The Memoirs of Bābur 910.4.1

910.4.1

Fruits of hot and cold climates are to be had in the districts near the town. Amongst those of the cold climate, there are had in the town the grape, pomegranate, apricot, apple, quince, pear, peach, plum, _sinjid_, almond and walnut.[738] I had cuttings of the _ālū-bālū_[739] brought there and planted; they grew and have done well. Of fruits of the hot climate people bring into the town;—from the Lamghānāt, the orange, citron, _amlūk_ (_diospyrus lotus_), and sugar-cane; this last I had had brought and planted there;[740]—from Nijr-au (Nijr-water), they bring the _jīl-ghūza,[741] and, from the hill-tracts, much honey. Bee-hives are in use; it_ is only from towards Ghaznī, that no honey comes. The rhubarb[742] of the Kābul district is good, its quinces and plums very good, so too its _badrang_;[743] it grows an excellent grape, known as the water-grape.[744] Kābul wines are heady, those of the Khwāja Khāwand Sa`īd hill-skirt being famous for their strength; at this time however I can only repeat the praise of others about them:—[745] The flavour of the wine a drinker knows; What chance have sober men to know it? Kābul is not fertile in grain, a four or five-fold return is reckoned good there; nor are its melons first-rate, but they are not altogether bad when grown from Khurāsān seed.