Department of Agriculture Madras. Report on the Work of the Hagari Agricultural Station for 1917-18

Briefly it is the object of the station to discover the most profitable method of applying water to black cotton soil subject to the limitation that the knowledge will be applicable to the treatment of the lands under the Tungabhadra project. [...] The determination for paddy of the best methods of applying water the most economical amounts the best manures the varieties of paddy most suitable the best seasons of sowing and the length of time necessary for the coversion of dry land into wet land ; and similarly the response of the local cotton to light irrigations the possibility of introducing fresh varieties which will with the ass [...] Local Agriculture.—Most of the black cotton soil of the Bellary district is to be found in the eastern half of the district and of this tract the first of the above-mentioned areas can be taken as representative. [...] May the hottest period of the year when usually one or two sharp showers are received ; June to September the period of the south-west monsoon when most rain is received and the last month of which is the wettest in the year it is on the rain which falls in this period that most dependence has to be placed ; and October to December the period of the north-east monsoon. [...] Usually it is thrown down in a heap in some odd corner in the village to the beauty and sanitary condition of which it no doubt greatly adds and is left fully exposed to all the varying conditions of weather and to the attacks of the thrifty pig and its no less economically minded sister the milking mainstay of the village the buffalo.