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Punjab.

Date:: 1908

Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Punjab. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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374/486 (page 342)

General agricul- tural con- ditions. Chief agri- cultural statistics and princi- pal crops. Improve- ments in The only commercial class, the Aroras, number 66,000. Of the menials, the most important are the Machhis (fishermen, 23,000), Kumhars (potters, 11,000), Mallahs (boatmen, 10,000), Julahas (weavers, 9,000), Mochls (shoemakers, 10,000), Jhin- w^ars (water-carriers, 8,000), and Tarkhans (carpenters, 8,000). Saiyids number 11,000 and Shaikhs 14,000. The native Christians number only 6. About 58 per cent, of the popu- lation are dependent on agriculture. The three natural tracts have already been described. The Rohi or Cholistan, bounded on the north and west by a depres- sion called the Hakra, is pure desert, in wTich crops depend wholly on the scanty rainfall, and the vegetation is sparse. Unbricked wells are sunk, but their excavation in the sandy soil is a perilous task, as the water-level is 80 feet below the surface. The second tract runs parallel to the Rohi. Its soil is a stiff clay mixed with sand, and though cultivation depends chiefly on the rainfall, wells are also worked. The third and richest tract in the State is the Sind or alluvial strip along the rivers. Every year its soil is enriched by floods, which leave a deposit of rich silt, and the land yields fine crops with little labour. The supply of water to the Sind is supplemented by a system of inundation canals and by wells. Large areas have been brought under cultivation during the last twenty-five years, owing to the extension of the system of inundation canals. Half a million acres of State land, which now brings in a revenue of 3 lakhs, have been leased to cultivators, the leases in most cases containing the promise of proprietary rights after a period of years. There is abundance of room for the extension of colonization in the Khanpur nizdmat. The following table shows the chief statistics of cultivation in 1903—4, areas being in square miles :— Nizdmat. Total. Cultivated. Irrigated. Cultivable waste. Bahawalpur 1P19 417 370 580 Minchinabad 3vS28 515 419 1,200 Khanpur . 5,311 519 572 1,427 Total 15,918 1,451 1,361 3,207 The crops which covered the largest area in 1903-4 were wheat (607 square miles), rice (183), spiked millet (90), great millet (85), and gram (82). Although rules sanctioning advances were passed in 1879, they were not made to any useful extent by the State till 1900,

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