1108 Account of Khyrpoor and the Fortress of Bukur. [No. 107. 



The farmer usually contracts with a potter by the year to supply his 

 wells with pots, and remunerates him with a share of the crop. A Zu- 

 meendar of an ancient Mogul family who owns 140 jurebs of land at 

 Sukhur, pays the potter as follows : — 



For every well in a sugar field, two rupees and seven tukke, and one 

 seer of goor (molasses) per jureb at each harvest. The same for a 

 jureb of cotton and tobacco^ excepting that he gives a seer of dry tobacco 

 and uncleaned cotton, instead of goor. 



For a well in fields of wheat and joowaree, without reference to the 

 number of jurebs, seven tukke and twenty-five seers of grain each harvest. 

 For these sums the potter also supplies the Zumeendar with pots for 

 domestic use. 



The length of the well-ladder, and number of pots, depends of course 

 on the distance the water is lifted. The pots are a few inches apart, and 

 if a well is constantly worked, are replaced six or seven times in a year. 



The carpenter contracts for a well on the same terms as the potter, 

 and repairs the machinery each harvest for two rupees and seven tukke, 

 and a seer of grain, or whatever is grown on the farm. 



The cost of digging a cut or well (hooh) is five rupees in the Rubbee 

 harvest, and two in the Khureef. The rise of the Indus makes the dif- 

 ference in favour of the last, and often renders a shaft unnecessary. 

 None of the wells in Khyrpoor are faced with masonry, and when the 

 soil is light and liable to injury, a well is sometimes re-made four times 

 in a year : it is impossible to repair an inroad of the river, and the 

 farmer always removes the wheel to a fresh site. 



A pair of well-bullocks cost rupees 30, a very fine pair rupees 40, 

 and an indifferent pair 15. Two pair will keep a wheel in motion from day- 

 light till dusk, and are relieved at noon. Where a farm has only one 

 well, it is worked all night, summer and winter, and the water jars 

 are renewed every month. In Daodpootra three pair of bullocks are 

 employed on a well in the day, and the same number at night. In 

 the Delhi territory, and other parts of Northern India, bullocks are 

 never worked at night ;* a pair labour all day and are allowed an hour or 

 two at noon to feed and repose. They are stronger and better fed 

 than those on the banks of the Indus, and the labour of lifting water is less 

 constant and severe in the Indian wells than Persian wheel, but the discharge 

 of water is only one half. The peasants of Hindoostan give their 

 labouring cattle oil cake and 1 \ seer of urhur (pulse or barley) a day ; or 



* 1 have however frequently observed the contrary with sugar lands in the upper 

 Doab. iTi 



