"دليل بلاد فارس، المجلد I ويشمل محافظات أستراباد، شاهرود-بوستان، خراسان، وسيستان" [ظ‎‎١‎٧‎٧] (٧٢٢/٣٥٩)

308
Approximate estimate of population, resources, Ac., of the district.
Area in square
miies.
Population.
Revenue.
Surplus grain,
in tons.
Enrolled irregular horsemen.
Armed
peasantry.
7,000
131,000
Tumdns.
66,000
2,000^
2,000 Aimak and Tai-
muri horse.
1 17,000
(
1,300 local hoi’se
)
This is not. a fixed estimate, but only derived by Captain Napier in
1874.
Of the above buluks, six may be set down as unproductive as regards
capacity for supply of foodgrains, for they do not even produce enough for
their own necessities; and it is unlikely an invader would be able under any
circumstances to get at their small stores, or at those of the peasantry
generally. From the remaining 10 buluks a grain rent, amounting
in all to 7,7£0 kharwars = 2,288£ tons, is taken; and this may be assumed
to be the surplus produce of the district, available at any season to any
force having command of its resources. It is now applied to the mainten
ance of the royal troops and functionaries of the government, assignment
holders, and khans, with their swarms of followers ; the urban population
and pilgrims, &c., and the purchasing consumers being supplied from distant
sources.
Save in limited areas in the mountains, no grains are cultivated or cut for
forage in any part of Khurasan. In the moist hollows in the eastern part
of Sarjam, and the wide plain at the head of the Mashhad valley about
Chinaran and Radkan, there are pastures, on which large numbers of cattle
and horses would find grazing at certain seasons,—in spring and after the
autumn rain. Horses are fed on chopped straw, wheat, or barley, mixed at
times with dried lucerne, of which limited quantities only are raised.
The supply of the former always bears some direct ratio to the supply of
grain. No very large supply could be calculated on in the vicinity of
Mashhad itself.
In a country the soil of which grows nothing spontaneously, save thistles,
wood is naturally scarce and dear. The villages on the hillskirts furnish a
limited supply, grown for the market and cut down periodically when of the
requisite thickness. This supply, however, is strictly limited to the wants
of the town and local consumption, and prices are never allowed to fall. The
mountains to the north, at a distance of 2-0 to 30 miles over the most
impracticable roads, produce a stunted growth of juniper, the supply of which
is at present only limited by the cost of carriage.
^ W ater is everywhere scarce, and often brackish, though not unwholesome.
The Kashaf Rud is brackish below Mashhad, as also are many of its feeders
from the mountain. Along the main line at the valley, however, kanats
and spiings are so numerous, that the largest force collected there would
suiter no inconvenience. At Mashhad itself there are numerous kanats, and
the water rises freely in the wells, which are usually sunk to a depth of
fiom 24 to 30 feet. Hie soil is alluvial to a depth of about 20 feet, con
sisting of small gravel and compact layers of coarse sand, underlying which
js a bed of stiff clay. > J *