2
there, Sholapur is a feverish station," and it becomes my clear duty to urge
Government to adopt those measures which I believe will materially prevent the
recurrence of the malarial type of disease which hitherto has been so prevalent
there.
6. Deep subsoil drainage is also absolutely necessary. There is now in
my opinion a constant current of water percolating through the subsoil, under
the lines from the high ground on the east to the lower level on the west. The
cutting of deep subsoil drains running from North to South along the eastern
face and between each of the rows of the pendalls would divert the subsoil water
and keep the foundations of the huts drier. They would in no way, in my opinion,
interfere with the supply of wells below. The difference of level is too great for
that, but they would prevent the creep of the water upwards to the foundation of
the huts and would thus effect what we want a dry subsoil. Of course catch
water surface drains would also be necessary. I have gone further into this sub-
ject in my report on the Poona Cantonment which will shortly come before
Government.
7. I am glad to learn that there is a well with good drinking water inside
the Fort. I was informed that the water in it was brackish and that the only
drinkable water was procured from the Naga well in the ditch outside the main
gate.
8. I am still of opinion that the marsh between the Moti Bagh Talao and
the garden is correctly described as being to windward of camp. The Committee
allows it is so during the monsoon, and as that extends over four months of the year
and sometimes longer, I do not consider I am in error in having so described it.
For example take 1865 when the wind set in from the south-west in February
and blew for a period of 8 months and again in December from the same quarter;
but in any case I am certain from the lay of the ground that the marsh miasmata
must creep up the hill towards the Officers' bungalows and the native infantry
lines.
9. Although there is no cultivation of rice and sugar cane in the Moti
Bagh, yet I believe I am right in stating that lucerne grass grows there, and
as this requires constant irrigation it is not a crop which should be allowed in
this feverish spot. I quite agree as to the desirability of keeping up the garden,
but so much irrigation should not be permitted. I also think when the tank is
cleared out that the mud so excavated should be thrown over the embankment so
as to raise the surface of the marsh, which I still think ought to be drained
at once as I look upon it as one of the most prolific sources of disease in the
Cantonment.
10. The covered well suggested by me in para. 23, for which the Com-
mittee do not see the necessity, was to do away with the present most objection-
able open holes from which the natives draw water on the north of the garden.
A public well should, I submit, undoubtedly be provided for their use as the
present places are absolutely dangerous as they are merely surface holes.
11. I can only reiterate my opinion that the practice of dhobies washing
clothes in the nullah referred to is a source of disease to the Cantonment and
should be stopped. The Cantonment Committee ought, in my opinion, to have no
difficulty in selecting another site further off, but in any case the present practice
should be authoritatively stopped.
•
12. I am glad to learn that the question of the burial grounds will be con-
sidered by the Committee for by the present practice the orders of Government
as to the depth of graves are persistently disobeyed.