Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/447

 MAL 439 fall in. unless there are unusually long breaks in the rains irrigation is not wanted. The autumn crop is rarely good. Floods from the Ganges may be looked for every second year, and antil recently inundations were also to be feared from Gházi-ud-din Haidar's canal which runs along the whole western side of the pargana, just underneath the old bank of the Ganges. The spring crops are good if the autumn floods have drained off in time, but good agriculturists, such as the Kurmis, will not settle in these villages. The insecurity from floods deter them. Moreover, the cattle often die after grazing on poisonous grasses that spring up rank and noxious after a Ganges flood. Rats and field-mice make havoc in a dry season. In many places the soil is impregnated with saltpetre, and everywhere weeds spring up luxuriantly. Leaving the kachh' and crossing the canal you presently ascend the uneven sandy ridge that marks the farthest point eastwards up to which the Ganges has worn its way into the Bangar. The villages along thiş ridge are sandy uneven and bad. Wells are made with difficulty and soon The unevenness of the surface creates a constant scour' during the rains whereby the surface soil is washed away, and ravines eat deeply into the heart of the country. Beyond this line the land sinks gradu- ally into a rich flat loamy plateau, dotted with occasional jhíls which come more frequent as you cross it to the east. Here the water is fairly near the surface; the sub-soil is firm and mud wells are made easily and last well. Kurmis and Kachhis abound, a sure sign of the excellence of the soil; the cultivation is magnificent, and the rents high. Further to the east after the watershed has been crossed, and the ground begins to fall towards the basin of the Sai, the quality of the soil again falls off. Sand re-appears, the surface becomes uneven, and irrigation difficult. The villages along the Sai, suffer somewhat from floods, but the injury is partly made up for by irrigation from it, which however is difficult, and not largely availed of. The pargana is well furnished with roads. The new route from Sitapur to Miranghát below Kạnauj via Misrikh, Nímkhár, and Rodamau runs right through it from north-east to south-west, and it is traversed besides by unmetalled roads from Míranghát to Malláņwán and Sandíla, from Bilgrana to Mallánwán and Unao, and from Bilgram and Madhoganj to Balamau, and the nearest railway station of the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway at Kachhona. The other important villages are Bhagwantnagar, Bansa, Kursat, and Jalalpur. The main products are barley and bájra which at survey covered half the cultivated area; wheat which occupied a sixth, and juár and gram which cropped another sixth. Paddy, arhar, sugarcane, and cotton made up most of the remaining sixth. The acreage under cotton, cane, indigo, tobacco, and poppy, was estimated at respectively 1,370 1,231, 218, 42, and 7. The climate is considered pretty good, kankar is found in patches in most villages, but there are no extensive beds of it.