A pamphlet written for the International Exposition at Rio de Janeiro in 1908, contains a chapter written by a forester, Borges, which gives most recent and authentic information.Besides notes scattered through the literature, an article by L. Pardée, a French botanist, in Revue des Eaux et Forêts, 1911, gives an extensive description of forest conditions and especially of the forest of Leiria.
A pamphlet written for the International Exposition at Rio de Janeiro in 1908, contains a chapter written by a forester, Borges, which gives most recent and authentic information.
Besides notes scattered through the literature, an article by L. Pardée, a French botanist, in Revue des Eaux et Forêts, 1911, gives an extensive description of forest conditions and especially of the forest of Leiria.
The small kingdom which occupies the west coast of the Iberian peninsula, with 34,000 square miles and 6 million people, is in many respects similar to Spain, except that a larger portion is fertile, beingsituated in the litoral region, the climate less excessive, and the people somewhat more enterprising. Not much more than one-half of the country, however, is utilized; nearly 15,000 square miles being waste.
Three sections or zones are recognized, the northern, bounding on Spain which is mainly mountainous but also contains extensive sand dunes, is the best wooded; the central, which is hilly and less well wooded, contains (in Estremadura and Beira) one of the most desolate regions of Europe and at the same time the best managed forest; the southern, the richest in farm lands, with semi-tropic climate and flora, the zone of evergreen broadleaf flora.
About 10% of the land area, or 4 million acres are under forest, although 2 million more are wooded with olive, fig, almond plantations, or open woodlands and brushwood. Of the actual forest area the State owns only 82,000 acres, 30,000 of which reforested areas or sand dunes in process of recovery.
The composition is nearly one-half of pine (Pinus maritimaandpinea), one-fifth, cork oak “with pastures,” a little over one-fifth, other evergreen oaks “with pastures,” and the balance, chestnut and deciduous oaks.
The fact of the extensive private ownership and the reference to the pastures in the enumeration of forest areas suffice to give an idea of the condition of mostof them. The oak forest is also to a large extent still used for hog raising.
Besides the native forest areas, there are in existence a number of parks and plantations of exotics, the climate of Portugal in parts resembling that of California and permitting a wide range of introductions, even tropical. There is perhaps nowhere such a good opportunity of seeing the most varied forest flora in fine development as the forest parks of Montserrate, of Bussaco, and in the various botanical gardens.
Extensive Eucalyptus and Acacia plantations, some 1500 acres, of high economical value, near Abrantés, are the enterprise of a private landowner, W. C. Tait.
The deficiency of wood supplies is covered by an importation of about 1.5 million dollars against which there is an export of a little over half a million, mainly cooperage stock. The best developed forest industry is the growing of cork giving rise to an export of around 5 million dollars. A considerable naval store production is also developed.
The first attempt at a real management of the State’s property dates from 1868; a regular organization, however, did not take place until 1872, when, under the Director-General of Commerce and Industries, a forest administrator with a technical staff of three division chiefs, corresponding to the three sections of country, and six forestmasters were installed.
At present, the staff of the Inspector consists of8 technically educated assistants, each in charge of some branch of service. Under these, there are a number of field agents or supervisors (some 14 in 1903) with less education, and underforesters and guards.
The only really well managed forest, the pride of the Portuguese foresters, is the forest of Leiria in Estremadura, a planted pinery of about 25,000 acres, on which over 50 men of various grades are employed, with naval store distilleries, impregnating works, and saw mills. Its management (in natural seed tree system) dates from 1892.
Besides attending to the management of the State forests, a committee composed of the administrator and some of the technical staff, were to examine the country and decide what parts needed reforestation. As a result of a very full report, in 1882, a reboisement law was enacted under which some of the sand dunes were fixed.
In 1903, a more thorough organization of this work took place, which, with liberal appropriations, promises more rapid progress.
This law recognizes two ways of placing private property under a forestry regime, namely obligatory and facultative or voluntary. Territory in the mountains and on dunes may if deemed by the superior Agricultural Council as requiring it from the point of view of public utility be placed under the regime by royal decree. Or else private owners may ask to have their properties so placed, either merely securing police protection, obligating themselves to keep the property wooded, or working under a working planor reforestation plan provided by the Forest Service.
In either case the owner is obliged to pay the guards and at the rate of about 2 cents per acre for the working plans. Planting material is furnished free or at cost price, and exemption from taxes for 20 years is granted for reforested lands. Expropriation of waste lands declared as of public interest is provided, if owners object to enforced reforestation. Some 275,000 acres have so far been placed under the forestry regime.
There are provisions for forestry education in the School of Agriculture at Lisbon, or the education for the higher positions in the forest service may be secured at German or French forest schools, and some have secured it at Vallambrosa.
Historical Inquiries concerning Forests and Forest Laws, byPercival Lewis, 1811, gives a full account of the practices in the old ban forests.English Forests and Forest Trees, 1853, anonymous, gives an interesting account of the old ‘forests’ and their history.Our Forests and Woodlands, byJohn Nisbet, 1900, has a chapter on the historical development of forest laws.Wm. Schlich, Manual of Forestry, vol. I, 3d ed., 1906, brings in convenient form an account of conditions in various parts of the British Empire.Schwappach,Forstliche Zustände in England, Zeitschrift für Forst- und Jagdwesen, 1903, is an account of forest conditions from the pen of a practical observer.B. Ribbentrop, Forestry in India, 1900. Also various reports of the forest departments of the various British Colonies.
Historical Inquiries concerning Forests and Forest Laws, byPercival Lewis, 1811, gives a full account of the practices in the old ban forests.
English Forests and Forest Trees, 1853, anonymous, gives an interesting account of the old ‘forests’ and their history.
Our Forests and Woodlands, byJohn Nisbet, 1900, has a chapter on the historical development of forest laws.
Wm. Schlich, Manual of Forestry, vol. I, 3d ed., 1906, brings in convenient form an account of conditions in various parts of the British Empire.
Schwappach,Forstliche Zustände in England, Zeitschrift für Forst- und Jagdwesen, 1903, is an account of forest conditions from the pen of a practical observer.
B. Ribbentrop, Forestry in India, 1900. Also various reports of the forest departments of the various British Colonies.
It is a remarkable fact that the nation which can boast of the most extensive forest department in one of her colonies, has at home not yet been able to come to an intelligent conception even, not to speak of application, of proper forest policy or forest economy.
One of the English authorities on the subject writes still in 1900: “With so much land of poor quality lying uncultivated in many parts of the British Isles, the apathy shown towards forestry in Britain is one of the things that it is impossible to understand.”
If we should venture to seek for an explanation, we would find it in geographical and physical conditions, but still more in personal and political characteristics, historically developed, such as also in the United States make progress of forestry slower than it would otherwise be.
Due to her insular position with which in part thedevelopment of her naval supremacy is connected, England can readily supply her needs by importations. Situated within the influence of the Gulf stream, the climate is much milder than her northern location would indicate, and is in no respect excessive. The topography is mostly gentle, except in Scotland and Wales, and the riverflow even all the year. Hence the absence of forestcover has not been felt in its physical influences.
Britons, Picts, Scots, Scandinavians, Anglo-Saxons and Normans are the elements which have amalgamated to make the English people. Through endless warfare and political struggle the three countries, England, Scotland and Ireland had, by the year 1600, come under one ruler, although final legislative union with Scotland did not take place until 1707, and with Ireland not until 1800.
Theoretically, forming a constitutional monarchy, practically, an aristocracy with republican tendencies, the history of the islands has been a struggle, first to establish race supremacy, then to secure the ascendency of the nobility and landholders over the king and the commoners, in which the former have been more successful than the barons in other parts of Europe.
Politically, the Englishman is an individualist, jealous of his private interests and unwilling to submit to government interference for the public welfare. Hence, State forestry, which is finally the only solution of the forestry problem, appears objectionable. Commercial and industrial enterprise rather than economic development appeals to him; the practicalissue of the day rather than demands of a future and systematic preparation for the same occupy his mind. He lacks, as Mr. Roseberry points out, scientific method, and hence is wasteful. Moreover, he is conservative and self-satisfied beyond the citizens of any other nation, hence if all the wisdom of the world point new ways, he will still cling to his accustomed ones. In the matter of having commissions appointed to investigate and report, and leaving things to continue in unsatisfactory condition he reminds one of Spanish dilatoriness. These would appear to us the reasons for the difficulty which the would-be reformers experience in bringing about economic reforms.
Cæsar’s and Strabo’s descriptions agree that Great Britain was a densely wooded country. The forest area seems to have been reduced much less through long-continued use, than through destruction by fire and pasture, and by subsequent formation of moors, so that it is now, excepting that of Portugal, the smallest of any European nation in proportion to total area, and, excepting that of Holland, in proportion to population.
Of the 121,380 square miles, which Great Britain and Ireland represent, less than 4 per cent., or 3 million acres, (880,000 in Scotland, 303,000 in Ireland) are forested, one-fourteenth of an acre per capita; but there are nearly 33% of waste lands, namely over 12 million acres of heaths, moors and other waste lands capable of forest growth, and another 12 million acres partly or doubtfully so, while the agriculturalland in crops and pasture comprises about 48 million acres. The waste areas re-forested, it is believed, could meet the consumption now supplied by importations. Notably in Scotland, extensive heaths and moors of many hundred square miles in the Northern Highlands and the Grampian mountains—well wooded in olden times, the woods having been eradicated supposedly for strategic reasons—are now without farms or forests, and are mainly used for shooting preserves. In the last thirty years, the land under tillage has continuously decreased, and now represents less than 25 per cent. of the whole land area, grasslands occupying 38 per cent.
The agricultural land as well as the mountain and heath lands, are to the largest extent owned by large proprietors (in 1876, 11,000 persons owned 72 per cent. of the total area of the British Islands). With the exception of 67,000 acres of crownlands, the entire forest area is owned privately, and that mostly by large landed proprietors, there being no communal ownership, except that the municipality of London owns a forest area (Epping Forest) devoted to pleasure, and the Water Board of Liverpool has begun to plant some of its catchment basins.
Practically the entire wood supply is imported, and the rate of importation is rapidly increasing. While in 1864 it was 3.4 million tons, in 1892, 7.8 million tons worth 92 million dollars; in 1899, 10 million tons and 125 million dollars; in 1902, it had grown to 138 million dollars, and in 1906 to 141 million (700 million cubic feet) in which $7.4 million of wood manufactures, against which an export of $19 millionmainly wood manufactures, must be offset. This makes England the largest wood importer in the world, Germany coming next, and the amount paid to other countries exceeds the value of her pig iron output. Nearly 90 per cent. of the import is coniferous material, from Sweden, Russia and Canada. The home product, mostly oak ties, mineprops, etc., satisfies about one-sixth of the consumption. In addition to timber and lumber, over 10 million dollars of wood pulp, and 60 million dollars of by-products are imported. The total wood consumption per capita is between 12 and 14 cubic feet, half of what it was 50 years ago.
Pine is the only native conifer of timber value, and oak is the most important native deciduous tree, found mostly in coppice or in old, overmature, straggling pasture woods. Compact larger forest areas are entirely absent, but there are many small plantations and parks. For, while Englishmen have not been foresters, they have been active treeplanters, and the mild climate has permitted the introduction of many exotics, especially American conifers. Most of these plantings have been for park and game purposes. The most noted forest plantations are found in Scotland, among them the larch plantations of the Duke of Athole (begun in 1728), of at one time over 10,000 acres, the ducal woodlands now covering over 20,000 acres; the pinery of 25,000 acres, belonging to the Countess of Sealfield, the best managed forest property, partly in natural regeneration, and others. But these plantations too are mostly widely spaced and trimmed, hence not producing timber of muchvalue, so that timber of British production is usually ruled out by architects.
The Saxons and Normans were primarily hunters, and this propensity to the chase has impressed itself upon their forest treatment into modern times.
The Teutonic Saxons undoubtedly brought with them the feudal and communal institutions of the Germans, under which territory for the king’s special pleasure in the chase was set aside as ‘forest’, and this exclusive right and privilege was on other territory extended to the vassals, while the commoners were excluded from the exercise of hunting privileges on these grounds.
The Normans not only increased the lands under ‘ban’, but they increased also in a despotic manner the penalties and punishments for infraction of the forest laws, and enforced them more stringently than was done on the continent. The feudal system was developed to its utmost. Besides ‘forests’ in which the king alone had exclusive rights, and in which a code of special laws, administered under special courts, was applied, there were set aside ‘chases’, hunting reserves without the pale of the forest laws; ‘parks’, smaller, enclosed hunting grounds; and ‘warrens’, privileged by royal grant or prescription as preserves for small game. Whole villages were wiped out, or lived almost in bondage to satisfy this taste for sport. In the ‘forests’, of which in Elizabeth’s time not less than 75 distinct ones were enumerated, withdrawing an immense area from free use, both ‘vert’ and ‘venison’,—woodand game,—belonged to the king; a host of officers,—stewards, verderers, foresters, regarders, agistors, woodwards,—exercised police duties, and oppressed and ground the people by extortions, while special courts,—‘woodmote’, ‘swainmote’, ‘court of justice seat’,—enforced the savage and cruel laws. The first of these laws was supposed to date from Canute the Great, in 1016, but was eventually found to be a forgery perpetrated by William I in order to lend historical color to his assertion of ‘forest’ rights.
A partial reduction of forests, and a modification of the cruelty and unreasonableness of the laws was obtained by theCharta de Foresta, in 1225, which formulated the laws into a code, and again by the Forest Ordinance of 1306. But not until 1483, under Edward IV, were the people living within ‘forests’ permitted to cut and sell timber, and to fence in for seven years portions of the reserved territory. The last territory was ‘afforested’, i.e., withdrawn for purposes of the chase, under Henry VIII, but he had to secure the consent of the freeholders. The Long Parliament, in 1641, stopped at least the extension of forests, and modified the application of the laws to a more reasonable degree.
The forest laws are still on the statutes, but have fallen into desuetude; the last ‘forest court of justice seat’ was held under Charles I. The ‘forests’ themselves have also almost entirely vanished, some being abolished as late as Queen Victoria’s time, by act of parliament, but the last action under the ‘forest laws’ was had in 1862 when the Duke of Athole tried to establish his right as ‘forester’ for the crown. A full account of the forest laws is contained in Manwood’s volume, the title page of which is here reproduced.
Facsimile of Title page of Manwood’s celebrated volume.(Original, the property of Mr. Joly de Lotbinière).
Facsimile of Title page of Manwood’s celebrated volume.(Original, the property of Mr. Joly de Lotbinière).
ATREATISE OF THELAWES OF THE FO-rest: Wherein is declared not onelythose Lawes, as they are now in force, but also the ori-ginall and beginning of Forests: And what a Forest is inhis owne proper nature, and wherein the same doth dif-fer from a Chase, a Parke, or a Warren, with all suchthings as are incident or belonging there into, withtheir seuerall proper tearmes of Art.ALSO A TREATISE OF THEPourallee, declaring what Pourallee is, how thesame first began, what a Pourallee man may do, how he may huntand vse his owne Pourallee, how farre he may pursue and fol-low after his chase, together with the limits and bounds, aswell of the Forest, as the Pourallee.Collected, as well out of the Common Lawes andStatutes of this land, As also out of sundrie learned auncient Au-thors, and out of the Assises of Pickering and Lancaster,byIohn Manvvood.Whereunto are added the Statutes of the Forest, a Trea-tise of the seuerall offices of Verderors, Regardors, and Fore-sters, & the Courts of Attachments, Swanimote, & Iustice seatof the Forest, and certaine principall Cases, Iudgements,and Entries of the Assises of Pickering and Lan-caster: neuer heretofore printed for the publiqueLONDON,Printed for the Societie of Stationers,Anno Dom.1615.Cum Priuilegio.
ATREATISE OF THELAWES OF THE FO-rest: Wherein is declared not onelythose Lawes, as they are now in force, but also the ori-ginall and beginning of Forests: And what a Forest is inhis owne proper nature, and wherein the same doth dif-fer from a Chase, a Parke, or a Warren, with all suchthings as are incident or belonging there into, withtheir seuerall proper tearmes of Art.
ALSO A TREATISE OF THEPourallee, declaring what Pourallee is, how thesame first began, what a Pourallee man may do, how he may huntand vse his owne Pourallee, how farre he may pursue and fol-low after his chase, together with the limits and bounds, aswell of the Forest, as the Pourallee.
Collected, as well out of the Common Lawes andStatutes of this land, As also out of sundrie learned auncient Au-thors, and out of the Assises of Pickering and Lancaster,byIohn Manvvood.
Whereunto are added the Statutes of the Forest, a Trea-tise of the seuerall offices of Verderors, Regardors, and Fore-sters, & the Courts of Attachments, Swanimote, & Iustice seatof the Forest, and certaine principall Cases, Iudgements,and Entries of the Assises of Pickering and Lan-caster: neuer heretofore printed for the publique
LONDON,Printed for the Societie of Stationers,Anno Dom.1615.
Cum Priuilegio.
In Scotland the same usages and laws existed, only very much less rigorously enforced, until, in 1681, the extension of ‘forests’ was discontinued by parliamentary act.
It will be understood that the term forest did only distantly refer to woodland and that no economic policy had anything to do with the laws. Only incidentally was forest growth protected and preserved for the sake of the chase—the same medieval policy which still largely animates the forest policy of the State of New York.
The woods outside the ‘forests’, which had mainly served for the raising of hogs, and for domestic needs, experienced at various times unusual reduction by fire. General Monk, among others, laid waste large areas on the Scottish borderland in Cromwell’s time.
The first serious inroads by extensive fellings occurred under Edward III in the first half of the 14th century to enrich the treasury for the French wars. Again, Henry VIII in the 16th century, when he seized the church properties for his own use, turned them into cash. A hundred years later, James I reduced the forest area, especially in Ireland, by his colonization schemes. Yet both, Henry VIII and James I, are on record as encouraging forest planting for utility. Charles I, James’ successor, always in need of cash, alienated many of the crown forests, and turned them into cash, besides extorting moneythrough the forest courts. During the Revolution, beginning in 1642, and during Cromwell’s reign a licentious devastation of the confiscated or mortgaged noblemen’s woods took place.
Finally, under Charles II, the needs for the royal navy forced attention to the reduction of wood supplies, and as a result of the agitation to encourage the growth of timber, a member of the newly formed Royal Society was deputed to prepare an essay, which, published in 1662, has become the classic work of English forest literature, namely John Evelyn’sSylva, or “A Discourse of Forest Trees,” which has experienced eleven editions. It should, however, be mentioned that an earlier writer, whom Evelyn often quotes, Tuffer, before the reign of Elizabeth, in 1526, published his “Five Hundred Points of Husbandry,” a versification in which treeplanting received attention. Ever since that time, periodically and spasmodically, the question of forestry has been agitated, without much serious result.
From 1775 to 1781, the Society of Arts in London offered gold medals and prizes for treeplanting, and in the beginning of the 19th century a revival of arboricultural interest was experienced, perhaps as a result of an interesting report by the celebrated Admiral Nelson on the mismanagement of the forest of Dean, concern for naval timber giving the incentive, in which he recommended the planting of oak for investment.
At that time, a Surveyor-General, with an insufficient force, was in charge of the crown forests. In 1809, the management was placed under a board of three Commissioners, one of whom being a memberof the parliament was to be changed with the administration. Under this management, graft became so rampant that, in 1848, a committee of the House of Commons was appointed, whose report revealed the most astonishing rottenness, placing a stigma on government management such as we still uncover in the United States from time to time. A reorganization took place in 1851. At that time the royal forests and parks, reduced in extent to about 200,000 acres, showed a deficiency of $125,000, mostly, to be sure, occasioned by the parks. There was then still a tribute of some 600 bucks to be delivered to various personages, as was the ancient usage.
At present there are some 115,000 acres classed as royal forest, but only 67,000 acres are really forest, consisting of more or less mismanaged woods, under the administration, not forest management, of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, with Deputy Surveyors in charge of the ranges. Although there are a few notable exceptions in the management, it is to be noted that the same stupid ignorance, which introduced the clause into the Constitution of the State of New York, was enacted into law in 1877 by the English Parliament, forbidding in the New Forest all cutting and planting. In 1900, there existed just one planting plan, made by a professional forester, namely, for a portion of the forest of Dean, while now only two other State properties and two or three private estates are managed under working plans.
In 1887, a Committee appointed to inquire into the administration of this property, expressed itself most dissatisfied, but a Committee of Parliament in 1890whitewashed the administration and reported that the management was satisfactory.
These committees, as well as an earlier one, in 1885, were also to recommend measures for the advancement of forestry. They laid in their recommendations the main stress upon education, but no action followed, and it can be said that the government has never done anything for the advancement of forestry in the home country, whatever it may have done for the dependencies. A Departmental Committee again reported in 1902 with all sorts of recommendations, which have remained unheeded.
The interests of forestry as far as the government is concerned are at present committed to the Board of Agriculture, an unwieldy body created in 1889, from which this Departmental Committee was appointed. There is now, however, a strong movement on foot, led by foresters returned from India, to commit the government to some action with reference to the waste lands, and towards providing for educational means.
Another committee, appointed in 1908 to enquire into prospects of afforestation in Ireland, reported in favor of acquiring 300,000 acres of wood and 700,000 acres of unplanted land, dwelling especially on the benefit to be secured by providing employment and a check upon emigration of the rural population. Instead of acting upon this proposition the government directed the Royal Commission on Coast Erosion, which had issued its first report in 1907, to suspend its inquiry into the inroads of the sea and apply themselves to the inquiry as to “whether in connection with unclaimed lands orotherwise it is desirable to make an experiment in afforestation as a means of increasing employment during periods of depression, and how, and by whom such experiment should be conducted.”
In 1909, the Royal Commission on Afforestation and Coast Erosion reported at length, proposing the reforestation by a special Commission of nine million acres of waste land at a rate of 75,000 or 150,000 acres a year to be acquired by purchase—an elaborate plan, which so far has remained without result.
The government, although various committees have recommended it, has remained also callous in respect to educational policy, except that, in 1904, the Commissioners of Woods and Forests instituted a school (one instructor) in the Forest of Dean for the education of woodsmen and foremen.
As illustrative of the government’s peculiar attitude to forest policy in general, we may note a curious anachronism, namely the act of 1894, which relieves railway companies from liability for damage from locomotive fires, if they can prove that they have exercised all care, although traction engines cannot offer this excuse.
The first attempt to secure educational facilities dates to 1884 when a chair of forestry was established in the Royal Engineering College at Cooper’s Hill, an institution designed to prepare for service in India purely. Through private subscriptions, another chair of forestry was instituted in 1887 at the University of Edinburgh, and several agricultural colleges, notably that of Cirencester, as well as the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, had made provisions forteaching the subject in a way, but outside of Cooper’s Hill no adequate education in forestry was obtainable in Great Britain, until 1905.
In 1905, the forest department in Cooper’s Hill was transferred to Oxford, the three years’ course—one year to be spent in the forests of Germany or other countries—being as before designed mainly for aspirants to the Indian forest service. Now, besides Oxford, some nine other institutions offer courses in forestry—the reason for this educational development being difficult to imagine.
The name of Sir William Schlich, a German forester, and for some time the head of the Indian forest department now in charge of this school, is most prominently connected with the reform movement.
Altogether forest management and silvicultural practice are still nearly unknown in England, and, until within a few years, the useful idea of working plans had not yet penetrated the minds of owners of estates. This apathy is, no doubt, in part due to the fact that the government is in the hands of the nobility, who prefer to keep their “shooting ranges”, and do not see even a financial advantage from turning them into forest as long as they can derive a rent of from 10 to 40 cents per acre for shooting privileges.
Private endeavor has been active through the two arboricultural societies, the Royal Scotch, founded in 1854, and the Royal English, beginning its labors in 1880. The transactions of these societies in annual or occasional volumes represented the current magazineliterature on forestry since the monthly Journal of Forestry and Estates Management, which began its career in London in 1877, transferred to Edinburgh in 1884, ceased to exist in 1885.
At present, a very well conducted Quarterly Journal of Forestry, started in 1907 by the Royal English Arboricultural Society replacing its Transactions and that of the Irish Forestry Association, also the Journal of the Board of Agriculture, occasionally, supply the needs of the continuously improving chances for development on forestry lines. Until within a short time the English professional book literature has been extremely meager, although a considerable propagandist, arboricultural, and general magazine literature exists. Schlich’sManual of Forestry, first in three volumes published from 1889 to 1895, now in its second to fourth edition, enlarged to five volumes, is the most comprehensive publication. Another author deserving mention is John Nisbet, known by hisStudies in Forestry(1894), who also engrafted continental silvicultural notions into later editions of James Brown’sThe Forester, an encyclopædic work of merit. Several German and French works have been translated into English, notably K. Gayer: Die Forstbenutzung; R. Hess: Der Forstschutz; H. Fürst: Waldschutz.
John Croumbie Brown’s sixteen volumes on forests and forestry in various countries may be mentioned among the propagandist literature. The Arboricultural Societies mentioned also make a brave effort to advance professional development of forestry in their publications.
While so neglectful of her forest interests at home, Great Britain has developed in her possessions in the East Indies a far-seeing policy, and, under the lead of German influence, has established there one of the largest, if not most efficient, forest departments in the world.
Contrary to a frequently expressed idea that the conditions and problems of India are comparable to the conditions and problems of the United States, so that the example of Great Britain in India rather than that of any European country might serve us in the United States, the writer thinks that the very opposite is true. Not only are the natural conditions for the most part different, India being mainly tropical with an entirely different flora and different conditions of growth, but industrial, cultural, social and political conditions are also entirely different; all of which entails difference in methods of procedure. There are, to be sure, a few points of similarity: the large size of country under one government, and that in the hands of an English speaking race; the fact that the fire scourge, as with us, but from different reasons, is still the greatest problem; that there are arid regions and deserts (not over 10 per cent.), and irrigation problems and flood dangers to deal with; and finally the long delay in establishing a definite forest policy. Although this policy was inaugurated over 40 years ago, India has not yet, and will by the nature of things, not soon pass out of the first stage of development which we may confidently expect to pass throughmuch more rapidly, due to the conditions in which we resemble Europe more closely.
The greater part of India, namely 62 per cent. of the 1,773,000 square miles, is under British administration, and is peopled by a subject race of nearly 240 million, without a voice in their government, which is carried on by a small handful of the conquerors (about 100,000 Englishmen are living in India), while the balance, around 700,000 square miles with 53 million people, is divided among a large number of more or less independent native States, very different in their civilization from ours.
Industrially, the difference will appear from the statement that about 70 per cent. of the population is engaged in agricultural pursuits, hence there is no active wood market as with us, except for domestic purposes, and, as the woods, like those of most tropical forest, are mainly cabinet woods, even the export trade is insignificant, amounting to hardly 3 million dollars, while minor forest products (lac, cutch and gambier, myrobalan, caoutchouc, etc.) represent about 12 million dollars.
Climatically, as is to be expected, on such a large territory, great variation exists, which is increased by differences in altitude from the sea level to the tops of the Himalayas. The climate is, of course, largely tropical, with a rainfall which varies from the heaviest known, of 600 inches, to almost none at all.
Nevertheless, in spite of these differences from our conditions, much may be learned from Indian experience in the matter of organization, both to follow and to avoid, and the fact that this can be done withoutthe need of a foreign language will be attractive to most Americans.
The British, like other nations, gained a foothold in India for trading purposes during the 17th century. This they extended during the 18th century, especially after they had attained the ascendancy by Clive’s subjection, in 1757, of the great Mogul, one of the most powerful native princes. By conquest and amicable arrangement, the territory of British influence was gradually increased through the agency of the East India Company, until, in 1858, the British government in India was formally established by royal proclamation; and, in 1877, it was declared an empire.
As stated, native princes still control, under British influence and restrictions, over one-third of the country, or a territory of nearly 700,000 square miles, divided into 13 feudatory states. The total area under direct British control and government is 1,087,000 square miles, of which 25 per cent. (280,000 square miles) is probably forested and waste, some 232,000 square miles or nearly 150 million acres of which are so far declared government property.
The British territory is divided into three presidencies (Madras, Bombay and Bengal) and nine provinces, each with a separate government under a governor, or commissioner, with a council, and all subject to control by the resident governor-general or viceroy and his council, and he in turn is responsible to the Secretary of State at home.
There is, however, little centralization of governmentfunctions, the provincial governments being to a large degree at least semi-autonomous, like the states in the United States, and considerable variation exists in the conduct of affairs. The difficulties in introducing something like a uniform forest policy were, indeed, not small, and much credit is due to the wisdom and tact of the three German foresters, who in succession filled the difficult position of head of the Imperial Forest Department and organized the service—Brandis, Schlich and Ribbentrop.
In the tropics, rainfall conditions more than any other factor determine forest conditions. The rains of India depend on extraordinary sea winds, or “monsoons,” and their distribution is regulated by the topography of land and relative position of any district with regard to the mountains and the vapor-laden air currents. Thus excessive rainfall characterizes the coast line along the Arabian Sea to about latitude 20 degrees N., and still more along the coast of Lower Burma, and to a lesser extent also the delta of the Ganges and the southern slopes of the Himalayas. A moderately humid climate, if gauged by annual rainfall, prevails over the plateau occupying the larger part of the peninsula and the lower Ganges valley, while a rainfall of less than 15 inches occurs over the arid regions of the lower Indus.
The rainfall, so unevenly distributed territorially, is, moreover, as unevenly distributed through the year. In most districts the principal rains are experienced in summer, the rainy season being followedby a long dry season. But on the Eastern coast the summer rains are slight, and the principal rainy season is delayed into October and November, while in Northern India and the Himalayas, also winter rains occur, irregular and of short duration.
Even where a relatively large rainfall prevails, the climate is dry on account of the high temperature, hence some 30,000,000 acres of the cultivated acreage (which comprises 225,000,000 acres in all) depend on irrigation, over half of this irrigated area lying in the tropical zone.
Roughly speaking, at least four climatic zones with many sub-types, may be recognized: the truly tropic, intensely hot and wet (over 75 inch rainfall), prevailing on the plains and tablelands of the lower half of the peninsula; the hot and dry (below 15 inch rainfall) climate of the Northwestern Indus plain and plateau; the moderately warm and dry to humid (30-75 inch rainfall) climate of the Ganges plain and central plateau; and the temperate to alpine, humid climate of the Himalaya mountains, with snow and ice in winter, and moderate heat in summer.
In keeping with this great diversity of climate, both as to temperature and humidity, there is a great variation in the character and development of the forest cover. At least six types can be recognized, namely the evergreen forest, found along the West coast, in Burma, Andaman Islands, and the sub-Himalaya zone, which is composed of broadleaved species with a dense undergrowth of small trees and tangled lianas (vines), but few shrubs, as is characteristic of most tropical forest; the deciduous forest,mainly in the interior of Central India, with Sal, Teak and Ironwood as characteristic trees; the arid region forest, found in the Punjab, in Raiputana, and in Sindh, of varying composition, from the open shrub forests of the latter province, composed of acacias, tamarisk and mesquite, to the denser, more diversified, dry, low tree forest of the former; the alpine coniferous forest of the Himalayas and of the mountains of Afghanistan, Belutchistan, and Burma, composed of pine, deodar, juniper, with oak, walnut, boxwood, approaching our own forest types. In addition, there may be segregated the coast forest, of small extent, composed of trees which, like the mangrove, will bear salt water; the overflow forest along rivers; and river forests in the desert regions, of which latter large areas exist.
The natural differences in the forest cover are emphasized by the action of man, who for many centuries has waged war against the forest, clearing it permanently or temporarily for agricultural purposes, or else merely burning it over to improve grazing facilities, or for purposes of the chase.
Statistics, except of government properties, are somewhat doubtful. Apparently, the forested area of the whole of India comprises somewhat over 40 per cent. of the land area. The government forests, settled and unsettled, represent at present about 24 per cent. of the area under British rule (149 million acres), not over 20 per cent. being under cultivation, leaving about 56 per cent. either natural desert, waste, or grazing lands.
The great forests of India are in Burma; extensivewoods clothe the foothills of the Himalayas and are scattered in smaller bodies throughout the more humid portions of the country, while the dry northwestern territories are practically treeless wastes. Large areas of densely settled districts are so completely void of forest that millions of people regularly burn cow dung as fuel, while equally large districts are still impenetrable, wild woods, where, for want of market, it hardly pays to cut even the best of timbers.
The great mass of forests in India are stocked with hardwoods, which in these tropical countries are largely evergreen, or nearly so, although the large areas of dry forest are deciduous by seasons; only a small portion of the forest area is covered by conifers, both pine and cedar, these pine forests being generally restricted to higher altitudes in the Himalayas. The hardwoods, most of which in India truly deserve this name, belong to a great variety of plant families, some of the most important being the Leguminosæ, Verbenaceæ, Dipterocarpeæ, Combretaceæ, Rubiaceæ, Ebenaceæ, Euphorbiaceæ, Myrtaceæ, and others, and a relatively small portion represented by Cupuliferæ and other families familiar to us. The most important, valuable species are Teak, Sal, and Deodar.
In the greater part of India the hardwood forest consists not of a few species, as with us, but is made up, like most tropical forest, of a great variety of trees unlike in their habit, their growth, and their product; and, if our hardwoods offer on this account considerable difficulties to profitable exploitation, the case is far more complicated in India, several thousand species entering into the composition. In additionto the large variety of timber trees there is a multitude of shrubs, twining and climbing plants, and in many forest districts also a growth of giant grasses (bamboos), attaining a height of 30 to 120 feet, which is ready to take possession of clearings. These bamboos, valuable as they are in many ways, prevent often for years the growth of any seedling trees, and thus form a serious obstacle to the regeneration of valuable timber. The growth of timber is generally quite rapid, although to attain commercial size, Teak requires usually a rotation of 150 years. But in spite of their rapid growth and the large areas now in forest capable of reforestation, India is not likely—at least within reasonable time—to raise more timber than it needs. In most parts of India, the use of ordinary soft woods, such as pine, seems very restricted, for only durable woods, those resisting both fungi and insects (of which the white ants are specially destructive), can be employed in the more permanent structures, and are therefore acceptable in all Indian markets.
At present, Teak is the most important hardwood timber, while the Deodar (a true cedar) is the most extensively used conifer. Teak occurs in all moist regions of India except the Himalayas, grows usually mixed with other kinds, single, or in clumps, is girdled two or three years before felling, is generally logged in a primitive way, commonly hewn in the woods and shipped—usually floated—as timber, round or hewn, and rarely sawn to size.
In 1905-6, the cut in the State forest area was 240,000,000 cubic feet, timber (25%) and fuel, ofwhich 20 per cent. was given to grantees or those holding rights of user free of charge, and less than 2 per cent. was exported. In addition, over 200 million bamboos and nearly two million dollars worth of by-products, such as lac, caoutchouc, cutch, gambier, myrobalans, were secured.
Prior to the British occupation, the native rulers, or rajahs, laid claim to a certain proportion of the produce from all cultivators of the soil. They also reserved absolute right to the forests, and to all unseated or waste lands, although usually the people were allowed to supply their needs from these. The English government, by right of conquest, fell heir to these rights as well as to the properties, but, without care in asserting its rights, the unimpeded use of unguarded forest property led to the assertion of rights of user by the people, and such were also sometimes granted by the government. “Joint village” communities in some parts, i.e., settlements which occupy contiguous areas, claimed and occupied large areas of forest and waste as commons, and in general the original property rights of the government became uncertain.
The necessity of bringing order into this question led to various so-called settlements, by which the rights were defined, properties de-limited, and payment in kind changed into cash payments.
After attempts to regulate these matters by local rules, the first general Indian Forest Act, passed in 1865, modified by the Forest Act of 1878, laid downthe basis upon which the rights of forest property were to be settled. These acts divide the forests into three classes, namely, those in which the right of the State is absolute; those in which the State has property rights, but which are burdened with prescriptive or granted rights of user; and those which are private property, but on which the State reserves the right to cut certain kinds of trees for government use, Teak, Sandalwood, and in some parts Deodar, these being considered “royal trees.” The forest act being throughout applicable only at the choice and under the construction of the provincial governments, modified acts, applicable to different parts of the Empire, and different in details, were passed from time to time, and many different local rules were issued by the provincial governments, but all agree in fixing one definite policy, namely declaration or demarcation of government forests, after inquiry into all existing rights, and division of the declared government forests into three classes, reserves or permanent state forests, protected forests, and unclassed, the latter two still open to change in ownership, and adjustment in rights of user, etc.
The absolute and relative areas of government property, therefore, are continuously changing. In 1900 the reserve forests comprised 81,400 square miles, or 8.6% of the total territory controlled by the British government; the protected forest 8800 square miles, and the demarcated but unclassified area, 117,000 square miles. These figures had, in 1904, changed to 91,567 for permanent reserves (58 million acres), 9865 for protected, and 131,269 for unclassed, showingthe rapid change now taking place in the status of classification.
The name of B. H. Baden-Powell, at one time conservator of the Punjab and Acting Inspector-General of Forests during 1872-4, is closely connected with placing this forest legislation on a sound basis. The object of this legislation was mainly to settle the question of ownership and rights, hence reserved forests are not necessarily set aside for forest purposes like the forest reservations in the United States, although ultimately this will probably be their condition.
Rights of user were under this legislation regulated or commuted. In some parts, even on the reserved forest areas, there are still retained rights to cuttaungyas, i.e., to make partial clearings for temporary agricultural use, under the restriction of not destroying teak trees over 18 inches in diameter, and with the right of the cultivators to supply their domestic needs, under obligation to cut out fire traces, burning the brush, and instituting similar protective measures.
The title to the forest property having been secured, its permanent demarcation and a survey of the same were the next steps; the first having gradually been nearly accomplished, the latter being still far in arrears.
The area of private and communal forests is not precisely known, but, including waste land and lands of uncertain conditions, there are at least 500,000 square miles so owned, including those of feudatory rulers within the provinces. Of these, some 500 square miles or more of forest are leased to the government and under its control; and in some cases forest administrations are instituted by the rajahs themselves.
In the Act of 1878, there was a clause calling for protection of private forest property against trespass and encroachment, but this remained a dead letter. By later legislation the government is entitled to exercise control over private forests and lands, if it appears necessary for the public weal, or if the treatment which such forests have received from their owners affect the public welfare or safety injuriously; but in such cases the owner can require the government to expropriate the land in question.
The forest act also provided that the government may assign to village communities from the reserved forest area so-called village forests, and make rules for their protection, use and management. How far this policy has been applied does not appear.
There are still areas the ownership of which is not settled, and rights which are still in doubt, the work of the so-called forest settlements still going on, several thousand square miles being annually changed in status, and several thousand dollars annually spent to quiet rights of user.
Through the long history of India that preceded the arrival of the Mohammedans in the 10th to 12th centuries, it appears that the forest area was only slowly encroached upon by the Hindoo civilization. Even when the invaders, nomads by habit, drove many of the native race into the jungle to eke out a precarious existence, owing to the remarkable recuperative powers of a tropical nature the impression made was not permanent. Although much forestgrowth was then destroyed, cleared or mutilated, changes took place only slowly.
It has been claimed, that in consequence of the destruction, which was incident to the nomadic life of the Mohammedans and the shifting agriculture of the aborigines, climatic changes were produced, but the proof for this assertion has remained questionable.
When in the 18th century the British entered India in rivalry with the French and other European nations, it was, of course, only for purposes of exploitation, and for a long time after the British had attained the ascendancy and had subjected most of the territory now ruled by them, not much concern was had about the forests; they furnished but small values, excepting in one particular, namely supplies of Teak for naval purposes. In the beginning of the 19th century the Government became concerned regarding these supplies, which under the rough exploitation threatened to become exhausted.
The first step towards securing some conservative management dates back to 1806, when Captain Watson was sent to India as Conservator of Forests, to look after the interests of the East India Company in this direction. His inability to compromise with those who had secured timber privileges led to his removal and an abandonment of the office, in 1823. Ineffective, sporadic efforts at administration by the provincial governments then followed.
In 1839-40, the government of the Bombay Presidency stopped the cutting of Teak trees on government property. In 1834, M. Connolly, Collector of Malabar in the Madras Presidency, began to plantTeak on a large scale at Nilambur. In 1847, Dr. Gibson was appointed Conservator of Forests in Bombay; from 1848 to 1856, Lieutenant (now General, C. S. I.) James Michael conducted the government timber operations in the Anamalai Teak forests (Madras), and made the first recorded attempts to protect Indian forests from injury by annual jungle fires.
In 1856, Dr. Hugh Cleghorn was appointed Conservator of Forests in Madras. He checked the destructive practices of temporary cultivation in the government forests of that Presidency, a measure, which at first was strongly opposed by the people, but his well-known desire to promote native interests inspired the rulers of the country with confidence, and finally his measures were successful.
Various attempts at some kind of regulation of the exploitation by lumbermen were also made by the general government, after various examinations and reports, and, in 1847, even a small and ineffective forest department was organized.
The annexation of the Province of Pegu in lower Burma, in 1852, introduced a new complication, and proved the turning point in forestry matters. In this province, the right to cut Teak had been reserved by the native princes, and hence became a right of the crown, but private lumbermen began to cut this timber, and, after an investigation and report, it was decided to take definite steps to regulate the use of these valuable Teak forests at least.
Lord Dalhousie, the then Governor-General, upon the basis of the report of the superintendent of forestsat Pegu, Dr. McClelland, in 1855 laid down in statesmanlike manner an outline of a permanent forest policy for the government, and introduced the first professional adviser.
In 1856, a German forester from Hesse, Dietrich Brandis (afterward Sir) was installed as superintendent of forests for Pegu with wide powers under contract for 10 years, at a liberal salary, and pension after retirement. The only possible check that could at first be applied was to force the lumbermen to make contracts, limit the diameter to which the exploitation was to be allowed, and mark the trees to be felled. This was done, naturally not without a large amount of friction.
The result of this experiment in forest conservancy, as the English are pleased to call it, was so satisfactory, that, in 1862, it was decided to organize a forest department for all India; Brandis was entrusted with the organization, and, in 1864, he was appointed head of the new department under the Secretary of Public Works with the title of Inspector-General, acting as adviser of the various provincial governments.
The forests of India during the next 20 years during which Brandis held office, were, province by province, brought under the regime of the Imperial Forest Department, although the provincial governments retain full and independent administrative power.
The first problem was to settle ownership conditions, which was done in the manner described before, by the act of 1865, and by later acts.
The discontent which was created by this act came very near wrecking the whole enterprise, and muchdifference of opinion between the local and general governments existed, the government of Madras going so far as to declare the impossibility of establishing State property in view of the acknowledged rights of the villagers over waste lands. The general policy, however, finally prevailed, and an increasingly harmonious cooperation of the provincial governments has allowed the development of an efficient forest service.
Various provincial legislation was considered, passed and repealed, until, in 1878, the Indian Forest Act VII settled the policy at least for the majority of the provinces, Madras and Burma and some minor districts still declining to extend its provisions to their forests. The Burma government enacted, however, similar legislation in 1881, and the Madras government in 1882, and, much later, the other outstanding governments followed (1886 to 1891), so that, while the detail of application varies not inconsiderably, the general policy regarding forest property of the State is the same throughout the empire. Whatever of uniformity exists had to be secured mainly by persuasive means.
The forest acts, as stated on a previous page, contain certain provisions regarding formation of village forests and control of private forest property, but no interference with private forest property has been attempted, although in some parts this is more important and larger than the State holdings. Most of the owners merely exploit their property, but some of the larger, more enlightened native princes have established forest administrations, imitating theexample of the Imperial government. Those of Mysore and Kashmir and Hyderabad have placed this administration under an imperial forest officer, furloughed for this purpose, and derive handsome revenues; the Kashmir forests of about 2500 square miles yielding round $180,000; those of Mysore, near 2000 square miles, over $330,000, this largely derived from sales of sandal wood; those of the Nizam of Hyderabad, with 5200 square miles in reserves and 4400 in protected forests, deriving a revenue of $75,000, seven times what it was ten years before.
The condition of affairs in the forest department can be briefly summarized as follows for the year 1909.
Total area under government control: 241,774 square miles, namely, Reserved, 94,561; Protected, 8,835; Unclassed, 138,378.
Officials (in 1905): Higher grades, 312; Lower grades, 1,663; Guards, 8,533. The controlling staff was in 1909 increased by 34; and numbers in all other grades increased.
Rounded off Expenditures, $4,500,000; Revenues, $8,225,000; Net Proceeds, $3,675,000 (45% of gross). Variation in the value of the rupee makes comparison with earlier years uncertain.
In spite of the many difficulties, a poor market (no market at all for a large number of woods), wild, unsurveyed, and practically unknown woodlands, requiring unusual and costly methods of organization and protection, the forestry department has succeeded, without curtailing the timber output of India, in so regulating forest exploitation as to insure not only a permanence in the output, but also to improve thewoodlands by favoring the valuable species. It has prepared for an increase of output for the future, and at the same time has yielded the Government a steadily growing revenue, which bids fair to rank before long among the important sources of income.
In 1865 the net revenue was only $360,000, it had about doubled by 1875, and more than trebled by 1885, and since then has more than quadrupled.
While in the period of 1870 to 1874 the expense of the administration was still 70 per cent. of the gross income, it has gradually been reduced to near 45 per cent., while the outturn in material has in the last five years increased by 35% over the preceding quinquennium.
At first, the department and its operations as well as its finances were Imperial, the local governments having no control over its officers or over the revenue derived, but, in 1882, decentralization was effected, the local governments obtaining a direct interest in the revenues. As a result the financial interest overruled the conservative policy, and over-cutting was the consequence. In 1884, the general government recognized the need of a change. After some struggle, the Imperial department was placed at least in charge of preparing the working plans, and pressure for their execution if not direct enforcement can be brought through appeal to the general government by the Inspector-General, which, however, has never been necessary to use.
The organization of the forest service passed through various stages, and the arrangement in the different provinces is even now not quite uniform.
The forest service, then, is peculiarly organized as regards division of responsibilities and relationshipsbetween the imperial and the provincial governments, the autonomy of the latter being jealously guarded. It is divided into the Imperial and the Provincial Service, the former consisting of the higher grade officials entirely recruited from England, the latter, the executive service, being in administrative functions independent of the former.
An Inspector-General, directly under the Secretary of Revenue and Agriculture, (for some time under the Home Department) is the head of the service, and acts as professional adviser both of the Imperial and the Provincial Governments. But this head of the service is shorn of most of executive functions, all administrative matters being reserved to the provincial authorities.
The Inspector-General has charge only of the forest school administration, of forest surveys, and of the making of working plans, which later, after approval by the Provincial government, are in their execution inspected and critically supervised by him, but without power to enforce them, or to give direction directly to the Conservators in charge (at least in Madras and Burma). He also watches over and reports on the progress of all forestry matters in the empire.
Peculiarities and great variety are also found in other official relations and in the appointing power, the general and provincial governments exercising certain rights in this respect.
The Controlling Staff (57 officers in 1869, now about 300) under the Inspector-General, consists of Conservators, Deputy Conservators and Assistant Conservators. The Conservators, now some 20, so far as they arenot directly acting as assistants in the Inspector-General’s office, are the heads of the provincial departments and conservatorships, and in that capacity directly subordinate to the local government, which in Madras and Bombay also has their appointment; each is in charge either of the entire forest business of the Province, or of a circle forming part of a Province and the administration unit in India. These are, therefore, the most influential and most responsible agents in introducing forestry practices. Conservatorships are divided into divisions, each in charge of a divisional forest officer, a member of either the Imperial or the Provincial Controlling Staff; but these have to acknowledge subordination to the Chief Civil officer, the Collector of the district in which they are located, in order to harmonize the financial and forestal interests.
About 80 per cent. of the Controlling Staff in the Imperial Service are appointed by the Secretary of State from graduates formerly from the forest school at Cooper’s Hill College, now Oxford, the remaining 20 per cent. from Englishmen in the provincial service, the members of which have passed through the Dehra Dun forest school and through the lower branches of the service. In addition to this Superior Staff, a Subordinate Staff of Extra Deputy Conservators and Extra Assistant Conservators forms the Provincial Service, which is mainly recruited from the natives.
The districts are divided into ranges, for which an Executive Service is organized, of rangers (over 400), who are now selected from graduates of the forest school in Dehra Dun. Deputy rangers and foresters,a lower grade (some 1700), and guards, having their separate beats (over 8500), form the Protective Service, mostly or all recruited from the better class of natives.
With the irregular distribution of forests, the peculiarities of Indian government affairs and population, and the wild and difficult forest conditions themselves, it is but natural that the work thus far has been chiefly one of organization, survey, and protection.
In the protection against unlawful felling or timber stealing and grazing, the Government of India has shown itself fully equal to the occasion by a liberal policy of supplying villagers in proximity of the forests with fuel, building material, pasture, etc., at reduced prices or gratis. Over $1,500,000 worth is thus disposed of annually, the incentive to timber stealing being thereby materially reduced. A reasonable and just permit system for grazing, where again the needs of the neighboring villagers are most carefully considered, not only brings the government a yearly revenue of over $800,000, but enables the people to pasture about 14,000,000 head of animals in the State forests without doing any material damage to tree growth. Thirty-one per cent. of the total forest area is open to grazing.
The work of preventing and fighting fires can with the means available not be carried on over the entire forest area, of which large tracts are not even crossed by a footpath, and in a land where the regular firing of the woods has become the custom of centuries, and where, in addition, intensely hot and dry weather,together with a most luxuriant growth of giant grasses, render these jungle fires practically unmanageable. Each year, however, additional territory is brought under protection. In 1902, nearly 37,000 square miles, or nearly 40% of the area in reserve, but only 12% of the total government forest area, were under protection at a cost of $4.00 per square mile or less than one cent per acre, half of what it was 10 years before, and over 2 per cent. of the gross revenue. Nearly 5,000 fires occurred, to be sure, which burnt over 3,000,000 acres, that is to say over 90 per cent. of the area the protection was effective. For nearly half the fires the cause remains unknown. Danger from fire has, however, become less in protected areas because of the changes in herbage and moisture conditions. Yet it costs still about two per cent. of the gross revenue to protect the area, and the figures just cited show that this expenditure is only partially effective. In 1909, the protected area had increased to 43,000 square miles, the cost to $5, the efficiency to 94 per cent.
The first successful attempts to deal with forest fires were made in 1864 by Major (later Colonel) G. F. Pearson, who was then Conservator of Forests in the Central Provinces, and who devised a system of cleared fire lines or “fire traces,” surrounding the areas to be protected, which were cut and burned over early in the season, a system now in vogue in all India. In the jungle forests the traces must be broad; the grass often taller than an elephant must be cut and burned before the grass on either side of the fire lane is dry enough to burn.
This protection forms the most important duty ofthe forest officials, a trying one as it has to be carried on during the hot season.
A separate branch of the forest service carried on the work of surveying and mapping the forest area instead of the regular Survey of India, with the result of cheapening the cost. Some 74,000 square miles had been mapped on the scale of 4 inch to the mile, the standard, some smaller areas on smaller scale, at the rate of $25 per square mile. In 1908, however, this work was handed over to the Survey.
Silviculture.Silvicultural practices are naturally but little developed. Protection against fire, grazing, overcutting has been the first requisite. The unregulated selection system with a diameter limit, which Brandis introduced, still prevails mostly, although beginnings of a compartment and group system in converting miscarried selection forest of Deodar, Pine and Sal have been made, or rather of an improved selection method, which seeks to secure reproduction in groups. Clearcutting with seed trees held over is practised in the coniferous mountain forest. Coppice and coppice with standards (reserves of sprouts) is a natural condition over large areas, especially with Teak and Sal. Even improvement cuttings or sowing on barren hillsides with remarkable success, are not absent.
The attempts at securing reproduction, especially in the truly tropic forests have often miscarried, inferior species filling the openings. Girdling of inferior species to favor the better classes has hardly had the desired result. In the deciduous forest, the same difficulty of undesirable aftergrowth is experienced,deteriorating the composition, except in the case of the gregarious Sal tree (Shorea robusta), the treatment of which for reproduction has, after many failures, been well established. Other gregarious species also can be satisfactorily reproduced. The culled and burned-over forests, of which, there are many, are re-habilitated in a manner by merely removing the old overmature and defective timber, with comparative success.
In some parts, the large gregarious bamboos are a serious obstacle to reproduction. Here, the only chance for reproduction exists when they flower and die. Killing the bamboos by cutting the annual shoots proved a failure, but burning over the whole area and sowing seems to be followed by success.
In other parts, as in the large Teak forests of Burma, as well as of other provinces, the useless kinds of trees are girdled, huge climbers are cut off, and a steady war is waged against all species detrimental to teak regeneration with satisfactory results. With Teak, even planting on a larger scale is resorted to, especially by means oftaungyas, i.e. plantations, where the native is allowed to burn down a piece of woods, use it for a few years as field (though it is never really cleared) on condition of planting it with teak, being paid a certain sum for every hundred trees found in a thrifty condition at the time of giving up his land. Similarly, the department has expended large sums in attempting to establish forests in parts of the arid region of Beluchistan, and, on the whole, during 1894-95 about $150,000 were expended on cultural operations, which up to that time involved about 76,000 acres ofregular plantations and 36,000 acrestaungyas(mostly teak,) making a total of 112,000 acres, besides numerous large areas where the work consisted merely in aiding natural reproduction.
But, in 1909, the plantations seem to have been reduced to 59,000 acres, (probably through failures), the taungyas however increased to 84,000 acres, and the budget for plantings and other cultural measures formed a little over two per cent. of the gross revenues.
We see then, that though the forests of India are now, and will continue for some time to be little more than wild woods with some protection and a reasonable system of exploitation in place of a mere robbing or culling system, yet the work of actual improvement steadily increases in amount and perfection.
In disposing of its timber the Government of India employs various methods. In some of the forest districts the people pay merely a small tax and get out of the woods what and as much as they need. In other cases, the logger pays for what he removes, the amount he fells being neither limited in quantity nor quality. The prevalent systems, however, are the permit system, when a permit is issued indicating the amount to be cut and the price to be paid for the same, and the contract system, when the work is more or less under the control of government officers and the material remains government property until paid for. To a limited extent the governments carry on their own timber exploitation.