Al'l'KXDIX A. I'Mir n. 091 



to girdlinpr. The soeond involves a more sei-ious question than mere delay, and lies 

 in the fact of tlio dutciioratiou which the practice causes in the timber of trees so 

 treated. 



" Ifajor llorgan (Kcport 18G1-G2) tells us ilalabar teakwood lias been dis- 

 continued in JIadras for the use of gun carringo wheels by the Superintendent, as 

 it irax found brittle; but he had explained to Colonel ifaitland, and shown him tliat 

 the manufactory must have been supplied with (jirdled teak. Good cross-grained 

 Malabar teak, JIajor Morgan adds, is superior to any wood for wheels, and the 

 ffirdliDff of teak, he says, /ins lotir/ aijo been given up, as it >iia/:es the wund brittle and 

 deprives it of its oil. Major Morgan, of course, is speaking of Jlalabar, but is it 

 not strange, if girdling has been abandoned for such a reason in Malabar, tliat 

 it should still flourish unsuspected, and be rigorously enforced in Pegu ! Major 

 Pearson tlius also writes of girdling : ' With reference to the girdling of teak, it 

 seems to me that the process tends to a certain extent to make the timber brittle. 

 This was found to be the case with a nuuiber of trees which were girdled, for some 

 European timber merchant, in the Boree forest, prior to its being formed into a 

 Reserve. When those trees were felled by this department, mam/ of them used to 

 split and splinter in the fall, rendering some portion of the timber ([uite useless, 

 icherens trees that are felled without being girdled do not seem to be liable to injury of 

 this hind. The natives of this part of India seem never to have practised the killing 

 of trees before felling, and yet you find timber cut by them a century ago as sound 

 as if it had only been cut for a few years.' 



"The above extracts go far to establish conclusively the injurious results of 

 ' girdling,' and that the results are not more palpable than they are, is simply due 

 to the great excellence of teak timber and its capacity of withstanding trying 

 conditions. It is a matter of certainty that there are numbers of trees which, if 

 felled and at once converted into planks, would yield an average timber for common 

 purposes, but which, if ' girdled ' and allowed to stand weltering in their own sap, 

 would bo rotten before the official term of three years had expired, owing to the fact 

 that there is no real seasoning whatever, so Icmg as a tree remains standing in the 

 ground. 



" The third objection is a more trivial one, viz. that many trees are girdled in 

 spots where they cannot be profitably removed, but where they might have been 

 advantageously preserved for propagation — and few traders would ever think of 

 felling a tree which they did not think was capable of being removed. I am, 

 of course, aware of the claim of the Forest Department to select trees for the axe ; 

 but this right is in no wise bound up with the ([ucstion of girdling, since a broad- 

 arrow mark impressed by tlie Department would as clearly indicate the trees for 

 felling as tlie laborious plan of girdling them ; hence I cannot but hope that a dis- 

 passionate revision of the subject may lead to the abandonment of a pernicious 

 custom. As for the fact that a broatl-arrow mark might be dishonestly imitated, 

 there is surely no more difficulty in girdling a tree surreptitiously than in branding 

 it ; and the same means of detection and i)unishment that succeed in one case would 

 equally well ap])ly in the other, any ditt'erence, so far as security goes, being in 

 favour of the broad-arrow brand rersus girdling, as the mere possession of such 

 a branding hammer would suflice for conviction, wliereas for surreptitious girdling 

 a 'dab' alone is reciuired, which is in everybody's hands." 



AGAXOSMA ACUMINATUM (Pago 349). 

 J[r. A. L. Hough tells me this makes an excellent ' chutnee.' 



ELUMKA Ji.VLSAMIFERA (Page 389). 



Dr. Mason remarks: "One of the most abundant weeds throughout Burma is 



a species of Blumea, that grows six to eight feet high, with leaves like ' mullen,' 



which, when bruised, emit a strong odour of camphor. Many years ago the Tavoycrs 



informed me that they were in the habit of making an impure camphor from the 



