Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/19

 LUULTAV DISTRICT.

(4) agricultural and pastoral class, including gardeners, 74,943 ; (5) industrial and manufacturing class, 46,393 ; (6) indefinite and nonproductive class, 23,659; (7) unspecified, 13,473. The language of the great majority of the population is a dialect known as Jatki or Múltání, classed by many as a dialect of Sindhi, between which language and Punjabi it occupies an intermediate position. Numerous ruins occur throughout the District. Those at AtarI have been identified by General Cunningham with the City of the Brachmans,' taken by Alexander during his invasion of India,

Agriculture. — The returns of 1983-84 state the total area under assessment for land revenue at 3,785,361 acres. Of this area, 518,622 acres were returned as under cultivation; 3,021,277 acres as grazing land, or land capable of being brought under cultivation; and 2 45,463 acres as uncultivable waste. Cultiration has steadily though not rapidly increased since the British annexation. The character of the agriculture remains slovenly, as the Ját tribes who compose the mass of the rural population have not yet lost their predatory and pastoral propensities. Only where Hindu capitalists of the Arora, Khattri, or Baniyá castes have obtained a hold upon the soil, does the husbandry reach even the ordinary standard of the Punjab plains. Illploughed land, seldom manured, sown with seed broadcast, and producing thin or irregular crops, shows a marked contrast to the fertility which might naturally be expected in a District, the cultivated portions of which are so abundantly irrigated. Near the city, however, capitalist farmers have brought their estates to a high state of cultivation. The creaking of the wooden Persian wheel, worked by bullocks, and lifting a steady supply of water from the wells, may be incessantly heard around Múltán, from before daybreak to long after dusk.

The area under various crops in 1883-84 (including lands bearing double crops), for the two great harvests of the year, is returned as follows :-Rabi—\Vheat, 237,912 ; jur, 58,958; barley, 4801; gram, 11,050; peas, 28,514; masuri, 3293 ; oil-seeds, 5005; drugs and spices, 1231; miscellaneous, 49,067 acres. Kharif -- Rice, 13,209 acres; bujra, 12,224; chini, 3598; other cereals, 525; pulses, 4099; oil-seeds (til), 12,978; cotton, 34,413; indigo, 62,392 ; sugar-cane, 2953; and miscellaneous, 495 acres. Of these, indigo forms the most important commercial staple, its cultivation having been largely encouraged by the Diwan Sawan Mall, and later by the British Government. With the exception of one small European concern, there are no indigo factories in Múltán. Each well, where indigo is grown, has its own vats; the manufacture is carried out on the spot by the samindár and his assistants, and the dye, made up into balls, is bought by traders who come in the cold weather from Bombay and Kábul. Sugar-cane forms a very valuable crop, but with the exception