44 REPORT OP THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



have been purchased and a supply of implements collected. 

 Progress has been made in the enlistment and training of 

 the staff. 



While most of the year has been taken up with pre- 

 liminary spade work in connection with the laying out and 

 levelling of the land previous to planting in November 1912, 

 nevertheless a few results have been obtained. These are 

 as follows : — 



1. The raising of nursery stock. — the usual practice in 

 Quetta up to the jDresent, both in the Government gardens 

 and in those of zamindars, in the raising of new trees has 

 been to side-bud on two or three years' old stocks, the time 

 taken in raising budded trees being two or three years. 

 This year it has been found that if the seedling stocks 

 were ring-budded in May and June, strong plants can easily 

 be raised ready for planting within a year of the sowing of 

 the seed of the stock. This is an important matter from 

 the point of view of the revenue of the station and also from 

 the standpoint of a large supply of good trees for replacing 

 the old fruit gardens and for new planting. The supply 

 of good and abundant planting material for the Province 

 will in future years be a simple matter. 



2. The saving of water. — The most important direction 

 in which the agriculture of Baluchistan can be improved 

 is in the saving of water and in making the greatest pos- 

 sible use of the present supplies. Attention has therefore 

 been paid to this matter and results of importance have 

 been obtained. By means of surface cultivation after the 

 winter rains, it has been found possible to conserve the mois- 

 ture in the soil to a very considerable extent and this can 

 easily be applied to the growth of wheat and fruit trees. It 

 has already been taken advantage of in the raising of 

 nursery stock and in the growth of tomatoes. The soil of 

 the valley is also suitable for furrow irrigation so that 

 there is every prospect that by means of this method of 

 watering, combined with clean weeding and surface cultiva- 

 tion, the present water supply of the valley can be shown to 

 be able to produce at least twice the crops grown at present. 



