1836.] 



of the Southern Mahratta Country. 



471 



eastward, the climate becomes gradually drier, the forest diminishes, 

 and the dry crops become more abundant. Lastly, towards the eastern 

 parts of the district, we meet with nothing but dry crops, except in a 

 few spots, where rice is cultivated by means of artificial irrigation. 

 These circumstances give rise to a very natural division of the soils of 

 the district into two distinct kinds, as has long been adopted by the 

 natives, viz. those on which rice can be cultivated without irrigation 

 from tanks, and those suited only for dry crops. The former are called 

 Mulnad, the latter Belwul lands. The former are confined to the west- 

 ern parts of the district, it being there only that there is a sufficient 

 supply of rain for the cultivation of rice, without artificial irrigation. 

 The latter occupy all Ihe middle, the eastern, and south-eastern parts. 

 At the same time, it necessarily happens, that the mulnad and belwul 

 lands are in many places intermixed, especially towards the eastern 

 border of the hilly tract, where the valleys have still a sufficient natu- 

 ral supply of water for rice cultivation, and the adjoining high lands 

 can be only cultivated with dry crops. 



The belwul lands are further subdivided into several different kinds, 

 two of which only require particular notice, namely the regur or yerree, 

 and mussub or mussaree. The former is the black cotton ground 

 already described ; the latter includes all those soils which have origi- 

 nated from the disintegration of the neighbouring hills. It therefore 

 differs most materially in different situations, and is sometimes called 

 red ground from its prevalent colour. 



The cotton ground, or regur soil, forms one of the most curious fea- 

 tures in the physical geography of this part of India. It has been 

 already described in the geological part of this paper, where it was 

 shewn that, in all probability, it has originated from the disintegration 

 of trap-rocks.* It varies in depth from two or three to twenty or thirty- 

 feet, and even more, and is of prodigious extent, covering all the great 

 plains in the Deccan and Kandeish, some of those in Hyderabad, and 

 perhaps also in other parts of India. It is as remarkable for its ferti- 

 lity as for its very great extent ; and a very curious circumstance is, 

 that it is never allowed to lie fallow, and never receives the slightest 

 manure. Even the stems of the cotton plant are not allowed to remain 

 on it, being employed for making baskets, or used as fire-wood ; and 

 farther, in all those parts of the country where the cotton-ground is met 

 with, there is so little wood, that the cow-dung is carefully collected 

 (as already mentioned) and dried for fuel. Cotton, jooaree, wheat and 

 other grains, are raised from it in succession ; and it has continued to 

 afford most abundant crops, without receiving any return for centuries, 



* I am indebted for the following report on the chemical nature of the cotton ground, 

 to Mr. Reid, Lecturer on Chemistry, who was so kind as to examine a portion of it ; — 

 v Fuses readily before the blowpipe into a dark black slag. 



