Orange and Lemon Trade of Inaia. 159 



probably little doubt that the black soil of those 

 Provinces has a great deal to do with the fine flavour 

 of the suntara orange grown there. 



Mr. J. H. Fisher, C. S., collector of Etawah, who had 

 been, at one time stationed in the Central Provinces, 

 has kindly given me the following information. 



" It is now ten years since I was in the Nagpur and 

 Chattisgurh Divisions of the Central Provinces, and 

 so I speak from memory. In the Wardha district, as 

 in Nagpur, there were a good number of large orange 

 groves, the produce of which was sent down to 

 Bombay. The tree there ripens fruit twice a year, in 

 the late autumn, the crop being called, amha bar ; 

 and in the late spring, when it is called mirrik bar* 

 The trees thrive prodigiously in the rich black soil of 

 the country, which being decomposed trap rock, is 

 highly calcareous, so that they get the lime that the 

 whole tribe of citrus so delight in. The orange 

 groves are planted not only near the railway, but at 

 considerable distances from it. I remember some in 

 the Arvi Tehsil of the Wardha district, and also in the 

 Sausar Tehsil, in the south of the Chindwara district. 

 The groves that I remember were planted out in the 

 open, without reference to any shelter or protection 

 from large trees. 



4 'When I was in camp in 1873, in the South-east 

 corner of the Raipur district in the zamindari of 

 Khariar, I remember the Rajah of Kalabandi, a 

 feudatory state in the neighbouring district of Sam- 

 balpur, coming to see me. He brought with him 

 some huge baskets full of oranges, the produce, he 

 told me of wild orange trees, which grew in certain 

 places in the forests on his estate. As they were out 

 out of my district, I never had an opportunity of 

 * This is the Dumrtz, or after crop of other places. 



