Kashmir by Sir Younghusband Francis Edward (libby ebook reader txt) 📖

renewed by rich silt from the mountain streams. The soil of the higher parts is not so rich, though it, too, will give good returns. Irrigation is largely used for water is abundant, as the snow on the mountains forms a natural reservoir stored up for the hot weather, when it melts and runs down to the valley at the time when it is most wanted. The Kashmiri is very clever at making his little water channels and leading the water on to his field.

The agricultural implements used are simple and primitive. The plough is light, for the cattle which are yoked to it are small. It is made of wood, and the ploughshare is tipped with iron. The spade likewise is made of wood, has a long handle and a narrow face, and is tipped with iron. A hand hoe is also used for weeding.

Ploughing for rice, maize, and other autumn crops commences in the middle of March. In April and May these crops are sown. In June and July wheat and barley, sown in the previous autumn, are harvested. In July and August linseed is harvested. In August and September cotton-picking commences. In September and October rice, maize, and other autumn crops are harvested. In November and December ploughing for wheat and barley takes place. And during the winter rice and maize and other autumn crops are threshed.

Forests

Besides agricultural products the yield of the forests of Kashmir is also of great value. All the northward-facing slopes are covered with dense forests, a considerable part of which is of the valuable deodar. This is cut into sleepers, launched into the streams which find their way into the Jhelum, and so allowed to float down the river to the plains of the Punjab. Here the sleepers are caught where the river is slow and shallow, and sold at considerable profit to the State. The deodar is a very handsome tree, and is a variety of the cedar of Lebanon. It will be noticed by visitors to the valley along the road between Uri and Baramula, especially near Rampur. Less beautiful and less valuable as timber is the Blue pine (Pinus excelsa). It grows to a greater height than the deodar, which does not flourish above 6000 feet, and it may be seen at Gulmarg. The Himalayan spruce (Picea morinda) is very common, and also grows round Gulmarg, but its timber is of little value. Birches grow high up above the pines and next the snows; their timber is of no use, but the bark is much employed for roofing. In the forests are also found silver fir, horse-chestnut, and maple.

All these forests are owned by the State, and are now under the charge of a Forest Department, with a conservator from the Government service at its head. The boundaries of forests are being laid down, and the State is determining under what conditions neighbouring villagers and others may be granted the customary concessions for felling timber, grazing, and gathering grass and fuel. It is usual for the State to let fuel and fodder be gathered free, and to charge for grazing and for cutting timber for building and agricultural purposes. But the areas in which these operations can be permitted, and the rates to be charged, have to be fixed, and the operations regulated. The trees are counted, marked for felling according to their age, and in regular succession, so as to allow of young trees growing up to fill their place. And in many other ways the forests are watched so as to prevent their denudation, and all the damage that would be caused through the rainfall rushing off at once instead of being held up by the trees. By the proper regulation of the forests the State raises a handsome income; it secures the soil being retained on the hill-sides; and it has the water held up in springs as a reservoir; while the authorities in the Punjab know that the rain which falls in Kashmir will be held up by the forests till the cold weather, when it is wanted for the canals which are taken off from the Jhelum and Chenab rivers flowing out of Kashmir territory.

Of the trees which grow in the level portions of the valley the chenar is by far the most striking. As it grows in Kashmir it is a king among trees, and in its autumn foliage is one of the many attractions which go to make Kashmir one of the supremely beautiful spots in the world. Its official botanical name is the Platanus orientalis, and it is one of the varieties of the plane tree. The chief characteristic is the massiveness of its foliage—its umbrageousness. It grows to a considerable height; it has long outstanding branches and great girth—one which Mr. Lawrence measured was 63 feet round the base. And as the leaves are broad and flat, the whole mass of foliage is immense, and so thick that both sun and rain are practically excluded from any one sitting in its shade. Under the chenar trees in the Residency garden one can sit through a summer day without a hat, and through a summer shower without getting wet. All this mass of foliage turned purple, claret, red, and yellow in the autumn tinting, backed against a clear blue sky and overhanging the glittering, placid waters of the Dal Lake or the Jhelum River, forms a picture which can be seen in no other country than Kashmir.

The elm tree of Kashmir, though not so striking as the chenar, is still a very graceful object. One in the Lolab valley has been measured as 43 feet in girth, and in the Residency garden are some fine specimens.

The walnut is more common, and round the villages many handsome trees are often seen.

The poplar is now very common, and is planted alongside the road to what is now a quite distressing extent, for though these trees give shade they also cut out the view. The timber is used a good deal for building, though it is of poor quality.

The willow is a more really useful tree, and is much planted in moist places. Its leaves are used for fodder. Its shoots are to some extent, though not sufficiently, used for basket-making.

Mineral Products

The mineral products of the Kashmir valley are small. In other districts of the Kashmir State there are indications of a moderate amount of mineral wealth. In the Jammu province there is a considerable quantity of coal of a rather poor quality, and there is good iron and bauxite. Sapphires also are found there. And in Ladak, in the Indus and its tributaries, there are gold-washings. But in the Kashmir valley, with which we are at present dealing, only a small amount of iron has been worked so far, though it is believed that large quantities exist near Sopor and about Islamabad and Pampur; and copper has also been found near Aishmakam in the Liddar valley.

Peat is extracted from the low-lying lands on the Jhelum River, and can be used as a cheap fuel. Several strong sulphur springs are found in the valley, and limestone exists in many places, notably about Rampur, and on the Manasbal Lake.

Arts and Manufactures

Of manufactures the shawl is the best known, but the production has sadly fallen off of late years. In accordance with the treaty between the Kashmir State and the British Government, six pairs of shawls of fine quality have to be yearly paid to the latter, and but for this the industry would almost disappear. Kashmir shawls in the middle of the last century used to be very fashionable in Europe, but the Franco-Prussian War seems to have sealed the fate of the industry. After 1870 the fashion went out and has never revived; and the famine of 1877-79 carried off numbers of the weavers, so that now very few carry on the industry. According to M. Dauvergne, who was for many years connected with the shawl and carpet industry in Kashmir, the Kashmir shawl dates back to the times of the Emperor Baber. The first shawls which reached Europe were brought by Napoleon at the time of his campaign in Egypt as a present to the Empress Josephine.