Kashmir by Sir Younghusband Francis Edward (paper ebook reader .txt) π
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Fruit is another of Kashmir's important products which may be expected to largely increase in the future. Kashmir apples are renowned all over India. They are large, red, and attractive looking, and sell well as far down as Calcutta and Bombay. But they are not of really good flavour, and the apples from European stock now being grown are sure to have a large sale in the future. In the autumn months thousands of cart-loads are carried down the roads to the railway at Rawal Pindi. The apple grows wild in Kashmir, and the villagers uproot the wild trees and plant them in their orchards. But the State also now supplies them with young trees. Near Srinagar there are large State nurseries stocked with the best kinds from Europe, and every year thousands of young trees are given out free to the villagers, so that the valley may gradually be filled with the best available trees. The State also to a small extent grows apples for sale, and their trees are extraordinarily prolific. In the autumn one sees these apple trees weighed down to the ground with fruit, and M. Peychaud, the director in charge, says that he has taken as many as 30,000 from one tree. The apples also grow to an enormous size. And when the railway comes to Kashmir, and carriage is easier and cheaper, the export of apples and other fruit should increase to striking dimensions, and not only be one of the best means of making the railway pay, but bring great profits to the cultivators. The apple of Kashmir has a great future before him.
So has the pear. He is not so much to the fore at present, because he does not stand carriage as well; but the railway will remove that drawback, and he will run the apple hard. Like the apple, the pear also is found wild and transplanted into orchards. But good stock is now being grown in the State orchard and distributed from there. Some of these, and some that have been imported by European residents, have taken so kindly to Kashmir, that I believe their present products are not surpassed anywhere. From Major Wigram's garden comes a famous pear, so large, and soft, and luscious, as scarcely to support its own weight. Other winter pears keep right through to the early summer.
Quinces also are grown in considerable quantities. They make excellent jam, but are chiefly grown for their seed, which is exported to the Punjab.
Grapes have been tried, and on the shores of the Dal Lake there is a vineyard under the charge of a Frenchman, from which what is known as Kashmir wine is made. But this branch of fruit culture has not so far been so successful as the culture of pears and apples. It is said that the rain falls at the wrong time. But probably the most suitable descriptions of grapes have not yet been tried or the most suitable site yet selected. In the time of the Moghals they were plentiful, and wild vines are often seen. So it is hard to believe that grapes cannot be grown in Kashmir as well as the other fruits for which it is famous.
Walnut trees are found all over the valley, and quantities of the nuts are now exported, though formerly they were only used for oil. They are an excellent fruit, and one kind known as the kagazi has such a thin shell that it is easily cracked between the fingers, and the kernel is excellent. The villages on the lower slopes are often surrounded with walnut trees, some of enormous size, and adding greatly to the beauty of the village.
THE CAMPING-GROUND AT LIDARWA
Mulberries, as has been remarked in regard to sericulture, are plentifully grown. They are eaten in immense quantities by the people as well as by their animals.
Almonds are grown in considerable quantities in large orchards. Apricots are grown, but not very plentifully, and principally for oil. Peaches, cherries, pomegranates, and plums are also cultivated, but have not yet received much attention from the villagers. Strawberries grow abundantly in the gardens of Europeans, and gooseberries and currants also succeed. There is, indeed, scarcely a limit to what the fruit production of Kashmir might be if it received attention and care.
Of the food grains rice is the principal. With all the streams running down from the mountains ample water for the copious irrigation it requires is available. The Kashmiris are exceptionally clever in its cultivation, and they grow it up to an altitude of 7000 feet. The fields are terraced carefully to hold the irrigation, and are incessantly watered and anxiously weeded. Lawrence says that in one district alone he has found fifty-three varieties, and certain villages are famous for their peculiar rices. But they may be roughly divided into two classes, the white and the red, of which the former is the more esteemed by epicures, though the cultivators prefer the latter as it is less delicate, suffers less from changes of climate, and gives a larger out-turn. Lawrence gives the average crop of unhusked rice per acre as 17 maunds, or 1220 lbs. Large quantities of rice are exported to the Punjab.
Maize is the next most important crop. In the black peaty land lying along the Jhelum, and in the high villages where numbers of cattle graze and manure is plentiful, very fine crops are grown. As a rule it is grown on dry land, and is seldom irrigated. The stalk forms excellent fodder for cattle. The average yield in irrigated and dry swamp land is 11 maunds, or 880 lbs., and on dry land 8 maunds, or 640 lbs. per acre. As a diet maize ranks after rice, but the villagers, when money is scarce, will sell their rice and subsist on maize.
Barley is largely grown, but it is not of good quality, and no pains are taken in its cultivation.
Wheat receives better treatment, but the wheat flour of Kashmir is not esteemed. The average production on dry land is 7 maunds, or 560 lbs. per acre.
Millet is another food grain grown in Kashmir, but not very generally.
Buckwheat is cultivated in the higher villages.
Pulses are not much grown. Mung (Phaseolus Mungo) is the best, and is often sown in rice lands which require a rest. Others are raΓ‘h (Phaseolus radiatus) and mothi (Phaseolus aconitifolius). Peas and white beans are occasionally cultivated; in the gardens of European residents they give excellent results.
Oil-seeds are largely grown, and now that a company for oil-pressing is being started, still more attention is likely to be paid to them. The Kashmiris do not use ghi (clarified butter) in their food. They consequently require vegetable oils for that purpose, and as mineral oils are too expensive, they use them also for lighting. The principal oil-seed grown is the rape, of which there are three varieties. An average crop is 3 maunds, or 240 lbs. per acre. Large quantities of linseed are also produced, of which an average crop would be 1Β½ to 2 maunds, 120 to 160 lbs. per acre. Til (Sesamum indicum) is a very common crop. It yields 1Β½ maunds, or 120 lbs. per acre. Til is also extracted from the walnut and apricot. Rape seed gives the best oil for lighting purposes, and linseed for eating.
Cotton is grown to a small extent all over the valley, and both the fibre is used for home-manufactured cotton cloth, and the seed is used as food for cattle.
Tobacco is cultivated in many parts. And two very beautiful crops are amaranth and saffron. The former is grown in many places along the edges of the fields, and gives a purply crimson touch to the landscape. Its minute grains are first parched, and then ground and eaten with milk or water. It is especially used by the Hindu on festival days. The latter is grown on the plateau above Pampur, and when in blossom forms one of the sights of Kashmir. The plant is like a crocus, and the flower mauve and purple. A large space of the plateau is covered with it, and this sheet of colour adds a strikingly beautiful effect to an already beautiful landscape. The saffron of Kashmir is famous for its bouquet, and is used as a condiment and as a pigment for the forehead marks of the Hindus. The flowers are dried in the sun, and the pollen is extracted by hand. It is this pollen and the pollen-bearing portion of the flower which form the saffron.
A WAYSIDE SHRINE
Mustard is also grownβmostly for oil; and round the town, especially round Srinagar, in the vicinity of the Dal Lake, vegetables are cultivated in market gardens. The cultivation of potatoes, indeed, is now increasing so rapidly that many scores of cart-loads are annually exported to the Punjab.
Hops are grown by the State at Dabgarh near Sopur, and their cultivation could doubtless be extended, but so far the cultivators, who are very conservative, have not taken to it.
Such are the chief vegetable products of Kashmir, and the State is making endeavours to improve existing staples and introduce anything new which may prove productive in the country. For this purpose the Maharaja has established a model farm, known as the Pratab Model Farm, and situated near the Shalimar garden to experiment with different varieties of grain and different methods of cultivation, and it is hoped that if new varieties prove specially productive they will be taken up by the cultivators. The farm was opened by Lord Minto in the autumn of 1906. Long rows of accurately measured plots of ground, one-sixteenth of an acre each, are planted with the different varieties, and their yield carefully measured. As one passes up the line he sees at a glance the relative qualities of each variety of wheat or maize or rice, and if the farm is carefully worked for a series of years it ought to give some valuable results. Already the cultivators have been attracted by the enormous size of some maize from Canada grown on the farm. Some very straight Russian flax recommended by the Dundee Chamber of Commerce seems to promise good results. And perhaps beetroot for sugar may also have a success, for almost any vegetable product that grows in a temperate climate will grow in Kashmir.
The crops reaped in the spring in Kashmir are wheat, barley, rape, flax, pea, and bean. Those reaped in the autumn are rice, maize, cotton, saffron, millet, tobacco, hop, amaranth, buckwheat, pulse, sesame.
The alluvial soil of the valley is of great fertility, and every year is
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