1 REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
2 e t
3 -REVIRW BY SECTIONS. mark, as really. very little reliable information is at hand on
4 PACHBADRBA.
5 which an estimate could be based: any estimate must be
6 guess work. Of the 20 lakhs maunds salt I estimated to be
7 contained in-the pits, half has been extracted. The Kharwals
8 think that there is from 25 to 30 lakhs maunds still in the pits;
9 but as they systematically overstate the contents of their pits,
10 their estimate must be diminished by half, which reduces the
11 estimated amount of marketable salt in the pits to 11 or 12
12 lakhs of maunds. I am not prepared to place it higher.”
13 “ As to the quality of the salt in the pits, so far as I know
14 of their contents, and judging by what I have seen extracted
15 during the past 14 months, I am of opinion that there is not
16 much first-class salt left for the present in the pits. The salt
17 extracted during the past 14 months ranged in quality chiefly
18 from fine to coarse. Some of the pits produced a small propor-
19 tion of large crystals; but the bulk of the salt was below this
20 quality. As the best pits in the tract have been emptied, and
21 as not one contained any large crystalled salt, it may safely be
22 concluded that the remaining pits contain, if anything, rather
23 finer salt than what has been extracted and issued. But so
24 long as we can supply clean white and mature salt, though fine
25 in grain, it will be taken willingly by traders ; in fact, an appli-
26 cation was received from Radha Kishen Mungat Rae, the large
27 salt dealers of Cawnpore, to supply small white salt on their
28 indents, which have been numerous.”
29 “The heavy rain which fell during the past two years has
30 benefited the tract by augmenting the sub-soil springs of brine
31 and covering the tract with grass and bushes. The heavy
32 rain has undoubtedly increased the volume of the springs, but
33 has at the same time weakened them in strength. When Mr.
34 ,Adam, Deputy Commissioner, visited and reported on the tract
35 in 1875 as stated in his report, the density of the springs
36 ranged from 14° to 20° Beaume. Having repeatedly during
37 the year tested the percolation brine in the pits, I find that the
38 springs in no section of the tract are above 10° Beaume, and in
39 many places only 5° Beaume. This, of course, is due to satu- -
40 ration of the soil by the heavy rain of last year which flooded
41 it for nearly a month. It is difficult to foreteld what a series
42 of years of good rain would do towards restoring the brine
43 springs; but, judging by what I have observed, it seems Clear
44 that the Bara Sambra section is no longer the area rich in
45 saline matter it once undoubtedly was. There is brine in Bara
46 Sambra, but it is weaker in quantity and quality than the
47 brine in the Hiragarh and Posali sections, and to these sec-
48 tions must we look for our future supplies of salt. The pits
49 in Hiragarh and Posali are enormously more productive than
50 the pits in the clay or “ moorund” best known as Sambra, and
51 they produce salt which is readily taken by the trade.”
52 “ Excluding the two experimental pits which will be noticed
53 further on, there are 413 pits registered as working, half of
54 which are in disrepair, and would cost from one to three hundred
55 rupees each to put right. I anticipate that by the setting
56 in of the rains 120 pits will have been emptied. Everything
57 that is possible is being done to put these pits into good order,
58 but not much can be effected. Most of the 120 pits need to be
59 thoroughly cleaned out. Nothing can be done in this respect as
60 labour cannot be obtained; in fact, suthicient labour to extract
61 salt cannot be got. As steps have been taken to ensure proper
62 ( 52 )