1106 Account of Khyrpoor and the Fortress of Bukur. [No. 107. 



and weighs a quarter of a seer ; but where the soil is sandy the plates are 

 only half the length, and cost three tukke. The iron is of an inferior kind, 

 and badly hammered, but strong enough to penetrate light and moist 

 soils, and there are no stones on the lowlands to impede the farmer's labour. 

 The harrow is either a circular or flat beam of heavy wood roughly 

 shaped with the axe, and costs one rupee. It measures about eight feet 

 long, twelve inches wide, and six deep, and is drawn by four bullocks 

 harnessed to ropes. 



For digging fields, wells, and canals, the people use a large iron hoe with 

 a handle two feet long, which costs two rupees. The iron weighs two seers, 

 and is beaten into a surface twelve inches long and nine wide. This and 

 the common axe are used to clear waste land ; the pick-axe is unknown. 

 Burnt sticks and grass are almost the only materials used for manure. 



The peasant weeds his land with a Bumbo, or broad chisel of iron, similar 

 to the Khoorpu used in India to dig the roots of grass. It costs either two 

 anas or two tukke. The reaping hook is filled with small sharp teeth 

 set edgewise, and costs two anas. A wooden fork of five or six prongs, two 

 feet long, is used to collect the stalks of grain and briers for hedges. 



The other articles that remain to be noticed are, a square basket to 

 hold grain and food for cattle, fabricated by sweepers (Shekhree) of the 

 stalk of moonj grass, and sold at two tukke each ; two or three shallow 

 baskets, shaped like an English dust-shovel, for winnowing grain, made of 

 the same material as the above, and worth an ana each ; and a small 

 wooden rake and hoe for collecting the seed and grain stalks, worth 

 together about two tukke. 



Water is raised to irrigate land by the Persian wheel, worked by one or 

 two oxen, or a camel, blindfolded, to prevent their shying ; and a rude 

 awning of boughs is built over the well to screen the driver from the sun. 

 Sometimes the charge of the cattle is delegated to a woman, who sits like 

 the man behind the yoke, with her legs doubled up, and urges forward the 

 sluggish animals with a shrill cry and a whip of tamarisk twigs. 



There are sometimes a dozen wells on a farm, and the same results 

 might be obtained from half the number properly managed. The Lut, 

 or beam, that connects the wheels with the ladder, is laid on the ground 

 instead of under it, which subjects it to friction, and retards the bullocks 

 who step over it at each revolution. Hemp and moonj rope are rarely 

 procurable in the hamlets, and the peasant fastens the water jars to the 

 ladder with flags and date leaves, which he gathers and twists himself. 

 They are constantly broken and displaced by the loosening of the ties, and 

 jars are seldom at hand to supply deficiences. The narrow broken troughs 

 which conduct water to the fields allow much of it to escape, and another 



