EXPERIMENTAL FARM 175
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.
Mustard is also grown—mostly 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 Kash- mir, 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
