theirimportance in agriculture is very great, as the welfare of thecattle is dependent upon grasses. Farmers, as a rule, takeno interest in them, although profitable agriculture is impossiblewithout grasses. Very few of them can give the namesof at least half a dozen grasses growing on their land. Theyneglect grasses, because they are common and are foundeverywhere. They cannot discriminate between them. Toa farmer "grass is grass" and that is all he cares to troublehimself about. About grasses Robinson writes "Grass isKing. It rules and governs the world. It is the very foundationof all commerce: without it the earth would be abarren waste, and cotton, gold, and commerce all dead."
In the early days when the population was very muchlimited and when land not brought under cultivation wasextensive plenty of green grasses was upon it and pastureswere numerous. So the farmer paid no attention to thegrasses, and it did not matter much. But now, populationhas increased, unoccupied land has decreased very much andthe cattle have increased in number. Consequently he hasto pay more attention to grasses.
On account of the scarcity of fodder, people interestedin agriculture and cattle rearing have very often imported[Pg iv]foreign grasses and fodder plants into this country, but sofar no one has succeeded in establishing any one of them onany large scale. Usually a great amount of labour and muchmoney is spent in these attempts. If the same amount ofattention is bestowed on indigenous grasses, better resultscan be obtained with less labour and money. There aremany indigenous grasses that will yield plenty of stuff, ifthey are given a chance to grow. The present deteriorationof grasses is mainly due to overgrazing and trampling bymen and cattle.
To prove the beneficial effects which result from preventingovergrazing and trampling, Mr. G. R. Hilson, DeputyDirector of Agriculture (now Cotton Expert), selected someportion of the waste land in the neighbourhood of the Farmat Hagari and closed it for men and cattle. As a result ofthis measure, in two years, a number of grasses and otherplants were found growing on the enclosed area very well,and all of them seeded well. Of course the unenclosed areaswere bare as usual.
In the preparation of this book I received considerablehelp from M.R.Ry. C. Taduling