fertility. In the latter are grown wheat and other spring crops, while
the lighter kinds of rice and the hill millets are all that the poorer
land can bear. To the south of the Satpuras and extending along its
base from west to east lie successively the Berar, Nagpur and
Chhattisgarh plains. The surface soil of Berar is to a great extent a
rich black vegetable mould; and where this surface soil does not
exist, there are muram and trap with a shallow upper crust of inferior
light soil. The Nagpur country, drained by the Wardha and Wainganga
rivers, contains towards the west the shallow black soil in which
autumn crops like cotton and the large millet, _juar_, which do not
require excessive moisture, can be successfully cultivated. The
eastern part of the Nagpur country and the Chhattisgarh plain,
comprising the Mahanadi basin, form the great rice tract of the
province, its heavy rainfall and hard yellowish soil rendering it
excellently adapted for the growth of this crop.

_Climate_.---As regards climate the districts of the Central Provinces
are generally divided into hot and cool ones. In the latter division
are comprised the two Vindhyan districts of Saugor and Damoh,
Jubbulpore at the head of the Nerbudda valley, and the four Satpura
districts of Mandla, Seoni, Betul and Chhindwara, which enjoy, owing
to their greater elevation, a distinctly lower average temperature
than the rest of the province. The ordinary variation is from 3 to 4
degrees, the mean maximum reading in the shade in a cooler district
being about 105 Deg. as against 108 Deg. in the hotter ones for the
month of May, and 79 Deg. as against 83 Deg. for the month of
December. In the cold weather the temperature in Nagpur and the other
hot districts is about the same as in Calcutta and substantially
higher than that of northern India. The climate of Berar differs very
little from that of the Deccan generally, except that in the Payanghat
valley the hot weather may be exceptionally severe. The rainfall of
the province is considerably heavier than in northern India, and the
result of this is a cooler and more pleasant atmosphere during the
monsoon season. The average rainfall, before it was affected by the
abnormal seasons which followed 1892, was 51 in., varying from 33 in.
in Nimar to 65 in Balaghat. In the autumn months malarial fever is
prevalent in all thickly forested tracts and