l'ilota is a poor, friable, yellow or cleric-red. coloured soil, which does not retain moisture.
Podu, TEL., land cleared recently from thicket and prepared for cultivation.
Punchanilam, TAIL, also Punclippattani, MALE.kL, wct land, or land capable of iitigntion and of bear ing rice crops.
Punja, properly l'unshey, Tax., land not admittlag of complete irrigation, and anfit for rice crop', bet beanng dry crops. It is the converse of .nanjoi.
Pur, of Outlh, Ft large leather bucket for dniwing water from wells, by bullocka or by hand.
Pairua, of Bombay, a spud.
Purvabhodia, in blyaore, a rain commencing between the 2t1 and 14th March. Purvashadha, a rain be twecn 26th December and 7th January. Cumin, coriander, tobacco, and other seeds aro then sown. Pushia, a rain between 17th and 30th July, when grain is eown.
Purwa is a reddish soil in Bunnelkliand, a mixture of sand and clay, yielding 191 lbs. of cotton per acre, two-sevenths being the proportion of cleaned cotton. Mar or Mauro, black marl of Bundelkhand, of the first quality, is the moat productive soil in the country for cotton, and yields on an average 286 lbs. of cotton per acre, one-third being the produce of clean cotton to the raw produce. See Mar.
Rabi. See Kharif.
Rakar is the poorest of all tho soils, and is only pro ductive when tbo rains are abundant. It has a large mixture of kankar in it.
Rakh or Rakhai, URDU, a grazing and timber preserve. Ramp or Rampadi, of Bombay, a weeding plough or hoe. The Rarnph or Kalpi, Hathia, Rampdi, and Donna are of different sizes.
Itanwa, waste or woody ground in the vicinity of a town or vintage.
Rad, MaLear., is a mixed soil, consisting of sand and clay. Rasi kur, poor light soil. Rasi pasama kur, middling sort soil.
Ilausli is a, light loam, producing all crops except rice. It is soft and easily worked, consisting of clay and sand ; it is mostly like, though superior to, tho doshahi in the Paniab series.
Reg, PERS., also Ret, HIND., sand.
Regur, also Kali bhuini, Regati, CAN. anal Regan°, Regstti, TEL., the, cotton soil and 'black cotton soil of Europeans, is a black sod, the wonder of all who have seen it. David Boswell Reid soya (Edin. Phil. Journ., 182,9) it consists of silica in a minnte state of division, with portions of lime, alumina, and oxide of iron. The proportion of vegetable and animal debris appears to be very small ; minute portions of the rooto of vegetables are scen with the naked eye. It fuses readily before the blow-pipe into a dry, black slag. Dr. Voysey fused it into a thick glass. In composition it nearly resembles that of basalt. It is spread over the great volcanic outburst of the Dekhan, varying in depth from 2 to 30 feet. It is the larger part of the soil of Western Cujerat, occurs largely in Molwa, through Berar, over all the Western Delchan, in the valleys of the Hyderabad territories. It is observed in the Southern Ma hratta country, anti in large tracts of the Ceded Districts. It is less common in Mysore, but farther south is again seen in continuous sheets from 6 to 20 feet thick below the Salem break, cowling the lower plain of Coimbatore, Madura, Salem, Trichinopoly, Tanjore, Rearmed, and Tinnevelly, to the vicinity of Cape Comorin. The purest re,,•ur is of a deep bluish black colour, or greenish or dark-greyish black, shining ; when placed in water, it crumbles slowly, with emission of air bubbles, and ft rms a tenacious paste. When moistened, it gives out an s rgillaceous
odour. Before the blow-pipe it melts into a greenish glass or dark slag. Mr. Reid fused seine of it in a largo covered crucible placed in a furnace into solid masa, on the surface of which a crust of oxide of iron formed. Dr. 31`1,cod found it composed of Silex, 4,11. Oxisle of iron, . . . 1-0 Alumina 20'3 Waterand extractive, 4'3 Carbonate of lime, 16'0 Ca rbonate of ma gnesia,10-2 10011 The muriste and carbonate of soda are frequently accidental ingredients in the composition of the regur. They render it sterile when in lar-ge quantities. Captain Allardyco informed Captain Newbold that the regur of Triehinopoly does not _ _ fuse, and contains imbedded crystals Of pure mineral carbon, which are converted before the blow-pipe into a white ash. The best kinds of this soil are rarely suffered to lie fallow, except by accident, and never receive manure, which is even supposed to lessen its fertility. It has yielded annually, crop after crop, for upwards of 2000 years (usually in triennial rotation), of cotton, sorghum, and wheat, or bajri (Penicillaria), without receiving any aid from the hand of man, except an annual scratching with a small plough, and a decennial, or still more seldom, clearing of nuth grass by means of the large plough. It is irrigated solely by the dews and rains of heaven. It is re markably retentive of moisture. Dr. Turnbull Christie thoroughly dried a portion of it by a heat nearly sufficient to char paper. He then exposed to the atmosphere of a moderately damp apartment 2315-6 grains of it, and found after a few days it had gained 147-1 grains. He now exposed it to an atmosphere saturated with moisture, and found that the weight increased daily till the end of a few weeks, when it was found to weigh 2828'4 grains. The soil had therefore gained 212'8 grains, ur about 8 per cent. In wet weather the surface is converted into a deep tenacious clay. Darin.. the dry season, when the crops are off the ground', the surface of regur exhibits a black, drear aspect. Contmcting under the powerful heat of the sun, it is divided, like the surface of (hied starch, by countless and deep fissures, into figures usually affecting the pentagon, hexagon, and rhomboid. While the upper part for a fevv inches in depth is dried to an impalpable powder, raised in clouds by the wind and darkening the air the under portions, at the depth of 8 or 10 feet, retain their character of a hard black clay, approaching a rock, usually moist and cold, when the surface dust has a tem ' perature of 130°. The purest beds of regur contain few rolled pebbles of any kind. Professor Orlebar informed Captain Newbold that in Gujerat it is distinctly stratified, and in the Beder district it is distinctly in layers, sometimes separated by thin layers of sand or gravel. Regur is undoubtedly the best soil of the Peninsula, and its absorbent quality bears out the result of Sir Humphrey Davy's experiments, which showed that the absorb ent power of soils with respect to atmospheric moisture, is greatest in the most fertile soils. He dried 1000 parts of a celebrated soil from Ormiston in East Lothian by a heat amounting to 212° Fahr., and found that by one hour's exposure to air saturated with moisture at a temperature of 62°, it gained 18 grains.