INTRODUCTION. 



since it would prevent any salt from being washed more than a few inches down into the subsoil, 

 when it had been once brought to the surface by capillary action. 



Kankar is the name given to a form of carbonate of lime, closely resembling stalagmite, which 

 occurs in beds a few feet below the surface, and is found here and there in most districts of the 

 Provinces. It is especially common in the districts where usar is prevalent, and has been often as- 

 cribed as one of the causes of saline efflorescence, which it would undoubtedly assist by stopping all 

 downward water percolation. It occurs in either irregularly-shaped nodules or in blocks ; in the 

 former shape it furnishes the material for the metalled roads over almost the whole of the Provinces, 

 and in the latter form it is an effective material for building purposes. 



A curious fact connected with it is that exhausted beds are known to form again in a few years, 

 if the holes from which they were dug are filled in and levelled. 



India has long been known as an exporter of saltpetre (potassic nitrate), its climate being pecu- 

 liarly favourable to the oxidization of ammonia and consequent production of nitric acid. Nitrates 

 occur largely in the soil and well water of numerous localities in every District of the Provinces. 

 The places where they are found may almost always be recognized as village sites of great antiquity, 

 and they are believed to be formed from the filtration of the sewage which saturates the ground of 

 every alley in a village, and gives a manurial value to the water of the village tank. The nitrate which 

 is found efflorescing on the surface of the ground, and which is particularly common on old walls, 

 built with mud from the village tank, is nitrate of potash (saltpetre), and under the name of nona 

 mitti is often used by cultivators as manure for tobacco. The nitrate found in brackish (or khdri) 

 well water is nitrate of soda (chili saltpetre), since nitrate of potash is held up by the soil and never 

 therefore reaches the subsoil water. Khdri water is of considerable manurial value to growing crops, 

 but checks the germination of seed if applied before sowing, and hence villages which are dependent 

 upon it are unable to supply by irrigation any deficiency of natural moisture at the time of sowing 

 the rabi crops. 



It is a striking illustration of the natural fertility of the soil that the Indian cultivator can make 

 shift with so little manure as he does, although the small size of the holdings allows the land but little 

 rest, and much of it has been under cultivation from remote antiquity. The exclusion of animal food 

 from the Hindu dietary, is an insuperable bar to the alternation of meat growing with corn growing, 

 which is held essential on most English farms ; and two-thirds of the dung of what cattle are kept 

 for draught and milch purposes is consumed as fuel, and only reaches the land as inorganic ash. The 

 whole of the dung which falls in the homestead, and much of that which falls in the roads and fields 

 during the dry months of the year, is collected by the women of the house, made into round flat fuel 

 cakes and dried in the sun, and it is only in the rainy months, when it would be impossible to do this, 

 that the dung finds its way on to the cultivator's muck heap. In an ordinary district there is one 

 head of horned cattle to every two cultivated acres, plough cattle constituting rather less than half 

 the total number, milch cattle (chiefly buffaloes) and calves forming the rest. The average weight of 

 the sundried dropping of a bullock per diem may be taken as 4 to 5 lbs., so that even if the whole of 

 the supply of cattle dung was carefully utilized and none burnt for fuel, the amount available per acre 

 per annum would be only a little over 10 maunds. The keeping of sheep and pigs and goats is con- 

 fined to the very lowest classes of the people, and is on so small a scale that it has little or no influ- 

 ence on agriculture. 



The consumption of cattle dung as fuel is, however, necessitated by the scarcity of wood and im- 

 possibility of obtaining either peat or coal to fill its place, and there can be no doubt that a large 

 proportion of cultivators make good use of the supply of manure which is available. The core and 

 most valuable portion of the muck heap is the cattle dung collected during the rains, on which are 



