ople used to make their living
almost entirely as shepherds and camel owners. There were scattered
little plots of better soil where wells were sunk, and the laborious and
careful cultivation was and is Dutch in its neatness. Some millets were
grown in the autumn and the sandhills yielded melons. The people have
now learned that it is worth while to gamble with a spring crop of gram,
and this has led to an enormous extension of the cultivated area. But
even now in Mianwali this is a comparatively small fraction of the total
area. There is a small amount of irrigation from wells and in the
neighbourhood of Isakhel from canal cuts from the Kurram. Owing to the
extreme scantiness of the rainfall the riverain depends almost entirely
on the Indus floods, to assist the spread of which a number of
embankments are maintained. Everywhere in Mianwali the areas both of
crops sown and of crops that ripen fluctuate enormously, and much of the
revenue has accordingly been put on a fluctuating basis. The chief crops
are wheat, _bajra_, and gram. Jats[12] are in a great majority
Cis-Indus, but Pathans are important in Isakhel.

[Illustration: Fig. 108.]

[Sidenote: Area, 4791 sq. m.
Cultd area,
1933 sq. m.
Pop. 648,989.
Land Rev.
Rs. 16,96,272
= L113,085.]

~Shahpur~ is also a very large district with the three _tahsils_ of
Bhera, Shahpur, and Sargodha in the Jech Doab, and on the west of the
Jhelam the huge Khushab _tahsil_, which in size exceeds the other three
put together. The principal tribes are Jats Cis-Jhelam, Awans in the
Salt Range, and Jats and Tiwanas in Khushab. The Tiwana Maliks have
large estates on both sides of the river and much local influence. East
of the Jhelam the colonization of the Bar after the opening of the Lower
Jhelam Canal has led to a great increase of population and a vast
extension of the cultivated area, 71 p.c. of which is irrigated. The
part of the district in the Jech Doab consists of the river valleys of
the Chenab and Jhelam, the Utar, and the Bar. The Chenab riverain is
poor, the Jhelam very fertile with good well irrigation. In the north of
the district the Utar, a tract of older alluvium, lies between the
present valley of the Jhelam and the Bar. It has hitherto been largely
irrigated by public and private inundation canals, but this form of
irrigation may be superseded by the excavation of a new distributary
from the Lower Jhelam Canal. Till the opening of that canal the Bar was
a vast