Sentence continued from p. 413.] material for ship-building. The home of the teak is in the Teak. Bombay Gháts, Kánara, Cochin, Travancore, and the Burmese peninsula, where it flourishes under an excessive rainfall. Second to teak is the sál (Shorea robusta), which is indigenous Sál. along the lower slopes of the Himalayas from the Sutlej basin east to Assam, among the hills of Central India, and in the Eastern Ghats down to the Godávari river. On the Himálayas of North-Western India, the distinguishing timber-tree is the deodára (Cedrus deodara); while on the North-Eastern Deodára. Himálayan frontier its place is occupied by Pinus khasiana and other trees, such as oak and chestnut, of a temperate zone. These noble trees supply the most valuable timber, and are the chief care of the Forest Department. But they are only the aristocracy of countless species, yielding timber, South firewood, and other products of value. In the south of the Indian peninsula, the mountain range of the Western Ghats, from Travancore northwards into Kánara, is clothed with an inexhaustible wealth of still virgin forest. Here there are three The three forests. forest separate vegetations-(1) an evergreen belt on the seaward face belts. of the mountains, where grow the stately pún (Calophyllum elatum), valuable as spars for ships, the anjili or wild jack (Artocarpus hirsutus), and a variety of ebony (Diospyros ebenum); (2) a belt of mixed forest, varying from 10 to 40 miles in width, which yields teak, blackwood (Dalbergia latifolia), and Lagerstroemia microcarpa, and here and there continuous avenues of lofty bamboos; (3) a dry belt, extending over the central plateau, in which the vegetation declines in size and abundance. The precious sandal-wood (Santalum Sandalalbum), limited almost entirely to Mysore and Kánara, thrives tree. best on a stony soil, with a light rainfall. In the Bombay Presidency, the chief forest areas, excluding Kánara, are to be found in the extension of the Western Ghats, known as the Sahyadri range, and in the delta of the Indus in the outlying Province of Sind. forests. The Sind river valley forests present many peculiar Sind features. They are locally reported to have been formed as game preserves by the Mírs or Musalmán rulers, and are divided into convenient blocks or belás, fringing the entire course of the Indus. Being absolute State property, their management is embarrassed by no difficulties, excepting those caused by the uncontrollable floods of the river. They furnish abundant firewood, but little timber of value, their chief produce being bábúl (Acacia arabica), bhán (Populus euphratica) Punjab forests. Forests of of Oudh and N. Bengal. and tamarisk (Tamarix indica). In the Punjab, the principal forests of deodára (Cedrus deodara) lie beyond the British frontier, in the Himálayan valleys of the great rivers; but many of them have been leased from the bordering States, in order to secure a supply of firewood and railway sleepers. On the Punjab plains, the only woods are those growing on the rákhs or upland plateaux which rise between the converging river basins. The chief trees found here are varieties of Prosopis, Capparis, and Salvadora; but the Forest Department is now laying out more valuable plantations of sissu (Dalbergia sissu), baer (Zizyphus jujuba), and kikar. The North-Western Provinces present the Himalayan type of forest in Kumáun and Garhwal, where the characteristic trees are the chil (Pinus excelsa) and chir (Pinus longifolia), with but little deodára. Farther west occurs a forest-belt of sál, which may be said to form the continuous boundary between Nepál and British territory. Owing to the facility of water communication and the neighbourhood of the great cities of Hindustan, these sál forests have long ago been stripped of their valuable timber, and are but slowly recovering under the care of the Forest Department. Oudh and Northern Bengal continue the general features of the North-Western Provinces; but the hill station of Dárjíling is surrounded by a flora of the temperate zone. Calcutta has, from its foundation, drawn its supply of fireSundarban wood from the inexhaustible jungles of the SUNDARBANS, forests. which have recently been placed under forest conservancy rules. This tract, extending over 3000 square miles, is a dismal swamp, half land, half sea or fresh water, overgrown by an almost impenetrable jungle of timber-trees and underwood. The most valued wood is the sundari (Heretiera littoralis), which is said to give its name to the tract. Assam and Chittagong, like the Malabar coast and British Burma, still possess vast areas of virgin forest, although the more accessible tracts have been ruthlessly laid waste. Beside sál and Pinus khasiana, the timber-trees of Assam include nahor or nágeswar (Mesua ferrea), súm (Artocarpus chaplasa), and járul (Lagerstroemia reginæ). Ficus elastica, yielding the caoutchouc of commerce, was formerly common, but now the supply is chiefly brought from beyond the frontier. Plantations of teak, tún (Cedrela toona), sissu, and Ficus elastica are now being formed and guarded by the Forest Department. In Burma, the importance of teak exceeds that of all the other timber-trees together. Next comes iron-wood (Xylia dolabri Assam forests. Burmese forests. formis), and Acacia catechu, which yields the cutch of commerce. Throughout the centre of the peninsula, forests cover Central India. a very extensive area; but their value is chiefly local, as none of the rivers are navigable. Towards the east, sál predomi nates, and in the west there is some teak; but fine timber of either species is comparatively scarce. Rájputána has a beautiful tree of its own, a variety of Anogeissus, with small leaves and drooping branches. ministra From the administrative point of view, the Indian forests Forest adare classified as 'reserved' or as 'open.' The reserved forests tion. are those under the immediate control of officers of the Forest. 'Reserved' Department. They are managed as the property of the State, forests. with a single eye to their conservancy and future development as a source of national wealth. Their limits are demarcated after survey; nomadic cultivation by the hill tribes is prohibited; cattle are excluded from grazing; destructive creepers are cut down, and the hewing of timber, if permitted at all, is placed under stringent regulations. The open forests are less care- 'Open' forests. fully guarded; but in them, also, certain kinds of timber-trees are preserved. A third class of forest lands consists of planta- Plantations, on which large sums of money are spent annually, with tions.' a view to the rearing and development of timber-trees. finance, It is impossible to present, in a single view, the entire results Forest of the labours of the Forest Department. In 1872-73, the total 1872-78. area of reserved forests in India was estimated at more than 6,000,000 acres ; and the area has probably been doubled since that date. In the same year, the total forest revenue was £477,000, as compared with an expenditure of £295,000, thus showing a surplus of £182,000. By 1877-78, the revenue had increased to £664,102, of which £160,308 was derived from British Burma, and £126,163 from Bombay. The forest exports in that year included-teak, valued at £406,652; lac and lacdye, £362,008; caoutchouc, 89,381; and gums, £183,685. But these figures fail to exhibit the true working of the Forest Department, which is gradually winning back for India the fee-simple of her forest wealth, when it was on the point of being squandered beyond the possibility of redemption. The practice of nomadic cultivation by the hill tribes Nomadic may conveniently be described in connection with forest cultivation. conservation, of which it is the most formidable enemy. In all the great virgin forests of India, in Arakan, on Its area. the north-east frontier of Assam and Chittagong, throughout the Central Provinces, and along the line of the Western Gháts, the aboriginal tribes raise their crops of rice, cotton, and ties. millets by a system of nomadic tillage. A similar method has been found in Madagascar; and, indeed, from its simplicity and its appropriateness, it may fairly be called the most primitive form of agriculture known to the human race. Known as toungya in Burma, júm on the north-east frontier, dahya in Central India, kil in the Himálayas, and kumári in the Western Ghats, it is practised without any material differences by tribes of the most diverse origin. Its essential features are the burning Its varie- down of a patch of forest, and sowing the crop with little or no tillage in the clearing thus formed. The tribes of the Bombay coast break up the cleared soil with a sort of hoe-pick and spade, or even with the plough; in other parts of India, the soil is merely scratched, or the seed scattered on its surface without any cultivation. In some cases, a crop is taken off the same clearing for two or even three years in succession; but more usually the tribe moves off every year to a fresh field of operations. Every variety of implement is used, from the bill-hook, used alike for hewing the jungle and for turning the soil, to the plough. Every degree of permanence in the cultivation. may be observed, from a one-year's crop to the stage at which an aboriginal tribe, such as the Kandhs, visibly passes from nomadic husbandry to regular tillage. tiveness. To these nomad cultivators the words rhetorically used by Tacitus of the primitive Germans are strictly applicable Its destruc--Arva per annos mutant; et superest ager. The wanton destruction wrought by them in the forest is incalculable. In addition to the timber-trees deliberately burned down to clear the soil, the fire thus started not unfrequently runs wild through the forest, and devastates many square miles. Wherever timber has any value from the proximity of a market, the first care of the Forest Department is to prohibit these fires, and to assign heavy penalties for any infringement Restraints of its rules. The success of a year's forest operations is mainly estimated by the degree in which the reserves have been saved from the flames. on it. Merits of nomadic tillage. A But vast tracts of country yet remain in which it would be equally useless and impossible to place restraints upon nomad cultivation. The system yields a larger return for the same amount of labour than permanent plough - husbandry. virgin soil, manured many inches deep with ashes, and watered by the full burst of a tropical rainfall, returns forty and fifty-fold of rice, which is the staple grain thus raised. In addition to rice, Indian corn, millet, oil-seeds, and cotton, are sometimes grown in the same clearing, the seeds being all thrown into the |