1885.] REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 380 



peculiar appliances for transporting along it by the force of gravity- 

 alone tree stumps as they are cut in the forests. In one of the 

 plates such a wire tramway is depicted emerging from a forest, 

 crossing a deep ravine, skirting the base of an irregular hill, and 

 then bringing its burdens directly to the railway loading bank. 

 Another plate solves the problem of placing the load at the terminus 

 of the wire tramway on board a barge. The system might be useful 

 in Britain. 



INDIAN FOREST rROGRESS IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS. 



Review of Forest Administration in British India fur the year 

 1883-84. By B. Ribbentrop, Esq., Officiating Inspector- 

 General of Forests to the Government of India. Simla 

 Government Central Branch Press. 1885. 



ri"^HE Inspector-General of Forests in India at the same tiMie 

 JL fulfils the functions of Under-Secretary in the Home 

 Department, submitting cases direct to the Secretary. During 

 the last five years the revenue of the Indian Forest Administration 

 has risen from 71 lakhs of rupees to 108 lakhs, chiefly in con- 

 sequence of the demands on Government forests caused by the 

 destruction of private ones owing to the great increase of railways. 

 Expressed in pounds sterling, the receipts amount roughly to one 

 million pounds, and the net surplus, after meeting cost of estab- 

 lishments, working, protection, and improvement, to four hundred 

 thousand pounds. The total area under the authority of the 

 Department may be put down at 100,000 square miles, represent- 

 ing less than one-half of the minimum forest area which may be 

 said to be necessary for the wellbeing of the country ; ]jut over 

 half of this, the control is of a very limited nature, so that 

 barely 50,000 square miles, or about one-fourth of the required 

 area, can be considered as under real forest conservancy. How 

 this state of matters may be remedied by the extension of his 

 department, Mr. Ribbentrop discusses very ably, though with an 

 amplitude beyond our present limits. We note, however, the 

 enlargement of the Working Plans Branch which has been brought 

 into existence only during the last five years, and which has now 

 a central office under his immediate control. Reserved forests are 

 henceforth to have such working plans dealing, amongst other items, 

 with the calculation of the growing stock, of the annual increase, 

 as well as the quantity of material to be removed, annually or 

 periodically, with due consideration of the production of the 

 forest and of the demand, as well as arrangement for the re- 



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