48 Brigade-Surgeon J. E. T. Aitchison's Notes on Products 



attempt at a crop is so rare, is the extreme temperature that 

 occurs at the end of July or beginning of August, necessitating 

 a free supply of water, which is then becoming scarce, being 

 required for the other crops — Melons, Cotton, and Tobacco, 

 so that what with the excessive heat and absence of a good 

 supply of water a second crop almost always proves a failure. 

 Natives tell one of second crops of Lucerne, Medicago 

 SATiVA, but this usually is not a true second crop, it is merely 

 second, third, or fourth cuttings from the originally raised 

 roots, the plant throwing up fresh stems after each cutting. 

 A crop of this in a rich, well- watered orchard, where there is 

 abundance of rich soil, and shelter from both excessive heat 

 and cold, will allow of cuttings all through summer and 

 winter. The turnip in one sense yields two crops, in early 

 summer it yields seed which are sown in autumn, the plants 

 of which yield turnips in winter. 



Croton Tiglium, Linn. Euphorbiace^. 

 Croton seeds, hab-dihnaluk, hab-al-salatlm, are imported 

 from India to be employed in medicine. 



Crozophora tinctoria, A. Juss. Euphorbiace^. 

 Turnsole, kajy-o-chlst, so called on the Helmand. 



Cucumber — Cucumis sativus. 



Cucumis Melo, Linn. CucmiBiTACEiE. 



The melon, hhar-huz, khar-buza, khar-buze. Melons are 

 largely cultivated as a field crop, but not to the same extent 

 as the water-melon. The variety sardd keeps well, and is 

 exported to India in great quantity during the winter, where 

 it is much appreciated by both Europeans and natives. 

 Europeans in India and elsewhere have tried to raise from 

 seed the sardd melon, this has always proved a failure, the 

 fruit produced being of a very ordinary form, and never having 

 the flavour of the Afghan fruit. The word sardd means cold, 

 and subsequently came to mean the last fruits of the season, 

 left hanging on the trees, when the main crop had been 

 collected. The melon collected from the plants that yield 

 the sardd, whilst the season is hot and there is still no frost, 

 is, comparatively speaking, an ordinarily good melon, but once 



