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The Punjab, a province of West Pakistan lying in the sub-tropical latitudes, has a severe continental type of climate. It suffers from high natural aridity and extremes of temperatures. Excessive pressure of population on land in the recent past in the Punjab led to further desiccation, accelerated soil erosion and land degradation. At present various techniques are being followed to reclaim and rehabilitate the different categories of deteriorated soils. Cultural operations aiming at soil and water conservation are carried out to combat the menace of soil erosion. Badly ravined lands are levelled and terraced with heavy earth-moving machinery. Desert fringe belt receiving less than ten inches of annual rainfall is being restocked with drought-resistant woody and forage species. Some of the barren waste lands are being turned into irrigated forest plantations with canal water. The saline and alkali soils are being reclaimed by flooding and growing rice with large quantities of water. More research is needed to further refine and improve our present reclamation techniques and management practices for rehabilitation of degraded soils.

After introductory remarks the author describes water relations under eight heads—xerophyty and xeromorphy, water absorption, soil moisture, transpiration, root system, drought resistance, and water requirements and conservation. He appends a bibliography with twenty-eight items, mostly American, referring to work extending from 1919 to 1952.