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2 this indigenous traffic that every well-wisher of the Punjab people must
3 Indigenous produce of be anxious to see the day when the Rail shall
4 he Puna be opened from Umritsur to Mooltan, The
5 traffic may be already considerable and promising, but it 7s now as
6 nothing compared to what it would become, with the advantages of a
7 Rail. In the Chapter on Land Revenue, tl enormous and increasing
8 production of cereals beyond the present consumption, the probable
9 surplus produce amounting to a quarter, perhaps half ‘a million of tons
10 annually, the quantity of unreclaimed land capable of production, the
11 great productive power of the people, were demonstrated. Wheat of
12 excellent quality is grown, and this is eminently a corn-producing.
13 province. Sugar-cane of first-rate quality is already grown. Indigo of
14 similar quality can be produced ; it is-already exported to a considerable
15 extent, though:at present of inferior quality, owing to the defective mode
16 of manufacture. It has been recently proved that good linseed in consi-
17 derable quantities can be raised. If sufficient pains be taken, many
18 hundred tons of fibre can be prepared. From some parts good hemp
19 could be exported. For many thousand square miles the saline nature
20 of the soil offers ‘unusual facilities for the manufacture of saltpetre, which
21 is even now largely made to meet a foreign demand; and from the
22 same soil Carbonate of Soda could be profitably
23 made. The numerous flocks of sheep in the
24 extensive pasturage of the Central districts, and in the hills and valleys
25 of the North, yield a wool that.is already éxported, and which might
26 become an export of magnitude. There are various articles of manu-
27 facture fit for exportation, such as the shawls, stuffs, silks, and
28 carpets of Umritsur, Lahore, Mooltan, Noorpoor and Loodhiana,
29 It were vain to specify the amount which might be exported by
30 the Rail, but none acquainted with the Punjab could doubt that
31 the aggregate would be enormous. Lastly, independently of, Kuropean
32 travellers, who would be numerous, the fumber of native passen-
33 gers would prove most profitable. Between the cities of Lahore
34 and Unmritsur, the transit of passengers has greatly increased since
35 the completion of the new road; the average of travellers to and fro
36 is not less than a thousand persons per diem; and whereas six years
37 ago there were not twenty ekkas (small one-horse vehicles carrying
38 - two or three persons,) in Lahore, there are now some 250 running daily
39 Probable Exports,