proprietor would receive back his land in an improved condition, and
the usurper might fairly be considered to have reimbursed himself for
all his outlay. The old proprietor should be required to pledge
himself to respect the rights of all new tenants.

_December_ 24, 1849.--Meranpoor, twelve miles. Soil between this and
Sultanpoor neither so fertile nor so well cultivated, as we found it
on the other side of the Goomtee river, though it is of the same
denomination--generally doomut, but here and there mutear. The term
mutear embraces all good argillaceous earth, from the light brown to
the black, humic or ulmic deposit, found in the beds of tanks and
lakes in Oude. The natives of Oude call the black soil of Malwa and
southern India, and Bundlekund, _muteear_. This black soil has in its
exhausted state abundance of silicates, sulphates, phosphates, and
carbonates of alumina, potassa, lime, &c., and of organic acids,
combined with the same unorganic substances, to attract and fix
ammonia, and collect and store up moisture, and is exceedingly
fertile and strong.

Both saltpetre and common salt are made by lixiviation from some of
the poor oosur soils; but, from the most barren in Oude, carbonates
of soda, used in making _glass_ and _soap_, are taken. The earth is
collected from the surface of the most barren spots and formed into
small, shallow, round tanks, a yard in diameter. Water is then poured
in, and the tank filled to the surface, with an additional supply of
the earth, and smoothed over. This tank is then left exposed to the
sun for two days, during the hottest and driest months of the year.
March, April, and May, and part of June, when the crust, formed on
the surface, is taken off. The process is repeated once; but in the
second operation the tank is formed around and below by the debris of