226 COTTON IN THE MADEAS PRESIDENCY. [CHAP. TI 



which Cotton is grown in this district are as follows. 

 1. Black Cotton soil (also called Regur),a formation 

 said to be peculiar to India. Its component parts seem 

 as yet doubtful. 2. Red soil, formed from disintegrated 

 granite, with a large admixture of sand. 3. Alluvium 

 of sand and loam, very light and mixed with much 

 kunkur limestone. The stiffer clayey soils do not 

 answer well, being liable to bake and become very hard 

 in dry weather. These two latter are not very deep, 

 averaging about fourteen inches. The Black soil is 

 the deepest, averaging three or four feet, not unfre- 

 quently reaching six feet in depth ; it is also the dry- 

 est, and though very absorbent after rain at first, it 

 does not keep the moisture long, and the rain does not 

 penetrate it beyond a few inches. In some of the 

 more sandy Black soils it is said however to penetrate 

 three feet. The Red soils, on the other hand, retain 

 the moisture longer, and it penetrates them deeper. 

 Nearly every crop grown in India is raised on these 

 soils, the various kinds of millets,* the castor oil plant, 

 etc. On the Black soil, coriander and Bengal-gram 

 (Cicer Arietinum, Lin.) are also largely sown ; but it 

 is chiefly devoted to the Oopum or Native Cotton ; the 

 New Orleans and other exotic species not having been 

 found so suitable for it. The soils are all fertile, but a 

 field's producing good grain crops is not a criterion it 

 will yield a good Cotton crop, which is also regarded 

 as very exhausting to the soil. The Red and Alluvial 

 seem to produce no weeds, but are covered with the j 

 general vegetation of the country. The Black soil is j 

 singularly destitute of weeds ; thistles and the daturata . 

 (Stramonium) seem to attach themselves most to it, 

 and it nourishes only thorny trees of the acacia tribe. 

 356 Geology and topography. — " The district is entirely ^ 

 primitive granite rock, over which the soil is in general ' 



* E. g. Cholum ^Holchus Saccharatus. _ Lin.) J 



Cumboo (Holchus Spicatus. Lin.) » 



Raggy (Cynosurus Coracanus. Lin.) f 



Samy (Panicum Miliaceum. Lin.) » 

 Tenay (Panicnm Italicum. Lin.) 

 Gram (Glycine Tomentosa. Lin.) 



