In Bundelkhand the black, friable soil, often with a high proportion of organic matter, is called 'mar', and is chiefly devoted to raising crops of wheat, gram, or chick-pea (_Cicer arietinum_), linseed, and joar (_Holcus sorghum_).

Cotton is also sown in it, but not very generally.

This black soil requires little rain, and is fertile without manure.

It absorbs water too freely to be suitable for irrigation, and in most seasons does not need it.

The 'black cotton soil' is often known as _regur_, a corruption of a Tamil word.