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AN ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF DECCAN 

 GRASSLAND 



By W. Burns, D.Sc, and G. M. Chakradev, B.A. 



Introduction. 



Previous work on the improvement of grazing lands made it 

 clear that an intense ecological study of these lands is desirable. 

 The present paper is a short account of the first season of such a 

 study. 



We have been able to lease for five years a piece of the worst 

 Deccan grazing land near Poona, (See plate). This plot measures seven 

 acres. Its surface is very uneven. On two sides it is raised into 

 small hills, through which the rock shows. A central part is traversed 

 by a nullah and has a piece of deeper soil in it. The whole area has 

 been subjected to grazing and trampling by cattle from time imme- 

 morial, and it is usually accidentally burned every hot weather. It 

 was so burned just before we took it over, and hence we were pro- 

 vided with a partially denuded area. 



On the hilly portions the soil has been washed to such an extent 

 that the existing plants are growing in mwrum, the partially disinte- 

 grated trap rock which lies about in fragments large and small. The 

 lower areas have much more soil. Analyses of the soil taken at 

 three different points are given in Appendix A. The low content 

 of humus in the poorer samples is worth notice. 



The area is about 1,800 ft. above sea level. The annual rainfall 

 averages 27 inches, falling between June and October, both months 

 included. During the rest of the year the climate is moderate as 

 Indian conditions go, except for the intensely drying hot wind that 

 blows from the west in the three months preceding the monsoon. 



Operations on the Area. 



The main thing in our research was to keep off cattle, prevent 

 burning, and stop grass-cutting for such time as would enable us to 

 study the possibilities of the vegetation if left to itself. A strong 

 barbed wire fence was therefore erected, and a line of Agave 

 sisalana planted inside it. To minimise orosion due to rain, small 

 ridges of six to twelve inchos high wero erected along the con- 

 tours at about each three-foot rise, and these ridges were reinforced 

 by the loose stones of the area. The existing nullahs were blocked 

 at various places to prevent the water rushing through fchem and 



