‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [‎127v] (253/949)

Nasratabad. No sugar-cane, rice or indigo is grown. The gardens glow
grapes, pomegranates, and apples; but the strong wind that blows tiom »e
north-west from June to September is against tree culture under the present
regime.
5. The Helmand River drains a large and extensive valley in Afghanistan
which receives its best rainfall in the winter from Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. storms. Much
of this falls as snow which melts and swells the river in the spring. Ihe period
of high river, therefore, coincides with the time of greatest demand for w r ater
for maturing the wheat and barley crops and sowing the kharif crops, such
as melons, millet, maize, and cotton. The fortunate timing of the petiod of
high river greatly enhances the value of the Helmand Liver for iriigaiion
purposes, and goes far to compensate for the fact that abnormal floods come at
the end of April when the crops are ripening.
The rirer is said to he at its lowest in August, and the supply increases
somewhat in September and October, due to storms of rain in Afghanistan.
Present information leads me to think that, from the beginning of October
to the end of December, the sowing time of early wheat, the discharge of the
river is between 2,500 and 3,000 cusecs. When the winter storms set in over
the catchment basin, the discharge rises to above 3,000 cusecs, so that during
January, the time for late sown wdieat, a good supply can be relied on. In
February and March the snow that has fallen in Afghanistan in winter, melts,
and the river rises rapidly to about 5,000 or 6,000 cusecs. If heavy rain occurs
in Afghanistan at this time, high floods occur. The present has been a year of
very exceptional rain, and on 1st May a flood of between 60,000 and 70,000
cusecs was gauged at Band-i-Seistan. Such floods, which were even higher,
were experienced about the same time of the year in 1890 and 1885. The early
sown wheat is harvested about the middle to the end of May, and the late sown
wheat from the beginning to the end of June. By harvest time the river
gradually falls, but is seldom so low that there is any need to put in bands to
give final waterings to wheat or waterings to sow melons, jow r ar, &c. The dis
charge in May and June is about 3,000 cusecs. In August and September the
river is at its low r est, and the discharge may be as low as 2,000 cusecs in ordinary
years. In September the tamarisk bands or weirs are put in repair, so as to
make sure of a good supply at a sufficient level to sow the important early
wheat and barley crops. These bands are maintained and repaired so long as,
and whenever, the river falls below the level needed, to fill the canals. They
seldom need repair after the first flood comes down early in January, because
after that the supply in the river is usually sufficient to work the canals. If it
is not, the bands are promptly repaired.
The river is liable to dry up. It was dry below Chahar Burjak in 1902 for
70 days, from 14th July to the 22nd September. Thirty years ago (1862) it
was dry for 40 days below Killa-i-Fatb, and 56 years ago (1846) it was dry for
22 days.
6. It is important to notice the long period over which wheat can be
sown : three months for early, and one month for late, sowings. The late crop is
nearly as good as the early crop. The soil being cool, the crop can be matured
with only three waterings. It is uncommon to give four waterings. The
waterings are required when the river is at its highest level. The long period
for sowing, coming at a time of the year (October to December) when the
supply is often restricted, enables a larger area of crops to be sown than other
wise could be done, because the water coflld, in a properly constructed and
administered canal system, be distributed by turns extending over four months.
For instance, if one quarter of the culturable area of three million acres is put
under Rabi annually, a daily average supply of 1,600 cusecs only throughout
the sowing period is enough to give the area a soaking of four inches^deep
before sowing. The calculation for this is as follows : since one cubic foot a
second will cover one acre two feet deep every twenty-four hours, it will give
a watering of six inches in a day to four acres, and to 480 acres in 120 days :
so that 1,562 cusecs will irrigate 750,000 acres in four months. Two inches of
the six inches should be allowed for wastage in channels, thus leaving a four,
inch watering for the land. This is ample for land so level and soil so finely
divided and cool. I have no doubt but that this amount of water will be