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39 treated. Vegetables include the egg-plant, spinach, leek, cabbage, cauliflower, marrow, gourd, raddish, carrot, turnip, onion, potato, tomato, garlic, etc. Of the cucurbitaceous crops, known as Palez, melon, water-melon (Kharbooza and Tarbooz) are the most important. The province of Mazar-i-Sharif is especially noted for its delicious melons. Some of them are said to be so delicate that they would crack if a rider were to pass by them very swiftly, and some are so sweet that one has to take nearly half an inch off the slice before eating it. Northern Afghanistan is the home of wild-melon, a weed found in the crops of maize, sorghum and cotton. Sometimes it may be observed outside the crops, along the river banks and roads. On the whole expanse of Seistan, from Farah right up to the Iranian border, the wild water-melon is met with. In the desert of Helmand and Bukwa, on the Kandahar-Herat road, vast sandy tracts are covered with the growth of these melons, of the size of an orange. In winter dried fruits are driven by the storms over the deserts like balls. Other cultivated plants are cotton, sugarcane and beet-root. Sugarcane is grown extensively in the district of Laghman, Jalalabad, Lower Kunar, Chakhansur and Farah. It is chiefly used in making raw sugar, gur as they call it. Recently a sugar mill was established at Jalalabad to make use of sugarcane grown in the district. Cotton of best quality grows with facility in Northern Afghanistan up to an elevation of 5,000 feet above sea-level. The soil and climate of Kataghan and Mazar-i-Sharif are especially favourable to cotton-growing. Before 1935 the annual output was below 400 tons. Since then it has increased tremendously. Cotton yields have been boosted by seed