OCT.- — ma. it. 1859-60.] Parvatipore and Jeypore. 



291 



sembles laterite, except that it does not seem of so cellular a 

 structure. In the bottoms of the valleys the soil is, or is in a great 

 measure, black cotton, the most fertile and best suited for wet 

 cultivation. The red soil seems however to be more favourable to 

 the growth of trees, both fruit bearing and otherwise, of which the 

 most commonly met with, the mango and jack, grow most lux- 

 uriantly, and without any artificial irrigation. This red soil will 

 however, when irrigated produce abundant crops of almost every 

 description, and it is well suited to potatoes and European vegeta- 

 bles, which I feel convinced could be produced in any quantity. 

 There is throughout the year abundance of water, and tanks 

 of very large size, and great depth could be very easily made. 

 The soil of the plain country about Jeypore is to the South, 

 black, and this I believe to be more or less its nature as far as the 

 Godavery, but little of it is at present cultivated, although yield- 

 ing fine crops of paddy and native vegetables, the whole country 

 southwards, presenting to the eye a perfect sea of jungle. It is 

 scarcely possible to conceive a country more highly favored by na- 

 ture, and which presents greater facilities for cultivation and irri- 

 gation, and yet, thanks to the primitive habits, supineness and 

 ignorance of the inhabitants, and to their having come so little in 

 contact with Europeans, no more is cultivated than will suffice for 

 their own consumption, while, with the single exception of iron, 

 scarcely an attempt is made to develope the numerous resources 

 and natural riches of the country. The plain of Jeypore must re- 

 ceive the greater portion of the drainage of the pleateau, which is 

 30 to 40 miles in width, on which the rain fall must be at least 50 

 inches per annum, and this coupled with the natural facilities ex- 

 isting for storing large quantities of water, would render the irri- 

 gation of the whole plain easy, unexpensive, and most certain. It 

 would be most admirably suited to the cultivation of the sugar- 

 cane, which requires a rich moist soil, free from saline, and rich in 

 nitrogenous matter. The land might of course be had for a mere 

 song, and as fuel can be had to any amount for the mere cost of 

 cutting. I doubt not that a sugar factory would well succeed. 

 The hills in the neighbourhood of the Ghauts seem also to possess 

 all that is required for the successful growth of coffee, they have a 



Vol. xx. o. s. Vol. vti. n. s. 



