SOIL. The gross revenue of British India in 1881 was £72,559,978, and the land revenue in that year was 121,112,905; so that alike for the agricultural reut-payers and for the Government receivers it is important to have the fullest acquaintance with the soils, seeino. that, since 1872, the land revenue, being then°120,520,377, has but little risen, though agricultural farms and new products had been introduced, and more land brought under cultivation. The soils of British India are not multitudinous, though from the variety of languages the names are manifold.
Peninsula.—Throughout its entire extent, there are four markedly distinct kinds of soil in which cultivation is conducted. These may be briefly named as the red soil over the granitic, gneissic, and syenite tracts; the black soil or regur, also called cotton soil, over the rocks of volcanic origin ; the alluvial soil ; and the sandy soils along the coasts and in beds of rivers. There are, patches of regur or bla.ck soil in various parts of the Ceded Dis tricts and in Tinnevelly, and it is to be seen over all the great volcanic outburst in the Dekhan. The red soil tract lies over the granitic regions in eastern and southern parts of the Peninsula. The regur or black soil is very retentive of moisture, and very fertile, and all the country where it is found is well under cultivation. The field crops grown on it are cereals, pulses, and cottons. Dr. Ileyne remarked (Tracts, p. 349) that red soil prevails where syenite forms the apparent ground rocks ; and Mr. H. F. Blanford says the colour and appearance of the soil is an excellent indica tion of the presence of certain rocks throughout the districts.
The plateau of the Peninsula, from Central India southwards to the Godavery and Kistna rivers, is a great outburst of volcanic rocks, and the soil which is forrned from their detritus is exceedingly fertile, when well combined, as it commonly is, Ilith the salts and double salts formed by the union of the organic acids with the inorganic bases of alkalis, earths, and oxides, which have become soluble, and been brought to the surface from below by capillary attraction. And the
basaltic plateaux are often surmounted with a deposit of laterite, the detritus of which tends to promote fertility in the soil. There never is any other deposit than this iron clay or laterite above ' the basaltic plateaux. The centre of the great table-land of the Dekhan for about 80 miles around Beder is covered with great hills of laterite, which occurs also north of Amraoti, in Berar, also near Mad las, along the Malabar coast, and at Rangoon. Near Misery, on the banks of the Cauvery, black soil, with its accompanying calcareous strata of marl and tuff, rests in common on granite.
Ceylon.—The rocks of the interior of Ceylon aro granite, gneiss, and greenstone. These form the body of the island, and the soil consists of the disintegrated or decomposed materials, in which feLspar and quartz greatly preponderate, enriched in some parts by vegetable accretions.
Laterite, called Kabuk in Ceylon, occurs in several parts of the island, and the great quantity of felspar occurring in parts of the island gives to the soil of those tracts a hard clayey structure, with a smooth and firm surface.
Owittes, Dutch or Singhalese? are high Ian Is only cultivable every three to seven years.
Wattoerawes, low, muddy ground covered with reeds, only cultivated in dry seasons.
Moelaries? high, steep ground, only cultivable after rains.
Dedennies, sandy plains planted with fine orain.
111adras.—In the Tamil country, the wa.sqe or uncultivated lands ate classed 0.8 Sekal karambu, or capable of cultivation, and Anudi karambu, lying waste from time immemorial, and which cannot be profitably cultivated.
The greater part of the Madras districts is covered with soils formed by the decomposition of metamorphic rocks, gneiss, etc., and such are of inferior quality. Stretching across the 'country in a N.E. direction from Trichinopoly, there is a wide belt of rocks belonging to the greensand formation, over which a very productive soil rests.