Topographical Remarks regarding Afghanistan. 333 



Agriculture. — The want of water, and the vast extent of rug- 

 ged rocky mountains, have doomed a great portion of the coun- 

 try to irremediable barrenness. In the valleys that are inter- 

 spersed amongst these mountains where water can be obtain- 

 ed, the cultivation is of the highest order, and as the productive- 

 ness in this dry climate almost entirely depends on irrigation, 

 great labour and skill are expended by a semi-barbarous people 

 in the construction of water-courses, often leading from a very 

 great distance along the sides of precipitous mountains, and by 

 canals, embankments, and levelling, distributed through the 

 fields with the utmost care. In some places a series of wells 

 are dug, and the water allowed to flow from one to the other 

 by under-ground communication, gradually diminishing in 

 depth until the level of the cultivation is attained, when the 

 collected water can be directed over the fields; these are 

 termed khareises, and made at great expense. The imple- 

 ments of husbandry are primitive and rude ; their fields are 

 neat, and around the water-courses willows are generally 

 planted; the crops appear particularly rich. Lucerne and 

 trefoil are very extensively cultivated, as when dried they are 

 the principal food of the cattle in the winter, which in some 

 parts of the country lasts for many months. The lucerne is 

 of a very fine kind, and is cut seven times, and even as often 

 as eight times in the season : the clover four times. 



From the quantity of water used in cultivation, and the ne- 

 cessity of keeping the fields in a constant state of moisture, 

 every valley in Affghanistan is more or less under the influ- 

 ence of aqueous exhalation, more especially where rice is cul- 

 tivated ; to these sources may partly be attributed the inter- 

 mittent fevers which are endemic in the valleys. 



There is some of the land incapable of irrigation, and on 

 which seed is sown on the chance of rain ; this is termed 

 lulmee, as they say the grain is left to the mercy of God. 

 On the Population and its Character. — The population 



is supposed to amount to about eight millions. The various 



2 u 



