630 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



ing their puckeriness. Wild crab-apple makes delicious jell\'. Shad- 

 bush or June berry, hackberry, elderberry, and mulberry can be used 

 for the same purposes for pies or sauce. Less known is the use of the 

 acid redbud flowers in salads and pickle, of the mesquite fruit, and 

 buds of sassafras ; but every boy knows the honey-shucks of the honey 

 locust. Finally, may be mentioned the several nut pines of the West 

 and the longleaf-pine nut of the South for tid-bits. 



Although the Indian Forest Department has been in existence over 

 fifty years, there is still need to awaken public interest in its work, ac- 

 cording to a writer in the Indian Forester (October, igiy). This is 

 partly due to the fact that the Inspector General is nothing but a tech- 

 nical adviser, while the responsible official, who holds the portfolio in 

 the government council, is the member in charge of the Department of 

 Revenue and Agriculture ; "the driving force is never likely to come 

 from that quarter" ; a strong public opinion alone can set it in motion. 



Since Lord Dalhousie, in 1855, framed a definite forest policy, out 

 of a total of around 250,000 square miles of forest area, 97,580 square 

 miles have been reserved, 10,405 square miles have been classed as pro- 

 tected forest, the large balance remaining unclassified. 



So far, so good ; but now more detail development is necessary for 

 commercial purposes. "Money is wanted for communications, for up- 

 to-date methods of transportation, for giving the lead to forest indus- 

 tries." Reference is particularly made to the possibilities of developing 

 the paper industry ; India to become an exporter of paper to all coun- 

 tries, the supply of bamboo and grasses for this use being unlimited. 



That the Indian Forest Department is not ideally organized, manned, 

 paid, pensioned, and run appears from various communications in re- 

 cent numbers of the Indian Forester. In controversial correspondence 

 with the former Inspector General himself, one deputy conservator 

 complains of the low salaries and inadequate pensions for higher-grade 

 officers as compared with what men in private employ secure. The 

 findings of the Public Service Commission — (i) that within a measur- 

 able period the department can be entirely manned by officers educated 

 in India; (2) that remuneration on a scale approximately half that 

 offered to officers of the Indian Civil Service is sufficient to attract the 

 necessary brain-power to the department — are being doubted, for "even 

 if the enlarged Forest College at Dehra Dun will be in a position to 

 inculcate the scientific basis for forest work, it is hard to see what 



