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Suggestions regarding the probable origin of some kinds of 

 KunTcur, and the influence of deliquescent Salts on Vegeta- 

 tion. By Captain J. Campbell, Assistant Surveyor Ge- 

 neral, Madras Establishment. 



The information which Mr. Liston has obligingly given us 

 at page 125 of this volume, refers to some remarks by me 

 published in the India Review, written in consequence of 

 reading the paper by that gentleman, page 236, vol. i. of this 

 work. 



In the soils of Mysore and of the Barramahal, I have found 

 that muriate of lime and of magnesia are very common ; 

 in some spots in such profusion, that I have obtained two or 

 three ounces of these salts by lixivating about a peck of the 

 earth. Both the above salts are very deliquescent, and there- 

 fore such spots are remarkable by being quite damp, while 

 all the surrounding soil was quite dry in the hot weather. 

 The surface of the red marie formation of Mysore is gener- 

 ally bare and arid, but at Burrah Ballapoor, 14 miles S. W. of 

 Nundidroog, the spot is particularly fertile, and the above 

 deliquescent salts are found on lixivating the soil of the 

 hollows. — Similar soils to those which yield the salts in the 

 greatest profusion are scraped up, and applied by the native 

 gardeners to the surface of the soils of brinjal gardens, by 

 which the fruit becomes of very large size, and at Bullapoor, 

 where the salts are common, the brinjals are commonly full 

 five inches in diameter. 



Lieutenant Newbold remarks (Madras Journal, vol. x. 

 page 117) : " It is a curious fact that many gardens, particu- 

 larly at Bellary, formerly extremely productive, now yield 

 comparatively speaking, little or nothing ; this I have found 

 to arise from the practice of irrigating them with water 

 drawn from brackish springs, the water evaporating leaves 

 its saline contents disseminated in the soil, which by con- 

 stant progressive accumulation, first diminishes, and after- 

 wards destroys the power of vegetation," As Lieutenant 



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