Indian Forest Management. 639 



be acquired in " two years " ? I am not underrating the young 

 men's abilities, because many of them are gentlemen of good learn- 

 ing ; at the same time a hoii'l fide anecdote may here be told 

 to show their limited knowledge of practical forestry. I was once 

 favoured with a call from a number of these gentlemen, accredited 

 M'ith the " two years' training," and who were making a professional 

 visit of inspection to learn the various British systems of planting 

 trees before leaving Europe for India. They looked on for three, 

 minutes at us notching-in young Scots firs, and then expressed them- 

 selves thoroughly conversant with the operation. Doubting this, I 

 took my spade, and resting it on a flat stone, asked thera for the most 

 approved Continental system of placing a plant there — in the centre 

 of the stone as indicated with my spade. I was entertained with a 

 dissertation on how the stone must first be covered with soil, and 

 that to a considerable depth before a plant oiujlbt to be put in ! I 

 turned over the stone, and gravely remarked that thiU was British 

 training. I am free to say none of the above aspirants could dis- 

 tinguish chalk from calcareous strata, and yet they were found quali- 

 fied by the Secretary of State to act under superior officers as much 

 acquainted with practical forestry as the savans of Savile Row are 

 with the fauna of Lake Tanganyika. 



The existing system of sending young men abroad^to learn forestry 

 for Indian appointments is just so much public money utterly wasted, 

 directly and indirectly, through futile and ill-directed labour. The 

 British forester enjoys facilities not yet extended to his Continental 

 confrlres, for he constructs bridges, erects fences of every kind and 

 material, cuts drains and canals, quarries stones, builds houses, 

 makes roads, rears trees and shrubs by all the best methods, plants, 

 fells, and manufactures timber ad infinitum. 



In advocating that home-trained men should be appointed for 

 India, permit me to point out what influence man has upon climate. 

 Twenty years ago the island of Santa Cruz was a garden of fertility, 

 but some years since the forests were destroyed, and now desiccation 

 lias swept across the whole island, rendering it as barren as the sea- 

 shore, a result attributed entirely to the destruction of the woods. 

 Some recent experiments confirm this theory. Two points of obser- 

 vation were established for comparison, one in an open locality, and 

 the other close to a clump of pine trees. The -observations were con- 

 ducted at stations only 330 yards apart, and yet the one at the wood 

 registered 10 per cent, more rainfall than the other. It was also found 

 that the air over the trees was charged with 10 per cent, more vapour 

 than in the open plain. The temperature in the vicinity of trees is 

 more genial than in the open. 



Many strong arguments could be adduced proving how much man 



