[ 8 ] 



will have none of tliem ; they accurately distinguish 

 every* variety of soil, and, so far as the crops they 

 grow are concerned, the varying properties and capa- 

 cities of each; they fully realise the value (though 

 they can command but little) of ordinary manure, 

 ashes, and the like, and recognise which are most re- 

 quired by which kind of crops ; they know the advan- 

 tages of ploughing, in most cases as deep as their 

 imperfect implements and feeble teams will permit, 

 and of thoroughly pulverising the soil ; and they also 

 recognise where, with a scanty or no supply of manure, 

 it would be folly to break the shallow-lying pan. As 

 for weeds, their wheat-fields would, in this respect. 



* Nothing, indeed, is more perplexing than the enormous 

 number of names applied by native agriculturists to soils, the 

 more so that probably almost every district rejoices in at least a 

 dozen purely local names which are unknown elsewhere. There is 

 no real confusion, however. Native cultivators as keenly appre- 

 ciate the smallest differences in the relative qualities of different 

 soils as do the best European farmers, but the fact is that inde- 

 pendent of names indicative of the quality of the soil (and often 

 to the entire exclusion of these) they make use, in describing their 

 land, of names having reference to external conditions, the fre- 

 quency or recency of cultivation therein, its situation as regards 

 inhabited sites, &c., its position as upland or recently-formed allu- 

 vium, its occupation for pasture, fields, or gardens, its external 

 features, &c. &c. Nothing is more common than to hear soils 

 referred to as such, by names which really only indicate features 

 or circumstances altogether external to the soil itself and inde- 

 pendent of its intrinsic quality. This is no doubt inaccurate, but 

 it is very natural since the value to the agriculturist of any land 

 will often depend far more on these external circumstances than 

 on the inherent quality of the soil, which latter, moreover, will, as 

 time goes on, be often greatly modified by the former, as where 

 " hhoor " or light sandy soil, becomes in course of time, by prox- 

 imity to a village, constant cultivation and manuring, a kind of 

 *• do mut" between garden mould and rich loam. 



