January i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



577 



HINTS ON FOKESTKY. 



(From the Indian Forester.) 

 Relative Facility ofGi£Owing up again keom the 

 Stool. — AH broad-leaved species can grow up again from 

 the stool. None of the conifers po.ssess this faculty; the 

 Pi/tus lonyifofui and deodar, it is true, do often shoot up 

 again from neui' the base, but never really from the base, 

 which latter property is the essential characteristic of 

 stool-shoots. But among the broad-leaved species them- 

 selves not only does the age, up to which the power of 

 growing up again from the stool is retained, vary with 

 different species, but also the abundance of the shoots 

 produced. Teak coppices very freely up to a great age, 

 often beyond a hundred years, and it is due chiefly to 

 this property that it forms nearly pure crops of large 

 extent in the mutilated forests of Central India, Berar, 

 and Northern Bombay. Sal also coppices more vigorously 

 than most, if not all, its companions, e.xcept perhaps bamboo, 

 and is hence easily able to hold its own, notwithstanding 

 that, as a rule, it is, with bamboo, the only species in 

 the forests in which it occurs that falls under the axe 

 of the wood-cutter. And so with a number of other 

 species, to wit, khair, sissoo, willows, Anot/eiii^iLs^ jaud, &c. 



Death, Disease, Unhealthy Statl", ok Retardation 

 OF Growth linoDGHT on by Causes Extraneous to the 

 Forest, viz: — {a.) Attacks of insects and other animals. — 

 Some insects, especially the lignivorous kinds, attack chiefly 

 or solely the weaker plants ; while others, like certain 

 caterpillars, and particularly the various silkworms and the 

 larvre of sawflics, and of certain Coleo/Jtera, attack all 

 indifferently, and even rather affect plants possessing 

 abundant well-developed juicy foliage. Again, the lac insect 

 prefers the strong juicy shoots of vigorous plants to the 

 more or less dry, more or less hide-bound twigs or Iiss 

 vigorous individuals. Moreover, cattle, goats, and other 

 herbivorous animals, while they do not spare weakly plants, 

 still fall more greedily on strong ones with abundant, 

 ■well-developed, juicy twigs and foliage. Lastly, man him- 

 self will, as a rule, fell and remove only what suits his 

 purpose, the strong as well as the weak plant. Hence it 

 is not invariably, nor generally, the weaker plants that 

 succumb to this cause. (It.) Attacks of parasitic and 

 epiphytic plants. — Injurious parasitic plants will, as a rule, 

 attack only the weaker individuals; while epiphytic plants 

 make no distinction between weak and strong. 



Relative Depth to which the Roots Penetr.\te. — This 

 condition has a mo.st important bearing on the distribution 

 of some of our most valuable species. For instance teak, 

 the Terminalius, &c., spread out their roots within only 

 six feet and often less of the surface, so that in shallow 

 soils resting on a perfectly dry subsoil, they yield the 

 place to Boswellia^ Anut/eissits, khair, Frosopis sjncitferay &c. 

 The Prosopis spici(/era itself has been known to force its 

 main roots down to 60 feet below the surface of the water, 

 and is, accordingly, able to flourish in the dry plains of 

 the Punjab, whither no other tree can follow it. Again 

 the sal is almost the only tree that can grow on the 

 waterless boulder deposit between the foot of the Himalayas 

 and the Terai, known as the Bhabar, the roots of that 

 species being able to penetrate to a depth of certainly 

 more than (10 feet, which fact accounts for its generally 

 forming much purer forests there than in the hills. Many 

 of the trees of the dry tracts of India, which bring out 

 their leaves in the depth of the hot weather, like the 

 Passia latifolia^ BucJianania latifolia, &c., have been known 

 to send down their dense network of fibrous rootlets 20 

 feet below the surface. 



Relative Maximum Height Attainable. — This condition 

 finally decides what trees, out of those that survive up to a 

 certain stage of growth, shall form the crop, or, if there are 

 species present which are shade-bearing enough to consti- 

 tute a permanent undergrowth, its upper story. Of the 

 companions of sal there are only tlie Terminalias, some 

 Alhizzias, Ad.iiia cordifolia, Pintcs lonf/ifnlia, some Euycnias, 

 and half a dozen other species which attain the same 

 height as that noble tree, and which, therefore, compete 

 with it for a ]>lace in the lofty leaf-canopy of the full- 

 grown forrst. Tn most of the forests of Central India 

 (including Northern Bombay), teak is a small tree, and 

 is hence easily beaten by its taller companions. Deodar 

 is, as a rule, the tallest tree in the forests where it grows, 

 whence its gregariousness in those places, where other 

 circumstaucea, such as soil, moisture, kc, are favorable. 



Again, Mesuaferrea is. with the exception of AUim/ia cxcelsa, 

 the tallest tree in the large areas which it covers almost 

 by itself in Assam. The teak in Burma, and the Artocarpus 

 Cliaplasha in Assam, although unfavorably circumstanced in 

 many other respects to struggle for existence with their com- 

 panions, are able to hold a permanent place in their midst. 

 In evergreen forests trees of deciduous species tower above 

 all the other growth. 



Relative Rapidity of Growth.— The influence of this 



cause will bo different according as this relative rapidity 

 obtains during the first years of the life of a tree or 

 at a later age. Other circumstances being equal, it is 

 erident that species which grow rapidly during their early 

 years will prevail over others which are of slower growth 

 at that age. And similarly stool-shoots and suckers will 

 very soon smother out. any seedlings that m.ay come up 

 simultaneously with them. In the habit ;it of the teak 

 bamboos everywhere, Pv.tea froiidosa in Ceutral India and 

 some other species, complete at least hail their growth 

 before th,at valuable tree only begins to push ujj-.vards, the 

 consequence being that, unless this last has a real start 

 it is completely driven out. In most sal fo'-ests, besides 

 the bamboo, it is the Tetrantheras that push up rapidly 

 and cover the ground, while the sal is only just establish- 

 ing itself. Among the companions of deodar, the Pinus 

 e.vcelsa shoots rapidly away soon after it germinates, and 

 leaves that tree far behind in the race. It is thanks 

 mainly to the wonderful rapidity with which teak stool- 

 shoots grow up, that that species is so easily able to 

 hold its own in the coppice forests of th^ Sathpuras and 

 the Western Ghats. On the other hand, when growth 

 becomes rapid only after the plants have attained a certain 

 age, its vigour in the ease of the larger trees of the 

 forests is .always so gre.at that nothing can withstand it. 

 It is thus that when teak his survived up to this stage 

 it overcomes every obstacle to its growth, and so with 

 sal, deodar, Pimi,s loni/ifolia, Hardicickia himta, &c. 



Death, Disease, Unhealthy State, or Retardation of 

 Growth, brought on by Causes Extraneous to the 

 Forest, viz.— {a.) Attacks of insects and other animals.— The 

 remarks made under this head for the first two cases are 

 equally applicable here. Besides this, we know th,at with 

 many insects certain .species are characteristic of, and 

 limited to certain kinds of trees, that cattle and deer will 

 greedily devour the foliage of some kinds and leave others 

 untouched; and so forth. Thus, for instance, it is not 

 uncommon to see every teak leaf over large tracts of the 

 Central Provinces eaten up by a certain species of cater- 

 pillar in the space of a few days, while the foliage of 

 the various companion species entirely escapes the pest. 

 Similarly, the foliage'of sal is attacked and more or less 

 completely devoured over large areas by the larva of a 

 certain species of insect (Tinia). Again, a borer {Ceramhyi) 

 often attacks young teak shoots, piercing the wootf up 

 to the pith, were it lodges, and thus either kills the portion 

 of the shoot above the wound, or stops or retards its 

 growth, or allows it to be easily snapped off by the wind. 

 In some of the forests in Sanger, in the Central Provinces' 

 young Slepliei/i/ne parvifolia have no chance of getting up' 

 as the tender annual shoots are dev'oured by deer as fast 

 as they come up. So in the Himalayas, Qiiercvs incana 

 dilatata, and semecarpifolia. can never rise above a mere' 

 bnsh where grazing is unrestricted. On the other hand' 

 TIardwickia and, in many places, sal seedlings are seldom 

 if ever, touched by the mouth of cattle. The intervention 

 of man also exercises a greater influence here than in the 

 preceding cases, and not unfrequently results in the com- 

 plete banishment of certain species. Large and frequent 

 clearings for cultivation or other purposes may enable 

 the moie vivacious species to get ahead of, and suppress 

 all others (examples, teak, Oiir/einia, Zi:.yphits, &c.). a' 

 large demand for certain kinds of produce may create a 

 heavy run on the few species which furnish them, and 

 thereby enable their eompaiions, even those which are 

 naturally less fitted to survive, to fill up the vacancies left 

 by theui, and socure the ma.stery. (/;.) Att'tcks of parasitic 

 and epiphytic plants. — All the remarks made under this 

 head for the first case apply also here. Moreover parasites 

 are nearly a'ways selective, preferring some species to 

 others, or living exclusively on a single sperits; and so, 

 although to a much less extent with many epiphytes'. 

 Thus the Arceuthobium Oxycedri, as far as is known, grows 



