Illustrations of some of the Grasses of the Southern Punjab, being Photo-lithographs of some of the Principal Grasses found at Hissar

Abstract

THIS work contains a series of thirty-eight photo-lithographs of the grasses used for agricultural purposes in the southern portion of the Punjab. The tract of country to which it relates lies to the west of Delhi, between the Jumna on the east and the Sutlej on the west. It constituted till recently the civil district of Hissar, which has now been broken up. It has an area of 8500 square miles, and a population of a million and a half. Except along the streams and canals the soil is sterile and sandy, and the crops depend upon the periodical rains. The staple cereals are Sorghum vulgare and Penicillaria spicata. In its centre is situated the great Government cattle-farm of Hissar, where for many years cattle of the finest Indian breeds have been reared by Government, principally for the supply of the ordnance and transport departments, but also to some extent for distribution through the country, with the aim of improving the commoner indigenous kinds. The Bir, or grass-lands, of this great farm are of very wide extent, and in the rainy season a large number of grasses, of more or less value as fodder, grow luxuriantly over its vast parks. The farm has altogether an area of above sixty square miles, and it is mainly from this that the species figured by Mr. Coldstream are taken.

Illustrations of some of the Grasses of the Southern Punjab, being Photo-lithographs of some of the Principal Grasses found at Hissar.

By William Coldstream, B.A., Bengal Civil Service. With 38 Plates and 8 pages of Introduction. (London: Thacker and Co. Calcutta: Thacker and Spink. 1889.)