172 PRODUCTS AND MANUFACTURES
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.
