G68 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. Xll . 



square miles were tabulated as " uuclassecl." The total area under 

 the control of the Forest Department amounted, therefore, to about 

 114,000 square miles, inclusive of about 1,100 square miles leased 

 from Native States. Of this area, which is only about 7,000 square 

 miles less than that of the British Isles — about 32,000 square miles 

 are closed to ail animals, and about 4], 000 square miles are closed 

 to browsing animals only. I am unable to give any exact statistics 

 as to Village Forests and Private Forests, but it has been estimated 

 that the area of Private Forests and Forests belonging to Corporations, 

 Endowments, etc., is about equal to that of the State Forests, and 

 that the total area of Forests of all kinds is about 25 per cent, of the 

 total area of British India. In Great Britain and Ireland the corre- 

 sponding percentage is only 4. The corresponding figures for Europe 

 and the United States of North America are 31 and 17, respectively. 

 In European countries the highest percentage is reached in Servia, 

 where it is 43. In Russia and Sweden it is 42 : in Austria 33 ; in 

 Hungary 29 ; in Germany 26; in Norway 25; and in Turkey, including 

 Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also in Roumania and Italy, 22. 

 In Switzerland, Spain, France, Greece, and Belgium it lies between 



19 and 15. In Holland it falls to 7, in Denmark to 6, and in Portugal 

 to 5, Great Britain and Ireland thus show the lowest percentage 

 of all the countries named, while India comes seventh in the list, 

 being bracketed with Norway. (Schlich's Manual of Forestry, Vol. 

 I., p. 54.) 



The area of plantations directly under the Government of India and 

 the Government of Madras is said to extend to 41,000 acres. In the 

 Bombay Presidency, the afforestation of waste tracts has been pushed 

 with vigour, but I am unable to give the acreage. One of the plans 

 adopted by Mr. Shuttleworth, in the Central Division, as he has 

 personally explained to me on the site of some of his operations, on the 

 hills near Poena, has been to sow the seeds of all kinds of forest 

 trees and shrubs broadcast on the ground. The results of the annual 

 sowings have been satisfactory except in seasons when the rainfall has 

 failed at the close of the monsoon. Hill- tops and stony valleys which 



20 years ago were bare and unsightly are now well covered with 

 innumerable saplings and most refreshing verdure. Similar results 

 have been obtained on many of the rocky hills of the Dekhan. 



