HOWAKD 4T 



the total cultivable area and C8 per cent, of the area actually cultivated 

 (2,07,317 acres). 



Wheat is the most important crop grown and iorms almost the whole 

 of the spring harvest. The method of growing it as a dry crop varies in the 

 different parts of the District. In Quetta, the lands are embanked and are 

 filled with flood water when available, either in late summer or in winter. 

 The land is then ploughed and sown. Good summer rain is necessarv to fill 

 the embankments, if a satisfactory yield is to be obtained ; later sowing results 

 both in a diminished yield and in a smaller proportion of straw. In Pishin 

 and Toba. the land is not embanked and sowing only takes place after rain. 

 In some parts of Quetta and Pishin, the land is prepared in September and 

 October, the seed sown in the dry ground and left until the next rain causes 

 it to germinate. In all cases, the yield on dry crop lands depends on good 

 spring rains. Dry crop lands are not manured and are generally cultivated 

 every year. The yield is about five maunds an acre. Sowing for drv crop 

 wheat may be continued into the spring, especially in Toba. 



Irrigated lands are usually only cultivated every second or third year. 

 This is probably connected with the aeration of the land. Under the system 

 of continual watering in vcgue, the land becomes very compacted, and no 

 aeration is possible. Dry crop land, on the other hand, which, is not irrigated 

 and in which aeration can take place is cultivated every year. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Quetta, the wheat land is generally heavily manured. The irri- 

 gated land is ploughed twice during the fallow, once in the spring and once 

 in June. It is watered in September : the seed is sown broadcast and then 

 ploughed in. The first watering takes place forty days after sowing, the second 

 about the last week in December, and the third at the end of FebruarA\ The 

 fourth watering is not given till the middle of April and after this the crop is 

 watered regularly at intervals cf ten to fifteen days. Harvest takes place in 

 June and July according to the locality. The yield on irrigated, manured 

 land varies from 15 to 25 maunds and in irrigated, unmanured land from 10 

 to 16 maunds per acre. 



The following account of the varieties of wheat grown is given in the 

 Quetta-Pishin Gazetteer ; — 



" The wheat grown in the District is of two kinds, called respectively 

 da sdm ghanam and da tauda fjJumam; each kind ij\ its tuin consists of a white 

 and red variety, locally known as sjnn and mr ghanam. The seed of the 

 sdm spin ghanam (winter white wheat) is said to have been originally imported 

 from Garmsel in Afghanistan, while the red variety is said to be indigenous 



