Indian Agnculture in its Pkxjsicat Aspects. 63 
of river and flood, and often much land is cut up with ravines 
and rendered iinculturable. Lastly, there is the singular 
appearance of a saline efflorescence known as reh, a mixture of 
various soda-salts, principally the carbonate and sulphate. In 
the North- West Provinces alone, between four and five thousand 
square miles are thus affected and rendered unproductive. Such 
land is termed usar. The singular point is that, amid these areas 
there are patches not only culturable, but on which some of the 
richest crops are gi-own. The problem of overcoming mar has 
long engaged the attention of Agricultural Departments. Canals 
are charged with bringing it, but it is clear that it is a saline 
deposit existing below the surface, which, under the combined 
influence of water and a strong evaporating force like the sun, 
is first dissolved and then brought to the surface, where the salts 
crystallise out and remain as a white incrustation. 
A most interesting question, but one to which, at this stage, 
no definite reply can be given, arises, as to whether the soil of 
India is, under the system of agriculture pursued, undergoing 
exhaustion or not. The average yield of wheat, for example, 
may be set at about 1 2 bushels per acre over the whole country, 
as against the 30 bushels of England. A large proportion ^ 
this goes for export, and the increasing area under wheat shown 
in the agricultural returns denotes that this export is one that 
is likely to continue. The possibility of soil-exhaustion going 
on can only be determined by a careful study of what is removed 
from the land, and how far this is replaced either by the forces 
of nature or by the artificial replenishment of manuring. I 
have mentioned the deficiency of nitrogen which I observed in 
the case of several Indian soils, but it is worthy of note, too, 
how very large a proportion of the crops annually grown, also 
of the trees and shrubs, and even of the weeds, are leguminous 
in character, and may thus, if recent investigations be con-ect, 
possibly derive their nitrogen direct from the atmosphere. 
Water, in its general bearing on the agriculture, has been 
referred to, but many pages might easily be occupied in de- 
scribing the systems of canal irrigation, and the many ingenious 
devices which th© native employs for lifting water on to his land, 
whether it be from canal, or reservoir, or from wells. All alike 
give rise to one marked distinction in the appearance of irri- 
gated as compared with unirrigated, or, as it is termed, "dry" 
land. This consists in the dividing up of the irrigated patch or 
field into numerous little compartments by means of small 
mounds or embankments of earth some 5 or 6 inches high. 
This gives to the plot a honeycombed appearance, and the 
compartments are made to communicate with each other by 
