The total area of the province in 1869-70 was returned at between 17,000 and 18,000 square miles, of which about one-half is cultivated, one-fourth cultivable but not cultivated, and the remaining one-fourth uncultivable waste. The great crops are cotton of a superior quality, and jodr or millet. The acreage under the different crops in 1869-70 is thus returned— Joar, 1,812,693 acres; cotton, 1,409,430; wheat, 478,438; pulses, 493,009; bajrd, 117,273; rice, 44,793; linseed, 61,394; hemp, 8978; kardi, 57,192; tobacco, 32,284; castor oil, 2605; sugar cane, 7947; opium, 247; other crops, 829,992; total, 5,356,275 acres, or 8369 square miles. The uncultivated products consist of dyes, gums, fruits and roots of various trees and creepers, honey and beeswax, and jungle fibres. The land settlement of the province is now being made for a period of thirty years, based upon the Bombay system of survey and settlement according to fields. Manufactures are very few, and consist principally of cotton cloth, mostly of coarse quality, stout carpets, saddlery, and a little silk weaving. In 1869-70 the total value of the imports was returned at £7,350,085, and the exports at £5,755,399. For internal communication six first-class roads have been constructed out of the general revenues of the province :—(1), From Amrâoti to Elichpur, 31 miles; (2), from Badnerâ to Morsi, 38 ⅜; (3), from Karinjâ to Murtizapur, 21; (4), from Badnerâ to Amraoti, 5; (5), from Akolâ to Bâsim, 50; <6), from Akolâ to Akot, 31 miles. The Nagpur branch of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway traverses the province from east to west for about 150 miles, with short off-shoots to the great cotton marts of Khamgâon and Amraoti.

The census of 1867 returned the total population of Berar province at 2,231,565 souls, dwelling in 495,760 houses, comprising 5694 towns and villages; average density of population, 128 per square mile; average number of persons per house, 4’5; proportion of males in total population, 51 ‘7 per cent. Classified according to religion, the Hindus number 1,912,561, or 85 , 70 per cent, of the total population; Mahometans, 154,951, or 6 94 per cent.; aborigines, 163,059, or 7'36 per cent.; Christians, 903; Parsis, 75; and Jews, 16. The Mahometan population of the province is descended from the men who originally accompanied from the north the Musalmân invaders of the Deccan. Among the aboriginal tribes, the most numerous are the Gonds, Ands, Korkus, Kolis, and Kolâms. The principal towns in the province are—(1.) Elichpur, the capital of the old kingdom, and still the most populous town, although not a place of any commercial importance, population 27,782; (2.) Amraoti, the richest town in the province, and a rising and flourishing seat of commerce, pop. 23,410; (3.) Akolâ, pop. 12,236; (4.) Akot, a large cotton mart, pop, 14,606; (5.) Karinjâ, pop. 11,750; (6.) Khamgaon, a large and prosperous cotton mart, pop. 9432.

The total imperial revenue of Berar province in 1869-70 amounted, to £704,109, of which the land revenue gave £457,343; excise, £114,513; salt wells, £650; miscellaneous, £39,413; stamps, £45,947; forests, £18,462; and customs (salt), £27,780. Local funds and cesses amounted to £132,229, or a total revenue from imperial and local sources for the province of £836,338. For the protection of person and property Berar province contains 67 police stations, with 61 outposts—total strength of regular pofice, 2613 of all ranks, exclusive of the village watch. The only troops located in the province are those of the Haidarâbâd contingent. At Elichpur a regiment of infantry with a detachment of cavalry and a battery of artillery is stationed; infantry detachments are also stationed at Amraoti and Akolâ. The provision for education consisted in March 1870 of 341 schools, attended by 14,898 pupils. Of these 2 are high schools, one at Akolâ and one at Amraoti, with 217 pupils; 44 middle-class schools with 3747 pupils; 267 primary schools with 10,148 pupils; 27 female schools with 730 pupils; and 1 Normal school for the training of masters.

The climate of Berar differs very little from that of the Deccan generally, except that in the Γayanghat valley the hot weather is exceptionally severe. Here the freshness of the cold season vanishes after the crops have been taken off the ground, but the heat does not very sensibly increase until the end of March. From May 1st, until about the middle of June when the rains set in, the sun is very powerful, but without the scorching winds of upper India. The nights are comparatively cool. During the rains the air is moist and cool. In the Bâlâghât country above the Ajantâ hills the thermometer always stands much lower thau in the valley. The average rainfall for the whole province is said to be about 27 inches in the valley, and above 30 inches in the Bâlâghât highlands. In 1869 the rainfall registered in each of the six districts averaged 33 inches for the whole province. The average mean temperature registered at Akolâ in the-same year was nearly 81° Fahr.

The early history of Berar belongs to that of the Deccan. The province suffered repeated invasions of Mahometans from the north, and on the collapse of the Bâhmani dynasty in 1526, Berar formed one of the five kingdoms under independent Mahometan princes, into' which the Deccan split up. In the beginning of the seventeenth century the province was invaded by Prince Murad Mirza, son of the Emperor Akbar, and annexed to the Dehli empire. It did not long enjoy the blessings of tranquillity, for on the rise of the Marhattâ power about 1650, the province became a favourite field of plunder. In 1671 the Marhattâ general, Pratâp Râo, extended his ravages as far east as Karinjâ, and exacted from the village officers a pledge to pay chauth. In 1704 things had reached their worst; the Marhattâs swarmed through Berar “like ants or locusts,” and laid bare whole districts. They were expelled in 1704 by Zulfikâr Khan, one of Aurangzeb’s best generals, but they returned incessantly, levying black-mail in the shape of chauth and sardeshmukhi, with the alternative of fire and sword. Upon the death of Aurangzeb the Marhattâs consolidated their predominance in Berar, and in 1817 their demand for chauth, or a fourth, and sardeshmukhi, qt a tenth of the revenue of the province, was conceded by the governor. But in 1720-24 the viceroy of the Deccan, under the title of Nizâm-ul-mulk, gained his independence by a series of victories over the imperial generals, and from that time till its cession to England in 1853, Berar was always nominally subject to the Haidarâbâd dynasty. The Mahrattâ rulers posted their officers all over the province, they occupied it with their troops, they collected more than half the revenue, and they fought among themselves for possession of the right to collect; but, with the exception of a few pargands ceded to the Peshwâ, the Nizâm maintained his title as de jure sovereign of the country, and it was always admitted by the Marhattâs. In the Marhattâ war of 1803, the British under General Wellesley, afterwards the duke of Wellington, assisted by the Nizâm, crushed the Marhattâ power in this part of the country, by utterly defeating them at Argâon on the 28th November 1803, and a few days afterwards at Gâwilgarh. On the 19 th December 1803 the Marhattâ chief signed a treaty, in which he resigned all claim to territory and revenue west of the Wardhâ, but retained Narnâlâ and Gâwilgarh in his possession. By this treaty the whole of Berar was made over in perpetual sovereignty to the Nizam. From that time till 1848 the history of the province consists of a long list of internal dissensions and civil wars. These troubles reduced the state to the verge of bankruptcy. The pay of the Nizâm’s irregular force, maintained under the treaty of 1800, fell into arrears, and had to be advanced by the British Government. There were also other unsatisfied claims of the Government on the Nizâm, and in 1853 his whole debt amounted to £450,000. Accordingly, in that year a*new treaty was concluded with the Nizâm, under which the existing Haidarâbâd contingent force is maintained by the British Government, in lieu of the troops which the Nizâm had been previously bound to furnish on demand in time of war; while for the payment of this contingent and other claims on the Nizâm, districts then yielding a gross revenue of £500,000 per annum, including the present province of Berar, were assigned to our Government. By this treaty his highness was released from the obligation of furnishing a large force in time of war; the contingent ceased to be a part of the Nizâm’s army, and became an auxiliary force kept up by the British Government for the Nizâm’s use. The treaty was revised in 1860, and as a reward for services rendered by the Nizâm in 1857, two of the districts formerly assigned to us were restored to him, and the territory of the Râjâ of Surâpur, which had been confiscated in consequence of the rebellion of the chief, was added to the Nizâm’s dominions.