42 On the Oonditions of WJieat-Gro^ving in India. 
8 maunds, or 635 lbs. = 79| lbs. per maund.* The smallest 
recorded out-turn from unimgated land was 500 lbs. 
The price of wheat fluctuates so rapidly that it would be 
unsafe to represent the profits of the producer ; but the above 
figures will afford the means of an approximate opinion being 
formed. 
6. Central PROvrycES. 
We have irdicated that the great alluvial basin of the 
Ganges sweeps round the foot of the Himalayas, and isolates 
the tableland of Central and South India. Space will not 
admit of our dealing with the minor subdivisions of this table- 
land separately. We must be content with conveying a general 
impression of the features of the Central Provinces as repre- 
senting Berar and Hyderabad, especially when taken in the 
light of what has been said regarding the more southern section 
of Bombay. 
There are in these provinces 7,705,263 acres available for cul- 
tivation. In perhaps no other province can the literal meaning 
of this be more clearly demonstrated. The provinces are poorly 
inhabited, and within periods recorded in our Settlement re- 
ports large tracts of land have been taken up and brought into 
cultivation. The returns first obtained are well-known, and 
important records have been kept of the deterioration of produc- 
tiveness. The results have been identical with those obtained 
in America. The newly reclaimed land gave twenty and thirty- 
fold for a few years, but rapidly deteriorated until it reached a 
fixed, or relatively fixed, position. The district officers repeat 
in their annual reports that there are still vast tracts of land on 
which this process might be repeated. In perhaps no other 
part of India is the principle of paucity of population, large 
holdings, and correspondingly low systems of agriculture more 
forcibly demonstrated. In the North-West Pro\T.nces small 
holdings and careful cultivation have produced results that, 
even with the present agricultural appliances, compare favour- 
ably with Europe. In the Central Provinces, on the other hand, 
the proprietor of a large estate is satisfied with the compara- 
tively small results obtained by cheap and primitive means. 
Soil. — To understand the Central Provinces it is necessary 
to recall their geological peculiarities. The great basaltic for- 
mation, known as the Deccan trap, occupies nearly a third of 
the peninsula. This extends south-west from Rajputana to the 
sea-coast, considerably to the south of Poona. It thus crosses 
' There are different local maumls ; but a commercial maund of wheat is 
82 lbs. (exactly 82^ lbs.) 
