Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 1).djvu/163

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ch. xiv]
AGRICULTURE AND CROPS
143

They are reaped in March and April. Roughly in the Panjab three-fifths of the crops belong to the spring harvest. In the N.W.F. Province the proportion is somewhat higher. In Kashmir the autumn crop is by far the more important.

Implements of Husbandry and Wells.— The implements of husbandry are simple but effective in a land where as a rule there is no advantage in stirring up the soil

Fig. 48 Persian Wheel Well and Ekka.

very deep. With his primitive plough (hal) and a wooden clodcrusher (sohdga) the peasant can produce a tilth for a crop like cane which it would be hard to match in England. There are two kinds of wells, the charsa or rope and bucket well and the karat or Persian wheel.

Rotations.— The commonest rotation in ordinary loam soils is to put in a spring and autumn crop in succession