150 THE SOIL OF BEKKKIIOOM. 



From the Rev. MR. WILLIAMSON, Missionary, Beerbhoom. 



Replies to various queries proposed by the Agricultural and Horticultural 

 Society, chiefly communicated by native farmers. 



1st. The district of Beerbhoom is higher, and 

 less level, than the more southern plains of Bengal, 

 and that portion of the Zillah which extends to the 

 north-west, is mountainous and woody. As spon- 

 taneous vegetation in a great measure ceases from 

 the termination to the commencement of the rains, 

 the soil, and perhaps the atmosphere too, must I 

 conceive be more dry than in other places, where 

 this does not take place, at least to the same extent. 

 Hot winds also generally prevail more or less 

 during the months of April and May ; the 

 extremes of heat and cold seem to be greater here 

 than in Calcutta ; the usual range of temperature 

 during the cold and hot seasons, being from 

 about fifty to hundred degrees of Farenheit in 

 the shade. 



The natives inform me that there are six varieties 

 of soil in Beerbhoom First, what they call Bella, 

 or sandy soil. Second, that denominated Metial, or 



