The Coolidge examiner., 1935-08-09

Many OF the tribes Craze sheep and
herd goats, following their ami
mails wherever there Is fresh pas
turage. Some OF them live the year
round in mating or cloth-covered
huts; others refuse to be burdened
with cargo when on the move and
build new brushwood huts at each
stop.
Kalat farmers occupy the val
leys While some fruits, cotton and
dates are exported, the farmers
are scarcely able to produce enough
food for domestic consumption. Nor
NAL 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 relent-
less In its destruction Of crops.
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 upon floods to water and fer
tlliZe their soil.
Along the coast hundreds of
small. clumsy fishing boats operate
In the Arabian sea fisheries. The
fish are salted and form one OF
the leading articles Of Kalat com
merce.
There are no organized indus
tries In the state. Every native
woman is an expert with the needle
and she makes all the family cloth
Ing. Wool and goat hair from do
mestic animals are her working ma
terials and what she does not use
finds its way to Pasni, the lead
Ing Kalat port, destined to foreign
markets. A peep through the door
OF a native hut may also reveal q
pottery factory. but only a small
quantity OF the homemade product
is sold beyond the Kalat borders.
Just across the Baluchlstan Dor.
der, in the province Of Sind. is the
seaport OF Karachi which has been
crowded with refugees from the
earthquake districts. Like Mar
Rhone, and Alexandria, near the
mouth OF the Nile, Karachi Is OF
a great river, but not on 1t. tits just
off the delta OF the Indus; but its
Importance Is largely a gift from
that stream, whose shifting allu-
vlum has swallowed up its rivals.
karaehI Once a Shaving Center.
Karachls chief product" Of i'm
port and export has been Abyssin-
ian slaves brought by Arab boat
men from Masqat. Since British
control came to northwestern In
dia, Karachi's hinterland has beer
greatly developed through improved
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 be
came India's greatest grain port
In population the town has jumped
from less than 10000 before the
British came, to about 100000 to
day.
Though Karachi has a huge and
rich land TO draw from, It's imme-
dlate surroundings are rather dis
couraging. Rocky peninsulas jut
out to shelter its harbor. A dun.
colored, dry plain surrounds the
town. A few miles to the north
west lie the scanned, baked-clay
hills of Baluchistan, "as strange 8
country as any in Asia"
OF along the coast and into Balu.
chistan strikes the amphibian tele-
graph line that gives Karachi its
most direct connection with the
West. A land line until it gets
well into Baluchistan, 1t then dives
into the sea to come up again or
the Persian coast and strike over.
land through Persia and Turkey to
Europe.
Gateway for Central Asia.
Karachi is not only a door for
India, 1t Is the gateway besides for
much Of central Asia. Numerouc
products that are freighted inre
Karachl harbor find their way up
through the famous Khyber Pass
and over Himalayan trails to Af-
ghanistan and Tibet.
Many millions Of dollars have
been spent on the harbor of Karachf
In the construction Of moles, jetties
and other 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