Certain imports from Russia and India suffer from competition with the Kabul made product. In this respect the trade in gold and silver lace from Bokhara and India has fallen away very noticeably, although the quantity despatched from Bokhara still exceeds that imported from India. The trade in leather has also suffered by the development of local tanneries, but importations of the raw material are still necessary on account of the demands of the factory where the military equipment is made. The trade in paper comes almost solely from the Russian market and quantities are imported from across the Oxus. The paper is of foolscap size, of stout, inferior quality and white or blue in colour. There are two assortments: glazed and unglazed. The blue glazed variety is preferred, the unglazed kind usually being sized at Kabul. A busy trade in this commodity passes between Kabul and Kandahar, the Russian product having captured the market to the practical exclusion of all other brands. The paper needs to be stout to allow facility of erasure; on this account, and with reference to the nature of the ink employed, glazed paper is most satisfactory. The attention of the people is directed to the land rather than to trade and a very large proportion of the population takes naturally to cultivation. Farming is divided between the production of fruit and the growth of cereals. The Afghans are a fruit-loving people; in certain districts fruit, both in its fresh and preserved condition, forms the staple diet of a large section of the population throughout the year. A rapidly growing export in fresh and dried fruits exists with India. Indeed, so important has this industry become that, in the country round Kandahar, a marked increase in the number of orchards and fruit gardens has taken place within the last five years, the presence of the railway at New Chaman and its extension to Nushki making the exportation of fresh fruit not only practicable but profitable. Fruit farming is divided between orchard fruits, with which vegetable farming is usually combined and those fruits which may be grown in fields on a large scale. In the one class are apples, pears, almonds, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, grapes, figs, quinces, pomegranates and mulberries, in addition to walnut, pistacia, the edible pine and rhubarb, which grow wild in the northern and eastern highlands. Vegetable produce, which holds a high position in the export trade, includes most domestic vegetables; while, of the uncultivated vegetable products, the castor-oil plant, the mustard, sesame and assafœtida grow in great abundance. The fruit fields also produce several varieties of melons, including musk, water and scented melons, cucumbers and pumpkins. [Illustration: COTTON FIELDS UNDER IRRIGATION FROM THE AMU DARIA _Photo, Olufsen_]