SCENES IN THE PUNJAB

Evening Star, Issue 19772, 24 January 1928, Page 10

SCENES IN THE PUNJAB

FROM DESERT TO CORNFIELD Tho country round Lyallpur iny the Punjab presents a wonderful sight. The fields are neatly cut up into squares, and carefully partitioned off, so that the most may be made of the precious water which the skill of the Indian irrigation engineers has made 'available for the thirsty fields. The crops grown are tho most valuable for which the area is suited, wheat, cotton, and the golden-flowered oilseeds, And the proximity of the great College of Agriculture, with its farm attached, ensures that the species are the best of their kind and produce the greatest outturn. , . , The railway station of Lyallpur is said to be the'second largest exporter of wheat in the world, and from it [lours away, apparently unceasingly, train loads of [.surplus produce to other parts of India'and to the'rapidly growing port of Karachi. To realise what' Lyallpur, Sargodha, and Montgomery once were one mustthink of the country to be commanded by tho Sutlej Valley system now under construction. Water has begun to flow in the canals taking off from the Suleiman ko weir, and gradually by four weirs and twelve canals, deserts the size of Wales in tho Punjab, Bikauir, and Babawalpur States will become something like what Lyallpur now is. in the Babawalpur State a railway line runs down the margin of the desert close to the riverain of the Sutlej. One or two fortunate stations have sweet wells of their own; others have water pumped to the tanks from supplies some two or three miles away; but the staff of many wayside halts got their drinks from iron tanks brought down

the 'line from more iavored spots. From this lino for forty miles southward not a drop of sweet water can be obtained. Away in the distance lies the Hakra, the dry bed of some old river which has long ago lost its supply. Fortunately there is a flow of sweet water underground, and by the rare and deep wolfs to this supply are placed a. number of old forts, built to protect the graziers from Bajputana raiders. Some of the torts have been in existence for over 400 years. Others date hack 200 years, when the Daudpotras (Sons of David) of Bahawalpur first won the country from Jaisalmir. The Hakra bed must have been less desolate in the past, for it is by that route that iu the first half of the nineteenth century Elphinstone went as Envoy to Afghanistan and Shah Shnja came to take refuge in India. Between Sutlej and the Hakra there is aip ’jvatev The rainfall averages,,6nfjv's)h- -.a, yean> and-iiv very, good sefjsonk* small quantities .may. be caught -in ''shallow tanks, but this is negligible. Cattle and, sheepman grazewithin a certain, distance of a well on the two margins of the desert, and camels can penetrate still farther into the waste, ' they surviving without

wafer for some days and their attendants getting their drink from the camel’s milk. Here and there is a bitter well, with water soaked in sulphate of soda and smelling of sulphurated hydrogen, which suffices lor animal and mam who have lived in the desert from childhood; but no Indian, accustomed _to the water of tho riverain, can drink from such wells Wild birds and beasts arc rare. Ravine deer can endure without water for a long time, but the foxes do not penetrate info tho most arid parts. The Houhara bustard, samlgronso, and occasionally the Great Indian bustard, 4ft high, may be seen, if there lias been rain to make the grasses grow. Desert larks, whea tears, long-tailed tits, and shrikes appear hero and there in the course of a. long came! ride. The scenery for tho forty miles contains not a single tree, not even the stunted acacias, which can grow in barren soil if their long tap roots can find water within fll.H’t or so. There is a long succession of sandhills and saUbnshcs broken by stretches of hard ground, over which the, wind keeps the dust in constant movement. With all this we know from [last experience that the canals will bring down water which will fertilise the soil and percolating downward will enable, later on, sweet wells to be sunk. There will be hardships to be endured by the early colonists, but before long the wilderness will be covered with crop, and the wharves of Karachi will have more and more abundance of produce to export.—“A.O.B.,” in ‘Christian Science Monitor.’