Nawabgunge is situated on the new metalled road,
fifty miles long, between Lucknow and Cawnpoor, and about midway
between the two places.* It was built by the late minister, Nawab
Ameen-od Dowlah, while in office, for the accommodation of
travellers, and is named after him. It is kept up at his expense for
the same purpose now that he has descended to private life. There is
a small house for the accommodation of European gentlemen and ladies,
as well as a double range of buildings, between which the road
passes, for ordinary travellers, and for shopkeepers to supply them.
[* The term Gunge, signifies a range of buildings at a place of
traffic, for the accommodation of merchants, and all persons engaged
in the purchase and sale of goods and for that of their goods and of
the shopkeepers who supply them.]
Some people told me, that even the worst of this oosur soil might be
made to produce fair crops under good tillage; while others denied
the possibility, though all were farmers or landholders. All,
however, agreed that any but the _worst_ might be made so by good
tillage--that is, by flooding the land by means of artificial
embankments, for two or three rainy seasons, and then cross-
ploughing, manuring, and irrigating it well. All say that the soil
hereabouts is liable to become oosur, if left fallow and neglected
for a few years. The oosur, certainly, seems to prevail most near the
high roads, where the peasantry have been most exposed to the
rapacity of the King's troops; and this tends to confirm the notion
that tillage is necessary in certain soils to check the tendency of
the carbonates or nitrates, or their alkaline bases, to
superabundance.
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