44 CLIMATE AND RESOURCES OF 



that the whole annual rainfall (which, however, is not the 

 case) were precipitated in three months, from 20th June to 

 20th September, the rainfall would be 12 inches per month, 

 less than three inches per week, and considerably less than 

 half an inch per diem. If the soil were cultivated a foot deep, 

 a large amount of the rain would be absorbed by the loosened 

 soil, as it fell, as by a sponge, and some would be continually 

 sinking into the subsoil by gravitation. As to the water 

 penetrating the soil, causing fever, and rendering the higher 

 lands as unhealthy as the lower lands now are, there does not 

 seem to be much ground for this opinion, as where there are 

 high lands with a loose soil, which arrests a larger proportion 

 of the rain which falls on it, than the ordinary arable lands, 

 and which escapes by percolation to the lower-lying lands or 

 jheels instead of by surface-drainage, these high lands, known 

 as bhoor lands, are remarkable- as being the healthiest parts of 

 the different districts in which they are. I am not aware of 

 any case where water held in the soil by capillary attraction 

 alone has been proved to be prejudicial to health. 



The deeply-cultivated soil and the ridges would prevent 

 loss of water from the surface of the land composing the 

 drainage area of the jheel, would retain it where it fell, and 

 the jheel would not be extended over the surrounding low- 

 lying land in the rains. The deep cultivation, moreover, is a 

 protection against loss of water by evaporation. When soil 

 is deeply cultivated, rain falling on the surface passes through 

 the loosened soil by gravitation, almost as soon as it falls 

 on the surface ; it gets under cover, and little is lost by 

 evaporation. 



It is universally admitted by agriculturists in all countries 

 where farming has been studied as a science, and is not 

 despised and left in the hands of the most ignorant of the 

 population, as in India, that deep cultivation and pulveriza- 



