A DAY IN AN IRRIGATED PLANTATION, 



CHUNGA MUNGA, PUNJAB, INDIA 



By H. R. MacMillan^ 



A few days in Lahore, the capital of the Punjab and the head- 

 quarters of the important Government railway system of India, 

 afforded the opportunity of visiting a most interesting and suc- 

 cessful forest plantation. 



The plains of the Indus and its tributaries, the -five rivers of 

 the Punjab, in which Lahore is situated, constitute, naturally, 

 in spite of the dense population and great scarcity of wood, a 

 most unfavorable location for the production of timber. Al- 

 through the soil is a rich alluvial clay, the climate with its combi- 

 nation of heat and aridity has prevented the formation of any 

 growth exceeding scrub. The precipitation varies from 5 to 20 

 inches a year, averaging about 15. The cold weather (there is 

 no winter) does not go below a shade temperature of 68° F. in 

 the day and 26° F. at night, and the hot weather brings hot blast- 

 ing winds and a temperature which reaches 188° F. in the shade 

 and averages at times, day and night, over 100° F. 



The land in the natural state lay a level desert, bare except for 

 scattered shrubs and trees a few feet high. The first British work 

 after establishing peace was to provide for the pressure of popu- 

 lation by constructing the great irrigation schemes for which the 

 broad level plain traversed by five large mountain-fed rivers was 

 so well adapted. 



The area brought under irrigation for agricultural ourooses 

 in the Punjab is now 8,300,00 acres, producing crops valued at 

 about $88,000,000 annually. Areas of land suitable for cultiva- 

 tion still remain unirrigated owing to the lack of water available 

 for either the winter crops which require water in February and 

 March or the summer crops which demand water in August and 

 September. It is this land, suitable for agriculture in every way 

 except that water is not available for it in the season in which it 

 is demanded by agricultural crops, that is being used for forest 

 planting. Fortunately there is sufficient water, unneeded for 



'Timber Trade Commissioner, Dominion of Canada, and Chief Forester, 

 British Columbia. 



277 



