INTJNDATIONS OF THE HOOGLEY. 225 



variance with that opinion. It is well known, says Mr. 

 Piddington, that while the tracts within the reach of the 

 inundation preserve their original fertility, the higher soils 

 are gradually and rapidly becoming impoverished, and this 

 to a degree of which few who have not made the subject 

 one of* attention are aware; there are some crops which 

 cannot be repeated, unless at intervals of three or four 

 years ; while on the lowlands these crops have been con- 

 tinued for a period beyond the memory of man. Indigo is 

 a striking and the most familiar instance of what is here 

 advanced ; the following analyses were made with a view 

 to some miprovement in the cultivation of that plant. Por- 

 tions of the silt or mud deposited by inundations were pro- 

 cured from Bansbariahnear Sukhsagar, and from Mohatpur 

 near Kissinnuggur ; the analysis of each gave, in two hun- 

 dred parts, — 



Silt from S;it from 



BsnsbariaU. Mohatpur. 



Water 2 2 



Salinematter, principally muriate of potash Oi »k 



Vegetable matter destructible by heat 4i 44 



Carbonate of lime. , 12i 16^ 



Phosphate of lime 1 



Oxide ofiron 12 12 



Silica 156^ 139 



Aliunina ^2 1'** 



193i 190| 



Loss 6i 9| 



200 200 



The unlooked-for circumstance of only two and a half 

 per cent, of vegetable matter being found in these speci- 

 mens appeared almost to show that such matter was not 

 the fertilizing principle, or at least not exclusively. On the 

 other hand, from six to eight per cent, of calcareous matter 

 appearing in them, when, m an extensive series of analyses 

 of the higher soils, this was always found remarkably dif- 

 ferent (seldom more than 0.75 to 1 per cent.), it seemed 

 probable that the calcareous matter was the great agent ; 

 and in as far as regards indigo this was found by experi- 

 ment to be the fact, — for a minute portion of lime was found 

 to increase the produce upwards of 50 per cent. In con- 

 sidering this subject further, it occurred to Mr. Piddington 



