( 5A ) 



and terracing, rendered fertile considerable tracts in the southern 

 part of Baduusa and other tahsils. This system of improvement 

 needs a considerable amount of labour and capital, and the only 

 castes that are ready to expend both are Kurmis and Lodhis, 

 though occasionally Thakurs have shown some energy in this 

 respect. The lack of population is a serious and standing barrier 

 to the rapid extension of improvements, and almost the whole 

 burden falls on the back of petty proprietors. If the experiments 

 in afforestation now being conducted on similar land near, Kalpi in 

 Jalaun are successful, and any species of tree is found to grow on 

 it, the afforestation of the ravine tracts may be of incalculable 

 value to the district in preventing further erosion, increasing the 

 supply of fuel, and improving the grazing grounds^for cattle. 



Extract from the Agra District Gazetteer of the United Provinces 

 by H. B. NEVILL, ESQ., c.s. (page 13). 



The area returned as barren waste in 1904 was 215,796 acres, 

 or 18'27 per cent, of the whole district. This, however, included 

 the area under water, amounting to 28,879 acres and also the 

 land occupied by sites, roads, and the like. The remainder consists 

 either of us ir plains, in which the soil is rendered sterile by the 

 saline efflorescences known as reh, or else of ravines and rocky 

 hills. The former cover 22,561 acres, nearly half of this being 

 in the Firozabad tahsil and the greater portion of the remainder in 

 Itimadpur, especially in the north-east ; while a small proportion 

 is to be found in each of the three western tahsils. The ravine 

 tract is naturally largest in Bah, which has a greater extent of 

 waste than any other tahsil, no less than 35'9 per cent, of its whole 

 area, and next come Fatehabad, Firozabad, and Itimadpur. Khair- 

 agarh has a great deal of barren land owing to the presence of the 

 rocky rangers to the south of the Utangan. The bulk of the land 

 thus classified as barren is undoubtedly unculturable and correctly 

 so termed. At the last settlement the amount was somewhat 

 larger, but the subsequent reduction is necessarily confined to the 

 area classed as usar, which apparently comprised some land that 

 was then classified as unfit for cultivation, but which has subse- 

 quently been brought under the plough. The difference is really 

 immaterial, for, as will be shown hereafter, there has been con- 

 comitantly with an extension of cultivation an increase in the old 

 fallow, a fact which bears testimony to the 1 accuracy of the former 

 demarcation. 



