440 



SOILS. 



Usar Lands of India. These lands have been investigated 

 first by the " Reh Commission " appointed to investigate the 

 causes of the deterioration of lands in the Aligarh district 

 (south of Delhi, between the Ganges and Jumna rivers), in 

 1876. The occasion of this appointment was the appearance 

 of " reh " (alkali salts) in a region which had previously been 

 free from them. 1 Subsequently, a more elaborate investigation 

 of the subject \vas made by Dr. J. W. Leather, Agricultural 

 Chemist to the Government of India. 2 From these documents 

 it appears that " usar lands " exist largely not only in the 

 Northwestern Provinces and Oudh, but also in the Panjab, 

 especially on the lands bordering the Chenab river ; likewise to 

 a slight extent in the Bombay presidency. Leather's investi- 

 gation shows that not all the lands designated by the natives as 

 usar contain soluble salts in injurious amounts, some being 

 simply lands having very hard, clayey soils difficult to till with 

 the imperfect methods employed. Yet the general phenomena 

 of the true " reh " lands are practically identical with those of 

 the American alkali lands, including also the calcareous hard- 

 pan, there called kankar. Owing probably to the long culti- 

 vation of the Indian lands (mostly under irrigation), the salts 

 are there at their maximum in the first foot, decreasing as 

 depth increases. It is noteworthy also that in the majority of 

 cases the predominant salt is carbonate of soda or black alkali, 

 which there as in California renders the lands impervious to 

 water until treated with gypsum. This fact accounts for the 

 popular use of the same name for non-saline impervious clay 

 soils, and the alkali or reh lands proper. 



We have an entirely analogous case in the " Szek " lands of 

 the Hungarian plain, some of which are simply poor refractory 

 soils containing a trace of soluble salts; while lower down in 

 the valley of the Theiss we find genuine alkali lands, both 

 black and white, which have long furnished carbonate of soda 

 for local use and commerce. In this case, however, the alkali 

 salts seen to come largely, in some cases wholly, from under- 

 lying saline clays whose salts in coming to the surface suffer 



1 An abstract of the report of this commission is given in the Report of the 

 California Experiment Station for 1890. 

 3 See Agricultural Ledger, 1897, No. 13; ibid. 1901, No. 13. 



