( 42A )' 



land the upland which succeeds the ravines is poor in quality . . . 

 It has a light-coloured hard soil, the most valuable properties 

 of which are washed away by the downward flow of the rain water. 

 Except in the north the gradual fall in the surface to the level 

 plain of the centre can be clearly traced by the deepening in the 

 colour of the soil." Similar remarks, which are reiterated with 

 emphatic frequency in settlement reports and gazetteers, might 

 be applied with equal force to Banda, Etawah and other districts 

 of the province. 



2. The deleterious effects of continuous erosion have long 

 been recognized and from time to time schemes have been put 

 forward and measures have been taken for their palliation or 

 prevention. The earliest and so far the most effective form of 

 action is that taken by the cultivators themselves in making small 

 embankments across their fields at the heads of the ravines. Mr. 

 Alan Cadell, writing of the district of Bauda, said: "To the 

 south of the old pargana of Sihonda and throughout the uneven 

 portions of Badausa, embankments have been constructed with a 

 persistent industry which was in the highest degree creditable to 

 the inhabitants. Until one sees the never-ending succession of 

 embankments which have created fairly fertile fields in the midst 

 of broken ravine country it is difficult to realize that such barren 

 looking tracts are capable of improvement which has been effected. 

 What a few years ago were sandy ravines or stony watercourses 

 became after a time fairly fertile fields." Similar action has been 

 carried out by the cultivators of other Bundelkhand districts, but 

 unfortunately through apathy or want of capital much work of a 

 remunerative nature remains to be done, and there are also many 

 areas which would be too expensive to reclaim. The remarks 

 made in this connection by Dr. Voelcker in his book TJie Improve- 

 ment of Indian Agriculture are so apposite as to bear quotation in 

 full : 



" ^Reclamation of ravine land may take place in two different 

 ways either by covering it with trees, shrubs and grass or by 

 making the land itself fit to bear crops . . . It is not often 

 that land cut up by ravines can be levelled and the whole area be 

 thus turned into a culturable space, but much can be done to 

 localize the effects of the floods that wash down and sweep before 

 them the fine subsoil. In many cases these floods can be prevented 

 from spreading their destructive influence further and from 

 impairing the lands that lie beyond them. The work of actually 

 levelling ravines is too great and too expensive a one to contem- 

 plate, save in exceptional circumstances. Here and there an 

 individual proprietor, having a large holding and also capital, may 



