1 4 Burnes, i. 10.
2 5 Bal. Afg. Panj.
3 i. 460 — 452.
4 6 iii, 305.
5 7 Jour. As. Soc,
6 1843, p. 104,
7 Rep. on the
8 Punjab.
9 128 PUNJAB.
10 would give a favourable idea of this climate: they consisted of
11 the peach, apricot, greengage, fig, pomegranate, quince, orange
12 (sweet arid bitter), lime and lemon, guava, grape, mango, jamboo,
13 bair, date, cardamom, almond, and the apple, with seven or
14 eight other kinds, of which I can only give the native names,—
15 the gooler, sohaujna, goolcheen, umitass, bell, bussoora. The
16 walks of the garden were lined with beautiful cypresses and
17 weeping willows; and in the flower-beds were the narcissus and
18 rose-bushes of the sidburg, or an hundred leaves.” ‘* Most of
19 the trees and flowers are indigenous, but many have been intro-
20 duced.”’ Still the cultivation is very limited in proportion to the
21 qualities of the soil and the facilities for irrigation. From the
22 elevation of the beds of the rivers, watercourses, and sources
23 about the southern base of the mountains, and from the regular
24 uninterrupted slope of the surface of the Punjab to the south, it
25 is obvious that fertilizing streams might be conducted so as to
26 spread abundance over most parts of that fine plain. The upper
27 part of the, doab between the Ravee and the Beas is at present
28 sterile, from want of irrigation, as the canals made for this purpose
29 during the Mogul dynasty have been allowed to fall todecay. In
30 consequence of this neglect, the soil has become ‘‘a hard, indurated
31 clay; sometimes gravelly, producing thorny shrubs and bram-
32 bles, called by the natives jund, kureel (wild caper bush) and
33 baubool (mimosa).”4 Lower down, the soil of this doab ap-
34 pears, from Masson’s® report, to be in general strong, and rather
35 fertile, but little cultivated, and in consequence overrun with
36 jungle and small woods. At the southern extremity, in the
37 vicinity of Mooltan, the country is highly productive. According
38 to the statement of Burnes,® “ the soil amply repays the labour,
39 for such is its strength, that a crop of wheat, before yielding its
40 grain, is twice mowed down as fodder for cattle, and then ears,” he
41 continues, “ and produces an abundant harvest. The indigo and
42 sugar crops are rich, and one small strip of land, five miles long,
43 which we passed, afforded a revenue of seventy-five thousand
44 rupees.” Tobacco, dates, and mangoes are produced in abundance
45 and excellence. Jameson,’ probably the latest authority on the sub-
46 ject, thus describes the actual state of the Punjab :—‘ At the
47 present moment, the vast plain presents nothing but a waste,
48 comparatively speaking, with here and there cultivation. Even
49 in the neighbourhood of the very capital itself we meet with ex-