1841.] Report on the Island of Chedooba. 353 



Division III. 

 Soil and Productions, cultivated and natural \ — Waste Lands. 



Soil and Produce of Cultivated Lands. — The general character of the 

 soil of Cheedooba, is that of a light greyish coloured clay, mixed more 

 or less with vegetable mould and on the low eastern parts of the Island, 

 this admixture again modified with a large proportion of fine sand. 



The cultivated lands do not generally extend quite to the present beach 

 of the Island ; between them and it there exists, throughout its circum- 

 ference a slip of land varying from 3 or 4 miles on the eastern parts of the 

 Island, to sometimes less than a furlong on the western, which about 

 90 years since was upraised from the sea during our earthquakes. 



This new land is not yet in general cultivation. On the east-north, 

 and north-west it is so in part ; on the west it is so thickly strewn over 

 with stones as to make it probable it never will be. Throughout the cir- 

 cumference of the Island, the old beach line which is distinctly trace, 

 able, forms the interior limits of the upraised lands. On the eastern 

 parts of the Island, where the soil is sandy, a difference between the older 

 and newer is scarce traceable. But on the western and northern, the purer 

 quality of the clay in the new lands distinctly marks off their soil from 

 that of the older. 



Throughout the soils of Chedooba is a large admixture of stones, with 

 exception of those of the sandy plains eastward. They are generally 

 small angular fragments of a soft greenish sand stone, and present no 

 obstacle to cultivation, (except where large and numerous, as noticed 

 above) the effects of exposure to climate evidently breaking them down 

 into rapid composition with the soil 



Large quantities of Coral and Juadreepore are distributed over all the 

 upraised lands. The clayey nature of the soils makes them very- 

 tenacious of the rains, for which reason they are well adapted for the 

 construction of tanks, either for irrigation or for the supply of the 

 inhabitants. No water for the former purpose is at present required, 

 for the latter, sufficient is found during the dry season, in the holes 

 of the aullahs, and other natural reservoirs, and in the few springs 

 which exist on the Island. The clay base of the Chedooba soils 

 contributes much to endue them with a great permanence of productions. 



They are not manured for cultivation though under yearly tillage, no r 

 is a change of produce, as a relief to the soil, any part of the system of agn_ 

 culture pursued, nor is the plan of exhausting the soil, and then allowing 



I 



