34 Lieut, Irivin's Memoir of Afghanistan. [No. 97- 



tolerable accuracy. I have in consequence greatly restricted the 

 plan. The matter which is here to follow, relates to two heads ; 

 1st, Some particulars of the husbandry of these countries in 

 general ; 2nd, A review of the districts ; in which an attempt 

 will be made to estimate, or enable the reader himself to 

 estimate, their present degree of cultivation, the supplies they 

 yield, their population, and the distinction of their in- 

 dustry ; this is, as it were, the summing up of all. It is 

 much to be regretted, that it is the most difficult, as well as 

 the most important of the subjects attempted, and that in which 

 the conclusions drawn, will the oftenest be found vague, unsa- 

 tisfactory, and erroneous ; nor could it be otherwise, if we advert 

 to the natural difficulties of the subject, when it is necessary 

 to proceed on report merely. The witnesses, though numerous 

 for the elucidating other subjects, were few for the elucidating of 

 this, which requires many concurring testimonies, and much 

 minuteness of testimony. The local and national vanity of 

 informants, not to mention individual prejudices and hasty 

 judgments, forbid our relying on their opinions as judicious 

 and impartial ; could they be relied on, still there is much diffi- 

 culty in ascertaining the exact force of those comparative terms, 

 which in all cases must be used, for they assume a different 

 meaning according to the standard to which the mind of the 

 speaker has been accustomed. 



Section I. — Of Husbandry. 



166. Lands in these countries are divided into irrigated and 

 not irrigated, or in the local Persian abee and lulm ; this last 

 term I have for brevity's sake retained. Lulm is itself of vari- 

 ous kinds; that which most strictly deserves the name is com- 

 monest in Chuch and the plain of the Mundurs, where the 

 quality of the soil is excellent ; the fields are merely ploughed in 

 the ordinary way, and not divided into partitions, nor is any other 

 contrivance used either for the retaining the rain which may fall 

 on the surface, or for receiving any supplies from other quarters. 

 But in general, lulm lands have some advantage in this particular, 

 natural or artificial. In hilly countries the hollows which ne- 



