492 INDIAN FORESTRY REPORTS. [Dec. 



year this state of things recurs, and a constitutional tendency or 

 habit is formed in the tree to respond to the first slight impulses of 

 warmth in spring. This constitutional tendency is transmitted to 

 the offspring; and when reared in our climate, it is exposed to 

 degrees of warmth during March and April for short periods, it 

 may be, but yet long enough to stir its more sensitive energy into 

 activity, soon only to be checked or paralyzed by a period of com- 

 paratively extreme cold or actual frost. Seedlings from the native 

 larch, or more properly from home-grown seed, have, on the other 

 hand, inherited a less sensitive habit from their parents, as the 

 result of their yearly experiences in our peculiar spring climate. 

 They respond less quickly and progress in growth more slowly than 

 the foreign seedlings, and the growth being more dense and compact, 

 they suffer less from the vicissitudes of the weather. But they are 

 not always exempt from the effects of frost in spring any more than 

 the foreign seedlings. Late frosts occur, as every nurseryman and 

 forester of experience know to tlieir cost and vexation, which make 

 a clean sweep of the crops, be they foreign or native. The foreign 

 larch, it may be further remarked, very soon becomes adapted to 

 the peculiarities of our climate. It is only in the first few years of 

 its existence here that it suffers more than the native, showing that 

 it is only a little constitutional adaptability that is required, and 

 which is easily acquired, to obliterate the only difference between it 

 and the native. A. X. E. 



INDIAN FORESTRY REPORTS. 



THE progress reports of Forestry Administration in the Punjab 

 and Central Provinces and the Hyderabad Assigned Districts 

 have just been issued by the Government of India for the official 

 year 1884-85. 



In the Eeport of the Punjab Forests it is stated that the total 

 area of the reserves comprises 1391 square miles. No increase has 

 been made in the area of the Eeserve Forests during the year, but 

 it is in contemplation to make an addition of some 45 square miles 

 at an early date. The Picport deals with the subject of Forest 

 Settlement in the Punjab very fully, showing what has been accom- 

 plished during the year, the result being the conclusion that tlie 

 difficulties are great and the progress necessarily slow and costly. 

 On the other hand, the progress made in the work of demarcation 

 of boundaries has been satisfactory. The area of reserves surveyed 

 up to date amounts to 740 square miles. Progress is also being 

 made in the compilation of working plans. It is satisfactory to 



