CHAP. V.

Productive Qualities of Sindh -not estimated by its Possessors. - Prosperity under Hindú Rule. — Soil of Sindh.— Geology. -Dust and Ventilators to Houses-Irrigation-Methods of. Canals and Water-courses. Clearing Canals. System of Husbandry.—Tools employed.—Preservation of Grain.Seasons for Crops.-Grain Productions.- Wheat.—Juwari. -Other dry Grains.- Oil Plants. - Products of commercial Importance. Cotton. - Indigo. - Opium. - Sugar-cane. Hemp. Tobacco. Drugs and Dyes. Wool. - General

Results.

WHEN nature has done much for man, we find him little inclined to acknowledge it, and apparently apathetic to the advantages he possesses; this is particularly exemplified in the East, where a luxurious climate induces to lassitude and inertia, and where man's wants are few and easily supplied.

It would perhaps be impossible to find a country possessing greater productive capabilities than Sindh; yet, from the conquest of this province some thousand years since to the present time, its resources appear to have remained undeveloped or inadequately appreciated by its possessors. In its river it has sources of fertility equal to those of Egypt, with the advantage of not being subjected to variety, for the waters of the Indus are more regular in their return than those of the Nile.

Under the Hindús, the historians describe Sindh as having been an exceedingly rich and prosperous country: its fertility was the theme of universal praise; but under its Moslem conquerors and subsequent rulers its claims to these titles have been so impaired and at length so completely obliterated, that neighbouring countries, though totally deficient in means of irrigation and subject to failures of rain and consequent famines, evince in the improved condition of their inhabitants far greater prosperity generally than the highly favoured region of Sindh. Once, during a short Hindú interregnum in the fifteenth century, Sindh is said to have revived somewhat of its former reputation, but the period was but brief, and it soon relaxed into its usual neglected and impoverished state.

Under the late Bilúchi chiefs of Talpúr this fine tract was appropriated principally to hunting grounds, and the revenues of the country gradually diminished even below their former standard.

The soil of Sindh is of varied character: that near the river is a stiff clay or rich loam; and as the land recedes from the limits of the inundations it becomes light and sandy. The deposits of the inundation are a white clayey surface, which generally has a depth of about two or three feet, and is succeeded invariably by fine sand; the soil of the southern division is a lighter texture generally than that of the upper division, and is proportionably less productive; there is not a rock or stone of any

The

kind to be seen, and the greater the depth the finer the sand becomes; at certain parts of the lower country in the Delta, Sehwun, and Bukkur lime and sandstone hills, before described, are the only variation to this formation, until the valley of the Indus terminates in the mountain of Bilúchistan, where a stony or rocky surface is to be seen. geology of Sindh and the valley of the Indus has been only partially examined: iron abounds in the hills just mentioned, and fossil shells are plentiful of Nautilus, Trochi, Helix, Cornus, and similar species; near Sehwun are some curious specimens of petrified timber (principally palm) similar to that seen in the desert near Grand Cairo. The clayey soil of Sindh becomes hard and unmanageable after a short exposure to the sun, and requires a thorough moistening ere it can be tilled or sown its surface during the hot season works into a fine dust, so impalpable that it pervades the whole atmosphere, and nothing has been found to exclude it; for this reason the natives in many parts of the country build their huts or houses with doors only, and ventilators are placed at the top, whence light and air are admitted: these are shaped thus, and are called " Bád Gírs," or literally wind catchers.

This soil is on the whole rich and productive, so much so, that in many parts of the country where the inundations are extensive, tillage is not employed. The seed is thrown on the earth after the secession of the waters, and the spring crops, particularly the wheat, thus produced, are most luxuriant. In no part of Sindh is the least attention paid to manure or assist the soil: cultivation is of the rudest kind, and consequently, though in some places three crops are reaped annually, the land is seldom able to produce more than one, and is generally allowed to remain fallow for a year, particularly after strong crops, like the Juwari and sugar cane.

Irrigation is employed throughout the northern part of Sindh, where the waters of the river do not so extensively overflow as in the Delta and southern division; but in this latter they provide, almost unaided, for the productiveness of the soil, particularly in rice, which grows in unlimited quantities. Here also irrigation is used to raise dry grains forming the winter crops. In some parts of Northern Sindh, particularly the neighbourhood of Sukkur, an immense space of country, averaging twenty miles in length, and about ten in breadth, is laid under water whenever the river is beyond a certain height, and then cultivation is carried on as in the Delta, but with this exception-from Sehwun upwards the soil is generally fertilised by drawing the water of the river to it from regular channels opened for the purpose of admitting the floods.

Irrigation in Sindh from the river is of two kinds, either by the use of the Persian wheel, or by simply opening drains leading to low lands. The former is worked by a camel or bullocks, and is a far ruder affair than any thing seen in India.

Occasionally the method of raising water by

hand, as adopted in Egypt (there called the Shadúf), may be seen at work in Sindh, leathern pockets being fastened to the end of long poles, with a great mass of clay at their other extremities, and working in short upright posts. The pockets are dipped in the stream, and the preponderating weight at the other end of the poles is employed to lift the water.