268 NELLORE. forests. The isolated hill ranges at Udayagiri, Kanigiri, and Chimakurti, have also been proposed, and a settlement is in progress. The next in importance of the forests of Nellore District is that of Sriharikota island in Pulikat lake. This forest has long been worked for the supply of fuel for the Madras market. The chief trees are Eugenia Jambolana, Pterospermum suberifolium, and Strychnos Nuxvomica. Soap-nuts are also found and tamarind trees in great numbers. Minor produce, such as tamarind, strychnine seeds, and the dye plants, Odenlandia umbellata and Ventilago Madraspatana, are largely exported. Canes, the produce of Calamus rotang, are also sent to Madras. In the plain táluks the forests consist of scrub jungle, some of which are in good growth and valuable for fuel and poles and the small wood most necessary for native use. Very important also are the Casuarina plantations, which cover about 2000 acres of land on the sand dunes of the sea-coast, and are now coming into working. Recent investigations show that these plantations make annually an increment of about 4 tons per acre up to eight years of age, and that about 5000 tons may yearly be made available. A number of palmyra plantations and one of cocoa-nut have been made, while many groves have been planted about the District. In some groves the cashew - nut (Anacardium occidentale) is grown; the nuts are exported. Natural Calamities.—Nellore, with a scanty rainfall and inadequate means of irrigation, has always been exposed to the calamities of nature. Drought is the most common and also the most terrible disaster, but floods of the Penner river and storms on the seaboard also contribute to depress agriculture. The years of actual famine since the annexation in 1801, were 1806–7, 1829–30, 1832–33, 1836–37, and 1876-78. In 1804, 1852, 1874, and 1882, sudden inundations of the Penner caused wide-spread damage ; and destructive storms are recorded in 1820 and 1857. The recent famine of 1876-78 was felt in Nellore wi special severity, for the District had scarcely recovered from the floods of 1874. There was an almost entire failure of crops. The only tracts which realized any harvest were the northern táluks of Ongole, the zamindári of Venkatagiri, and a few favoured villages along the seacoast and in the south. By March 1877, no less than 37 per cent. of the cultivated land was thrown out of cultivation. At the same date, the area under indigo had decreased from 57,000 to 20,000 acres, and 60,000 cattle had perished. In August of that year, 191,502 persons were in receipt of relief, or 13'92 per cent. of the total population. The distress was aggravated by the absence of all railway communication. The indigo cultivation is now recovering, and in 1882-83 there were over 48,000 acres under this crop. Manufactures and Trade.--In former times, Nellore was celebrated
