On the Conditions of Wheat-Growing in India. 
29 
would never pay, lie must rest content with his millet and pulse 
crops, for in such soils, in the majority of cases, wheat-cultiva- 
tion is a physical impossibility. 
While wheat-cultivation cannot, therefore, expand into the 
hdngar-bhur lands, there are immense tracts of rausli which wait 
only for means of export or for a supply of water to be at once 
thrown under the finest varieties of wheat. 
Methods of Wheat-Ctdtivation in the Panjdb. — The wheat 
crop of the Panjab is sown on rausli and rohi lands, and some- 
times also on ddJiar. It occupies the soil for about six months 
— the first sowings commencing about the middle of October, 
and the harvest operations throughout the province being com- 
pleted by the middle of March. The systems pursued vary to 
some extent in the various districts ' of the province, but mainly 
in consequence of the nature of soil and source of water-supply. 
We shall, therefore, comment specially on the systems adopted 
in Delhi, Ambala, Jullundur, Lahore, Jhang, Montgomery, 
Dera-Ismail-Khan, and Dera-Ghazi-Khan. 
The system followed in Montgomery for well-irrigated lands 
has been described thus : — 
" During the rains in June or July the land is ploughed two or three 
times and smoothed. If rain has been plentiful and the ground remains 
moist, seed is sown broadcast in October, November, and December. The 
ground is then again ploughed and smoothed, and the beds formed. If there 
is subsequent rain, the fields are irrigated from wells or jhdlars six or seven 
times; ijf there is no rain, nine or ten times. If there is little or no rain 
during the rainy season, or if the land does not remain moist up to October, 
it is irrigated before the 'seed is sown. If the seed is sown in October, 
a good crop is the result ; if in November, about twenty -five per cent, less than 
if sown in October ; and if sown in December, about thirty per cent, less." 
"On bhet or saildba lands. — At the last inundation during the rains 
(generally in August) the land is ploughed two or three times and smoothed. 
In October seed is sown through a drill ; no beds are formed, and no subse- 
quent irrigation takes place, as the crop depends on rainfall." 
In the majority of the districts, sowing through a tube 
attached to the handle of the plough is followed in prefer- 
ence to broadcast-sowings — the crop appearing in consequence 
in drills. In the Panjab generally drill-sowing is always 
' As the specific Indian meaning of the word " district " may not be under- 
stood, it is perhaps well to explain that it is practically synonymous with county 
or shire. Britih India is primarily divided into provinces ; those under a 
governor (called presidency), e.g. Madras and Bombay — a lieutenant-governor 
(called province), e.i/. Bengal, North-West Provinces, and the Panjab — or a chief 
commissioner, e./y. Central Provinces, Burma, and Assam. Under each of the.se 
chief administrators, the country is next divided into " divisions," each under a 
commissioner, and these are again subdivided into "districts," the lowest 
administrative unit — each under a magistrate-collector. The ordinary district 
in point of area is as large, if not larger, than the average county or shire, and 
its climate, soil, and physical configuration quite as diversified. 
