MUZAFFARGARII. 61 SULTAN, 2132 ; SITPUR, 2035; JATOI, 2035; Kor Adu, 2574; and DAIRA DINPINA, 1779. Total urban population, 21,856, or 64 per cent. of the District population. The entire population, however, included within the municipal limits of the above towns, numbers 24,936, or 7'4 per cent. of the District population. Of the villages, or collections of hamlets comprising the rural population, 216 contain less than two hundred inhabitants ; 208 from two to fire hundred ; 150 from five hundred to a thousand ; 66 from one to two thousand ; 18 from two to three thousand; and 6 from three to fire thousand inhabitants. As regards occupation, the Census of 18Si divided the adult male population of Muzaffargarh into the following seven main classes—(1) Professional and official class, 3221 ; (2) domestic and menial class, 1098; (3) commercial class, 2241 ; (4) agricultural and pastoral class, 57,679; (5) industrial and manufacturing class, 25,632 ; (6) indefinite and nonproductive class, 11,237; and (7) unspecified class, 6621. Agriculture. The area under cultivation in 1883–84 amounted to acres, of which 236,002 acres were irrigated from canals, while 146,950 acres depended for water supply upon the natural inundations of the Indus and the Chenáb, or upon private wells. Of the remaining area, 169,026 acres in the thal tract are utilized for grazing purposes; 924,504 acres are still available for cultivation; while 511,525 acres are uncultivable waste. The rainfall of the District is so slight that no crops can be grown in reliance upon its precarious aid. Water, however, is everywhere plentiful, except on the high thal in the north, A network of canals and minor distributaries intersects the whole lowland, worked by Persian wheels where the banks are high, but used for inundation during the floods. The District, indeed, suffers, not from want of water, but from want of proper control over it. The canals have all been dug by the people themselves, and existed for the most part before the British annexation. A small committee, elected by the contributories, manages the clearing of the channels and other similar duties, under Government supervision. The staple crops include wheat and barley for the rabi or spring harvest, and various millets for the kharif or autumn harvest. In the northern tract, a small amount of indigo, cotton, and sugar-cane is added ; in the south, a greater quantity of these commercial crops is raised ; while in the central belt, around Khángarh, they are produced in much larger proportion, with a corresponding diminution in the cereals. The following list shows the area under each crop in 1883 (including lands yielding two crops in the year):-Rabi-wheat, 191,605 acres; barley, 10,020; peas, 34,178; gram, 12,008; joár, 15,735 ; masur, 6301 ; oil-seeds (chiefly mustard), 17,970; drugs and spices, 4548; vegetables, 783 ; and iniscellaneous crops, 2517 acres: Kharifrice, 34,512 acres; bríjra, 13,304 ; other millets, 748; pulses, 6966;
