INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE, PUSA, FOR 1911-12. 25 



from good land closely contiguous to alkali land, and which 

 were designed to demonstrate whether such soil would 

 become usar if maintained in a water-logged state, have 

 not so far yielded a definite answer. Both soils were ex- 

 amined after being under experiment for two years, and 

 one was apparently still quite good; in respect of the other 

 there was a doubt as to whether it had changed somewhat. 



The whole series of tests were reported upon to the 

 Director of Land Records and Agriculture and to the Chief 

 Engineer, Irrigation Branch, United Provinces. 



A series of samples of soil from Quetta were submitted 

 to me for examination by the Irrigation Officer in Baluchis- 

 tan, the question being whether irrigation was causing 

 the lands to become saline. It was known from analyses 

 made by me in 1909 how very saline the water of the Sheboo 

 canal frequently is, and there is a natural suspicion that 

 irrigation with it must lead to an accumulation of salts in 

 the soil. The examination of the soils showed that in three 

 cases out of four the irrigated land was less readily perme- 

 able to water than the unirrigated, and in two cases the 

 irrigated land contained rather more salts. The difficulty 

 in making a reliable deduction in questions such as this lies 

 in the fact that the changes which may be going on are 

 only slow and hence frequently difficult to detect. 



6. Saltpetre. — Further experiments were made during 

 the year on an improved method for refining crude saltpetre. 

 The filter, which had worked very well at the Allahabad 

 Exhibition, proved, when made of a considerably larger 

 size, to be defective, and experiments are now being con- 

 ducted with another class of filter which it is hoped will be 

 more efficient. The refined saltpetre was sold in Calcutta 

 without any difficulty at full market rates. 



7- Sugar. — Work on sugar during the past year has in- 

 cluded {i) an examination of the date sugar industry, {ii) 

 testing the effect of removal of cobs from maize which 

 results in an accumulation of sugar in the stem, (m) esti- 

 mating the error which is involved in sampling sugar-cane, 



