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Agriculture Soils Of Nagpur
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Deep Black Soil
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The best deep black soil, known as kali, occurs only in small areas, covering altogether less than two per cent of the cultivated area. It is found round Kalmeshwar and Saoner, in the Wardha valley and in the Nagpur and Kamptee plain. The principal soil of the District is that knows as morand, under the two classes of which come two-thirds of the cultivated are. It is of comparatively slight depth, dark to light brown in colour, of light texture and easily culture able, and containing a greater or less quantity of limestone pebbles (kankar). This soil is eminently suited to cotton and juari and makes excellent rice land when embanked, requiring but little irrigation if the rainfall is normal, and producing a second crop. In the northern part of the Ramtek tahsil, and especially in the valley of the Sur river, the morand soil of very light colour. Khardi is the term used for shallow soil not more than a cubit deep, but various qualities of land were classified under this designation as being of equivalent value. It is applied to soil much mixed with sand and hence of a grayish colour, and also to the sandy soil fomed from crystalline rock , which constitutes the regular Riceland and is elsewhere known as siha and matasi. About 27 percent of the cultivated area was classes as khardi. The only remaining soil of any extent is the red gravel covered with boulders, found on the summits and slopes of the trap hills. This is known as bardi and covers 5 ½ percent of the cultivated area, occurring principally in the Katol tahsil. The land under crops thus contained at Mr. Cradock’s settlement a very small quantity of the really poor soil which requires resting fallows. Small stretches of retari or sandy solid overlying sandstone rock occur in the north of the Ramtek tahsil About 1200 acres were class as kachhar or alluvial land fertilized by the deposit of silt, the largest patch of which is in the bed of the Kanhan at Neri.
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