888 Lieut. Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. [Nov. 



Punjkora, Swad, Bhooner, and Pukhlee, afford abundance of grass in the 

 summer; and the plain of Bajour is even more verdant than that of 

 Peshawar. The grass of Koonur is inferior to that of Bajour, and that 

 of Jellalabad to Koonur, but Lughman is superior to both. Kushmeer, 

 and the hills which surround it, have a very abundant herbage in sum- 

 mer, but it is not reckoned nutritious ; in the winter the sheep and other 

 stock are house-fed— a management probably more judicious than if 

 they were kept on the grass remaining under the snow, or were driven 

 to a warmer climate. 



120. A great part of the surface of the districts of Cabul and 

 Ghuznee is covered with stones, and the soil is in other respects 

 unfavorable to the growth of grass. The new leaf appears in April, 

 and there are but few places, where it is affected by the summer 

 heat, or withers until autumn. If the soil be moist and has been well 

 covered by snow, the grass remains green even during the winter, but 

 makes very little progress in the spring. It may be observed, that the 

 grass of sandy soils appears earlier and also decays sooner than that 

 of other soils. In the winter the sheep of these upper countries are 

 driven to warmer climates to the eastward, and have been known 

 to come as far as Husun Ubdal. It would be difficult to estimate 

 whether the cold or the warm countries here have most grass 

 during the year on a given surface. In the summer, that of the cold is 

 most luxuriant, but in the winter there remains little beyond some 

 withered herbage under the snow ; whereas in that season the warm 

 countries have a certain degree of verdure remaining, especially after a 

 shower, and when the surface is free from snow. The nature of the soil 

 too has an influence, and the upper countries are the less productive of 

 grass, as much of their surface is covered with stones. Cabul is pro- 

 verbial for a scarcity of fodder, but this does not arise from the na- 

 ture of the soil, but from there being a great number of horses and 

 other animals, and but little ground for pasturage left uncultivated. 



121. Khoorasan has a dry climate, and no summer rains; hence 

 its temperate and warm parts have very little herbage. Bu- 

 lochistan has still less, and Seestan is ill supplied. Sheep and goats 

 are seldom kept in the villages, but pasture during all seasons at 

 a moderate distance from them. There are indeed certain parts, 

 particularly in the Dooranee country, where the flocks return to 

 the villages after the grass has been burnt up, and are subsisted on 

 straw and other products of agriculture or gardening, with some 

 assistance from the meadows which are not withered by the heat. A 

 considerable part of the Dooranee flocks are driven in summer to the 



