26 



CLIMATE AND EESOUECES OF 



There is, however, another cause of the hardened condition 

 of the soil, which, as it affects, perhaps, more than anything 

 else the agricultural prosperity of the country, must not be 

 overlooked, and that is, the deficiency of vegetable matter in 

 it. It is this want of vegetable matter which allows the soil 

 to bind into a compact mass, prevents its aeration, and renders 

 deep cultivation more difficult. 



This want of vegetable matter in the soil is caused by the 

 stubble of the cereals and cold weather crops being eaten down 

 as close as possible to the ground, the leaves of trees and 

 stubble of the thicker- stemmed crops, and the woody stems of 

 cotton and other plants, being carried off and used as fuel, as 

 also is all cattle-dung, which is carefully collected and dried 

 for that purpose, except during the rains; and any small 

 remains of vegetable matters there may be on the land are 

 carried away by surface- drainage. 



The country plough, too, it must be noted, has no mould- 

 board, and does not invert the surface-soil, it merely scratches 

 it (it is not a plough, properly speaking, but merely a pointed 

 implement which is drawn through the soil), and does not 

 bury in the soil what manurial matters there may be on the 

 surface ; these may in the act of ploughing become mixed with 

 the soil to some extent, but being of less specific gravity than 

 the mineral soil, much is left on the surface, and is liable to 

 be washed away. 



It is common to hear complaints of a want of manure, and 

 to see statements in the Indian papers to the effect that no 

 improvement can take place in the agriculture of Upper India 

 as long as cattle- dung is used as fuel, implying that cattle- 

 dung is the sole or chief manure, for which there is no 

 substitute. 



The statement, however, is only partially correct. Cattle- 

 dung, it is true, contains all the elements of fertility required 



