May 1907.] 



301 



Miscellaneous, 



Kola. Kew Bull, 1906, p. 89. 



Les Kolatiers et les Kolas. Bull. Jard. Col. 1900, p. 129. 

 Le Kolatier au Dahomey. do. p. 208. 



Report on Cacao and Kola industries on the Gold Coast. " T.A.", Aug. 1906 

 p. 146. 



Lac. — The Lac industry of Assam, Ind. Agric, May 1900, p. 138. 



The Analysis of Shellac. Parry in Chemist & Dr. 20, 10, 1901, p. 089, and 

 31, 1, 1903, p. 175. 



L3S arbres a lac de l'Indo-chine. Bull. Ec. Iudo-chine, 8, p. 599, 



Ueber der Japanlack. Tropenpfl. 10, 19<K5, p. 48. 

 Lantana.— Lantana, Iud. Merc. 31, 10, 1905, p. 745. 



BLACK COTTON SOIL IRRIGATIONS 



Somewhere about a year or so ago the Madras Government decided that 

 it was desirable to carry out experiments in ' basin ' irrigation on the black cotton 

 soil of the Bellary district, because as they had been informed, it was under that 

 system of irrigation that the cotton crops of Egypt are grown. They also decided 

 that ofch 31* experiments in irrigating that sort of land should be made, and to that 

 end have established an experimental farm at Hagri. The idea dominating this 

 final resolve is no doubt most excellent, for with the experience of the Kuruool 

 Cuddapah canal before them and the warnings that one agricultural expert after 

 another has given on the subject of attempting to irrigate such soil, no other course 

 could be reasonably adopted. It is a matter for wonder that the idea has not been 

 earlier given effect to. Water is such au incalculable benefit in Indian agriculture 

 that too often the fact is lost sight of that it is not sufficient to bring the water to 

 the land, but that it is also necessary to drain it away agaiu ; and in the case of 

 black cotton soil this is one of the greatest difficulties. Besides this, such soil 

 possesses a very peculiar physical character of its own, termed colloid, which when 

 it is wetted brings it into a state that renders all tillage for a time impossible, and 

 the land is so retentive of moisture that it remains cold and unfavourable to the 

 growth of plants for a long time if it becomes wet. Thus its irrigation is fraught 

 with difficulty, whilst its capillarity is so great that in the evaporation of moisture 

 from its surface enormous amounts of soluble salts — alkalies — are brought to the 

 surface and the soil is rendered, if not sterile, at least comparatively unproductive 

 whilst the presence of these salts renders the cultivation of such land even more 

 difficult than it naturally is. The Madras Government hoped great things from 

 Egyptian experience, and even went so far as to propose that one of their new 

 European Superintendents of Farms should spend a month (a very short period) 

 in Egypt to make himself acquainted with irrigational practice in that country 

 whilst on his way to India. This proposal does not appear as yet to have been 

 given effect to — and perhaps it is as well. 



However, any information that bears on the irrigation practice of Egypt is 

 of interest, and in Mr. Sidney Peel's " Binding of the Nile" we find a fairly complete 

 account of Egyptian practice. The work is defective in that the information as to 

 the character of the soils met with is extremely limited ; and this could only be 

 supplied satisfactorily if the Indian Government were to undertake au investigation 

 on their own behalf and to entrust it to some one having a thorough knowledge of 

 Indian agricultural conditions and practice. Still, the information given is 

 sufficient to give the Government of Madras pause in their resolutions, for their 

 idea is that under the Tungabhadra Project large areas of cotton may be irrigated. 

 Now in Egypt the bulk of the cotton crop is grown in Lower Egypt, or the Delta, 



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