VITIS 



VINIPERA 



Baluchista n 



THE GRAPE VINE 



Varieties Grown. 



Haita. 



Raisins. 



Spin kishmisM. 



Ealamakk. 



Husalni. 



Tor. 



Sra kishmisM. 



Afghan 



Baluchistan 



Traffic. 



Eaisin Industry. 



Bengal. 



Madras 



and 



Mysore. 



high temperature of the atmosphere would absorb all the water long 

 before it reached the orchards. 



Little information exists as to the methods of cultivation or of manu- 

 facture of raisins, but Mr. K. Hughes Buller has furnished some interesting 

 particulars regarding the chief varieties of grapes grown in the Quetta- 

 Pishin district. He enumerates some eighteen, but the most widely 

 distributed are known as haita and spin kishmishi, followed by kalamakk, 

 husaini, tor, sra kishmishi, and tanddn. The rest, he says, are only met 

 with occasionally. Haita is a large oval-shaped grape, with hard skin, 

 of a green colour tinged with yellow. It is very lasting and is the grape 

 commonly packed in wool and sold in Indian bazars. It is obtainable 

 from August to the end of November. In Kandahar haita grapes are 

 made into raisins (dbjosh) by dipping them in boiling water mixed with 

 lime and carbonate of soda, and then drying in the sun. Spin kishmishi 

 is a small green grape, oblong in shape, found in all parts of the district, 

 especially in Quetta and along the Khwaja Amran. It begins to ripen 

 in August and lasts till the end of October. Kalamakk is green, oblong, 

 of medium size, larger than spin kishmishi and smaller than haita. It 

 ripens from September to 15th November. Husaini is a soft fruit, dis- 

 tinguished by its loose growth and by the narrowing of each grape in 

 the centre. It grows in Gulistan, Mazarri, Kamalzai, Arambi and Sariab, 

 begins to ripen in August, and lasts till the end of October. Tor is de- 

 scribed as an oval grape, dark in colour and fairly sweet. It ripens early, 

 about the middle of July. Sra kishmishi is a small grape, light purple 

 in colour, with soft skin. The Kandaharis make raisins from it. It 

 begins to ripen about the 25th of August and lasts to the 15th of October. 

 Tanddn, the last mentioned, is a large round, green grape of inferior 

 quality. It contains a large quantity of juice which is extracted in 

 Kandahar, boiled and kept for use as a relish. It ripens in September. 



Traffic. The traffic in grapes (preserved in wooden boxes), arranged layer 

 upon layer, with sheets of cotton- wool between, constitutes one of the 

 characteristic features of the so-called Kabul (Afghan) trade of India. 

 The wandering fruit traders carry grapes, raisins, pistacio nuts, almonds, 

 and pomegranates all over India ; and, barring the traffic in Kashmir fruit 

 into the Panjab and of Deccan grapes into Bombay, the Kabuli traders 

 practically supply the grapes and raisins consumed in the whole of the 

 rest of India. The traffic is, therefore, by no means an unimportant one, 

 and the share taken by the Quetta-Pishin district perhaps the most valu- 

 able single contribution. 



Pedley wrote an interesting paper (Aqri. Ledg., 1893, No. 7) on the 

 possibility of a raisin industry being organised in Sind. He contrasted 

 the Fresno district of California with the Schwan Sub-division of Karachi, 

 and came to the conclusion that with its cheap labour Sind might easily 

 do a large trade in this dried fruit. 



Bengal and Assam. The annual rainfall of the province is too high 

 for vine cultivation to be of much importance. In the upper divisions 

 of the province, however, e.g. in Bihar, where the climate approximates 

 to that of the United Provinces, greater success has been attained than 

 in Bengal proper, and fairly good grapes are often produced, as at Dinapore 

 and Tirhut. [Cf. Repts. Dept. Land Rec. and Agri.] 



Madras and Mysore. On the plains of Madras the vine can be 

 grown only under careful garden cultivation, and viticulture can never 



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