310 MESSRS. LACE AND HEMSLEY ON THE 
and various millets; a few vegetables, such as carrots and turnips, 
being cultivated near Sibi itself. Very small areas of cotton and 
some oil seeds are occasionally seen a few miles out of Sibi. 
From Hurnia to Dargai a great deal of the land is placed 
under rice, and the highest elevation at which I have seen rice 
cultivated is in a sheltered rift at Kawäs, at 7000 ft. Barley, 
wheat, and pulse are also grown. 
In the higher valleys barley is the chief crop, especially in 
Peshin, and in favourable years considerable areas in the valleys 
and scattered about the hills, up to 9000 ft., are sown with 
barley, the crop depending upon the rainfall. Of the millets 
the most common probably is Panicum miliaceum, which is culti- 
vated up to 8000 ft. Fine crops of Indian corn are grown about 
Quetta from seed imported from India; but a very stunted 
form of this corn, which is one of the staple foods of the people, 
is commonly grown in the valleys at elevations of from 5000 to 
9000 ft. 
Lucerne is largely grown, and is a most paying crop if freely 
watered and manured ; four or five good crops per annum being 
frequent. A very heavy crop will yield 200 maunds per acre of 
green lucerne, but the average is between 100 and 150 mds. 
Many varieties of melon, water-melon, and others are largely 
planted and yield excellent fruit. 
In a few localities Rubia tinctorum is cultivated for dyeing 
purposes. 
Fodders. 
The fodder question is one of the most difficult in Baluchistan, 
since no great quantities of grass exist in the greater part of 
the country, and animals subsist chiefly on the straw of cereals. 
The expense incurred in consequence in feeding horses and 
transport animals is very great, and to lessen this in some 
degree I lately started, on behalf of the Commissariat De- 
partment, a fuel and fodder farm on land in connexion with 
one of the irrigation schemes in the Peshin valley ; but owing 
to the climatic conditions it will take some time before it is 
properly established. 
The best fodder at present available for horses is straw mixed 
with lucerne, but it is expensive, and grass, Pennisetum orientale, 
is only attainable at Quetta in small quantities from the neigh- 
bouring hills. “Dub” grass, Oynodon Dactylon, so abundant 
