20 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



intermingling of these various layers or strata; so that con- 

 clusions regarding the biological effects of India's hot 

 weather on the soil must be made very guardedly and not in 

 the offhand manner that has been in some instances the case. 

 It may be assumed as certain that " hot weather weather- 

 ing," whilst valuable in some cases, will be undesirable in 



others. 



IV. — Soil Problems. 



The records of drainage which are obtained by means of 

 the special gauges fully described in the Memoirs 1 have 

 been continued. The nature of the crops grown was 

 changed two years ago. On one gauge sann hemp, Crota- 

 laria juncea, is grown during the monsoon and removed in 

 September as near the end of the rains as may be without, 

 however, leaving the land deficient in moisture, after which 

 wheat is sown ; on another gauge sann hemp is grown during 

 the monsoon and allowed to ripen thoroughly when it is 

 removed, and this soil then lies fallow. It is too early to 

 draw any conclusions, but so far the wheat crop has not 

 suffered from want of moisture, whilst the sann hemp on 

 the second of these two gauges which is not alternated with 

 another crop, already shows some signs of the deterioration 

 which is so common where a leguminous crop is grown con- 

 tinuously on the same land. The object of the present 

 system of cropping is to ascertain whether the marked defi- 

 ciency of nitrate in the drainage water, which was noticed 

 when the crops were wheat and maize, would be again ex- 

 perienced. (Vide Memoir, Volume II, No. 2, pages 31 

 et seq.) 



Soil Moisture. — The investigations regarding the 

 amounts of water present in Indian soils and the require- 

 ments of crops which have been carried out for some 

 years by this section, showed the great necessity that exists 

 for a rapid method of determining the amount of water 

 m soils. The usual one of drying a weighed portion of 

 soil in an oven is comparatively very time-absorbing, and 



1 Memoirs, Department of Agriculture in India, Chemical Series, 

 Yolume I, No. 5, and Volume II, No. 2. 



