Punjab.

Date:: 1908

Credit: Punjab. Source: Wellcome Collection.

40/486 (page 8)

$Irrigation. Forests. Minerals. Arts and manu- factures. nth Prince of Wales’s Own Lancers is situated at Probynabad in the Dipalpur tahsil. The District breeds all the cattle it requires, and a considerable surplus is exported. The cows are famous as the best milkers in the Province. Buffaloes are but little used. Of the total cultivated area in 1903-4, 650 square miles were irrigated, 223 square miles being supplied from wells, 103 from wells and canals, 307 from canals, and 17 from streams and tanks, in addition to 190 square miles which were irrigated or moistened by inundation from the Sutlej. Ten villages north of the Ravi are irrigated from the Gugera branch of the Chenab Canal, which is designed to water 45 square miles; but the chief canal irrigation is near the Sutlej from the Khanwah and Upper and Lower Sohag canals of the Upper Sutlej Canal system, from which it is proposed to irrigate ultimately about 400 square miles. Some small canals from the Deg and Ravi serve a small area in the north of the District, and the spill water from the Sutlej is controlled by dams and channels in many places. Except in the riverain tracts, wells are of masonry and worked with Persian wheels by cattle; the District has 11,546 masonry wells, besides 1,536 lever wells, water-lifts, and unbricked wells. The District, which forms a Forest division, contains 87 square miles of ‘ reserved ’ and 703 of unclassed forests under the Forest department. The forest growth consists chiefly of tamarisk (Tamarix orientalis), jand {Prosopis spicigera), leafless caper i^Capparis aphylla\ and van {Salvadora oleoides\ with a considerable crop of munj grass {Saccharum Sara). In 1903-4 the total receipts were 1-7 lakhs. The w^ood is chiefly sold to the North-Western Railway for fuel, while the forests afford valuable fodder reserves. The District also contains 1,804 square miles of unclassed forests and Government waste under the control of the Deputy-Commissioner. The only mineral products are saltpetre and some beds of inferior kankar. Okara contains an important saltpetre refinery. Impure carbonate of soda is also produced by burning the weed known as khangan khdr {Chloroxylon Griffithii). Various articles, such as bed-legs, boxes, toys, spinning- wheels, &c., are made of lacquered woodwork at Pakpattan, and the industry has more than a local celebrity. The cotton fabrics of the same place are of good quality, and very good cotton prints are prepared at Kamalia. Cotton carpets are made at Kamalia and in the Central jail; and carpets, both cotton and woollen, are woven at an orphanage at Chak Baba$

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