36 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE 



irrigated wheat, the water now lost would produce 20,000 

 maunds of grain and a large amount of straw of a total 

 value not far short of a lakh of rupees. 



During the past wheat season, the new methods have 

 been tried on zamindars' land near Quetta. One watering 

 was given at the end of September before sowing and in 

 spite of the fact that the winter rains did not set in till late 

 in January, two months later than usual, a very good crop 

 resulted, the grain of which was well above the average in 

 quality. The yield of grain was 22 maunds 32 seers per 

 acre, while the bhusa amounted to 43 maunds 20 seers. 

 This result, in spite of the lateness of the winter rains, is 

 five maunds higher than the average obtained at the Ex- 

 periment Station. This is due to the fact that the wheat 

 land at the Experiment Station is high-lying, exposed to- 

 the sun and wind and its water-holding capacity is less 

 than that of the typical wheat lands of the valley. The 

 Experiment Station yields have therefore been exceeded by 

 the zamindars in a season of badly distributed rainfall 

 when the local dry-crop wheat was a failure. 



These results have naturally attracted a considerable 

 amount of attention. On May 29th, a meeting of the 

 maliks of the valley was arranged at the demonstration 

 area when the Agent to the Governor-General and the chief 

 officials of the Baluchistan Administration were present. 

 On June 5th, the Political Agent brought the maliks of the 

 Pishin valley to see the results. These visits were entirely 

 successful, a keen interest was shown by those present and 

 large areas of land were at once offered for demonstration 

 work for the next season's wheat crop. Sir John Ramsay 

 has ordered 25 pairs of lever harrows, some of which will be 

 given as khillats at the September Darbar. The irrigation 

 policy of the Administration has recently been revised, 

 partly as a result of these experiments and particular 

 attention will, in future, be paid to water-saving and to the 

 increase in the duty of the present supplies. 



The investigations on water-saving are being continued 

 and during the year further results were obtained, an 



