Abstract

There is a great and real need for increasing the production of vegetables at present. With the present shortage of food grains, the use of large quantities of vegetables would to that extent relieve the pressure and make up the deficiency. Vegetables are valuable human food and our country is not having a sufficiency of vegetables in general. Among the vegetables, the leafy vegetables deserve to be placed high up in the list, as being highly valuable. They are rich in calcium, iron and other minerals and are therefore capable of making up the deficiency of minerals in the food grains, especially the polished rice and the various refined grain pro- ducts. Also the greens abound in vitamins A and C, which are deficient in the staple articles of the South Indian diet. The greens may therefore be classed as highly protective foods. And the creens supply liberal amounts of soft fibrous matter and bulk, which help the bowel action: All these together roise the metabolic efficiency,-digestion, assimilation, eli- mination of wasles from the system, final growth and maintenance of the health of the human system. The common plants providing the leafy vegetables are the Amaranthus, the Indian Spinach and the Gogu. These are commonly raised by the market gardeners in the Northern Circars and the details of their cultiva- tion are given under.

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