Abstract

Black soil also known as regur or regada covers a total area of 200,000 square miles of the Indian soil and the great bulk of the cotton crop in India is grown on it. Of this area about three million acres are within the Presidency of Madras and belong to the districts of Bellary, Cuddapah, Kurnool and Anantapur forming the Ceded or Deccan districts and portions of Guntur, Salem, Trichinopoly, Ramnad and Tinnevelly districts. The cause of the black colour and the nature of the constituents, both physical and chemical, of this soil formed the subject of special investigation by Leather (1898), Annett (1910) and Harrison (1912) who have expressed divergent views on the matter.

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