133 
and iu consequence TM tracts have been thrown out of cultivation. 
irrigation, by ient eine om pure canal water, has been followed öy 
an increase of salts in the superficial soils. 
Efforts were mat about the year 1880 to introduce the * salt-bush ” 
plants of Australia for experimental cultivation on the wsar lands. 
e . he 
ending 31st March 1882, p. 9, Mr. J. F. Duthie, F.L.S., wrote * The 
Australian salt-bushes and their allies have been only very lately sown 
but the progress they have made is so far in their favour. There 
are several plants of A. halimoides, gerne. and of two other 
species thriving very well" In 1883 “the small —— of salt- 
bush plants continued to thrive. ‘The plants were four to six feet 
high." It was suggested that as the salt-bush is Pier e a desert 
plant it should not be permanently transplanted until after the rainy 
seasón is over; *this injunction applies more Lari oe to those 
parts of north-west India where the rains continue for any length 
of time. As soon as the be had e oa ani time to establish 
themselves no amount of rain is likely to re th 
xperiments with salt-bush were also euriéd on by the Director of 
the Departmen ent of Agriculture and Commerce of the North-western 
Provinces and Oudh. "The plants were put out on usar soils, and the 
reports upon the early experiments were encouraging. In App ndix 
II. to the Report of the Department for the year 1883, Mr. W. J. Wilson 
stated that plants of Atriplex nummularia and other species were 
de from the Sahurunpur Gardens in July 1882, and again in 
July 1883. *' Of these plants," he says, * A. nummularia promises to 
be i most valuable as it has an abundant leaf growth and should yield 
a large supply of fodder.” In 1 the prawa were thriving. In 1885 
Mr. Wilson repo: 
transferred to the usar land near Cawnpore and Aligarh. In Appendix 
C. to the Report of the Department for the year 1889, p. 9, the 
following note is made by the Director of the Botanical Depart- 
ment on the result of his inspection of the mgr apy — 
“The salt-bush (Atriplex nummularia) promises to be a success 
as far as the soil is concerned, the most healthy pi rE being 
those which were planted in soil strongly infected with veh salts; but 
being essentially a desert species the excessive damp to which ‘it is 
exposed in the Doab during the hot rainy months is prejudicial to its 
nature. At this season also it is liable to attacks of innumerable cater- 
pillars, which devour the leaves and weaken the plants.” This is the 
l rmation given by e Department of Agriculture of the 
North-western Provinces and 
iar brr carried on concurrently with the above at the 
Saharunpur Gardens are detailed below 
E Sait bos (Atriplex wipes er d —The plantation of this fodder 
plant continues to exist in a healthy state. ‘The seeds produced last 
these plants germinated very sparingly, but this season nearly every 
seed came up, with the result of a stock of 3,500 young plants. These 
