Some Preliminary Notes on the Physical Properties of the Soils of the Ganges Valley, more especially in their relation to Soil Moisture

Extract

In a stretch of arable lands like those of the Ganges Valley, although damage may be caused by occasional floods, which are sudden and of short duration, the more general, and by far the most serious loss is due to deficiency of moisture of the soil: thus the relation of the soil to soil moisture becomes of more than ordinary importance. Dr Voelcker, in his Report on Indian Agriculture, remarks: “In India the relation of soils to moisture acquires a greater significance than almost anywhere else.......” This relation is fundamental, for on it depends the methods for the conservation of soil moisture, for the economical application of irrigation water, and for the treatment of barren and salt lands—all problems of direct interest to agriculturists in the plains of Northern India. The methods for dealing with these problems must be largely—if not entirely—empirical until such time as the behaviour of the soil in its relation to moisture is investigated. The problem in all its various branches is enormous, and in a country in which the seasons follow each other with such rapidity, and vary the one from the other in so marked a manner, it frequently happens that a particular point, if not determined within a period of a few days, must await solution until the following year.