MULTAN DISTRICT.
of a little grown in the neighbourhood of Múltán city as fodder for the Commissariat elephants, its cultivation is confined to a few villages in Shújábád tahsil. Cotton occupies a considerable proportion of the kharif area, but it is grown almost entirely for home consumption. The average produce per acre of the various crops was returned as follows in 1883:-Rice, 800 lbs.; indigo, 31 lbs.; cotton, 104 lbs.; wheat, 752 lbs.; inferior grains, 472 lbs.
Irrigation extends over 326,057 acres from Government canal works, and over 97,732 acres supplied by private enterprise, mainly from wells. Rents are almost universally paid in kind. Unskilled labourers are paid at the rate of from 3 d. to 9d. per diem, while skilled labourers receive from is. to is. 6d. The average prices of food-grains for twenty years ending 1882 is returned as follows :-Wheat, 152 sers per rupee, or 75. 3d. per cwt. ; barley, 22 sers per rupee, or 4s. 11d. per cwt. ; gram, 194 sers per rupee, or 5s. 8 d. per cwt.; bájra, 201 sers per rupee, or 55. 5 d. per cwt.; and joár, 20 sers per rupee, or 5s. 5d. per cwt.
Commerce and Trade, etc.—The city of Múltán forms the great commercial centre of the District, but there are also báziírs at Shújábád, Kahror, Sarai Sidhu, Talamba, Lodhrán, Jalálpur, and other smaller towns. Thence the surplus produce of the District finds its way to the markets of MULTAN CITY (q.v.). The chief articles of trade are sugar and indigo from the lowlands, and wool and ghi from the pasture lands of the bár. Silk and fine cotton fabrics are produced at Múltán; coarse cotton cloth for home consumption is woven in every village. Indigo is also largely manufactured from the raw material. Woollen and cotton pile carpets are largely manufactured in Múltán city, which has also a wide reputation for its blue and green glazed pottery, and enamel work. The Múltán branch of the Sind, Punjab, and Delhi Railway, opened in 1864, connects the city with the Northern Punjab, and has its terminus at Ramuwala, a temporary station on the left bank of the Chenáb, two miles beyond Sher Shah. The intermediate stations on the line within Múltán District are Channu, Kacha-khú, Khanewala, Rashida, Tatipur, Múltán City and Cantonments, Muzaffar
ád junction, and Sher Shah ; total length, 74 miles. The Indus Valley State Railway, opened for traffic in 1878, starts from Múltán cantonments, and makes use of the Sind, Punjab, and Delhi Railway as far as Muzaffarábád junction, whence it runs south, with stations at Buch, Shújábád, Gelewálá, Lodhrán, and Adamwáhan, where it leaves Múltán District, after a course of 61 miles, by the Empress bridge over the Sutlej, and passes into Bahawalpur State. The Government telegraph line from Lahore to Karachi (Kurrachee) passes through Múltán, and a branch line goes to Dera Ghazi Khán. Telegraph lines also run along the whole lengtlı of the railway, with offices at each station. The principal lines of road radiate from Multán to Sher Shah, Jhang,
