The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1935-08-02


Kalat farmers occupy the valleys
While some fruits, cotton and dates
are exported, the farmers are scarcely
able to produce enough food for domes-
tic consumption. Normal rainfall Is
scanty and the soil is poor. In the
northern part of the state, which Is
one of the hottest areas in India, the
sun is relentless in its destruction of
crops. Famine visited the state In
1880 and lasted for ten years.
Farming and Fishing.
Here and there farmers have built
crude irrigation works that are fed by
springs and small streams, but more
often the native cultivators depend up
on floods to water and fertilize their
soil.
Along the coast hundreds of small,
clumsy fishing boats operate in the
Arabian sea fisheries. The fish are
sailed and form one Of the leading
articles Of Kalat commerce.
There are no organized industries
in the state. Every native woman Is
an expert with the needle and she
makes all the family clothing. Wool
and goat hair from domestic animals
are her working materials and what
she does not use finds its way to
Pasni, the leading Kalat port, destined
to foreign markets. A peep through
the door of native hut may also re-
veal pottery factory, but only small
quantity of the homemade product is
sold beyond the Kalat borders.
Just across the Baluchistan border,
in the province of Sind, is the seaport
Of Karachi which has been crowded
with refugees from the earthquake dis
tricts. Like Marseilles, near the mouth
of the Rhone, and Alexandria, near the
mouth of the Nile, Karachi is of a
great river, but not on it. 1t is just
off the delta of the Indus; but Its i'm
portance is largely gift from that
stream, whose shifting alluvium has
swallowed up it's rivals.
Tatta, an old capital Of Sind, as
Karachi is today, was on deep-water
branch of the Indus short distance
above its mouth. 1t f1ourished until
the river left it high and dry. Shah
bandar, a more famous Sind port on
another Indus branch, could, like New
Orleans, be reached by deep-draught
men-of-war. But about 1925 Shahban-
dar also became silted up and is now
only an inland village. Common sense
dictated the choice of a port outside
the shifting delta, and Karachi, in a
sheltered bay a short distance to the
west. began to grow in Importance.
Karachl Once Shaving Center.
Karachi's chief product" of import
and export had been Abyssinian slaves
brought by Arab boatmen from Masqat
Since British control came to north
western India, Karachi's hinterland has
been greatly developed through i'm
proved irrigation methods, and swell
ing stream of agricultural and other
products has flowed to the port. After
a railway was built to tap the Punjab's
wheat fields, Karachi became India's
greatest grain port. In population the
town has jumped from less than 10000
before the British came, to about $685.
600 today.
Though Karachi has huge and rich
land to draw from, it's immediate sur
roundings are rather discouraging.
Rocky peninsulas jut out to shelter its
harbor. A dun-colored, dry plain sur
rounds the town. A few miles to the
northwest lie the scanned, baked-clay
hills of Baluchistan, "as strange a
country as any in Asia"
Of along the coast and into Baluchi.
stan strikes the amphibian telegraph
line that gives Karachi it's most direct
connection with the West. A land line
until it gets well into Baluchistan, it
then dives into the sea to come up
again on the Persian coast and strike
overland through Persia and Turkey to
Europe.
Gateway for Central Asia.
Karachi is not only door for India,
1t is the gateway besides for much of
central Asia. Numerous products that
are freighted into Karachi harbor find
their way up through the famous Khy-
Der Pass and over Himalayan trails
to Afghanistan, Turkistan and Tibet.
Many millions of dollars have been
spent on the harbor of Karachi in the
construction Of moles, jetties and 9th.
err port works. Keeping its waters
deep enough is a never ending fight
A strong ocean current sweeps to the
entrance part of the tremendous load
of silt brought down by the Indus, and
this must be continually dredged away
that Karachi may not suffer a fate like
that which overlook Tatta and Shah
handaP