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Fig. 47. Map of Canals of Pesháwar district.

CHAPTER XIV

AGRICULTURE AND CROPS

Classification by Zones.—In order to give an intelligible account of the huge area embraced by the Panjáb, N.W.F. Province, and Kashmír it is necessary to make a division of the area into zones. Classification must be on very broad lines based on differences of altitude, rainfall, and soil, leading to corresponding differences in the cultivation and the crops. For statistical purposes districts must be taken as a whole, though a more accurate classification would divide some of them between two zones.

Classes of Cultivation.—The broadest division of cultivation is into irrigated and unirrigated, the former including well (cháhí), canal (nahrí), and ábí. The last term describes a small amount of land watered from tanks or jhíls in the plains and a larger area in the hills irrigated by kuhls or small artificial channels. "Unirrigated" embraces cultivation dependent on rain (bárání) or on flooding or percolation from rivers (sailáb). (See Table II.)

Harvests.—There are two harvests, the autumn or kharíf, and the spring or rabí. The autumn crops are mostly sown in June and July and reaped from September to December. Cotton is often sown in March. Cane planted in March and cut in January and February is counted as a kharíf crop. The spring crops are sown from the latter part of September to the end of December. They are reaped in March and April. Roughly in the Panjáb three-fifths of the crops belong to the spring harvest. In the N.W.F. Province the proportion is somewhat higher. In Kashmír the autumn crop is by far the more important.