Forestry in India 649 



The densely populated areas practise as intense forest utiliza- 

 tion as is possible any\\'here in the world, taking the grass as well as 

 the twigs. 



Departmental working of the forests though gradually decreas- 

 ing is still important. Contractors in the employ of the Forest 

 Service or laborers working on the piece work system took out in 

 1913 to 1914 over 7,500,000 cubic feet of timber, 13,500,000 cubic 

 feet of fuel, and $240,000 worth of bamboos and minor produce. 

 The system of departmental working involves a great burden on 

 the staff, coming between them and their other duties, and for 

 this reason it is gradually being discontinued except in new dis- 

 tricts where because of the lack of initiative in India private 

 individuals would be slow to act, or where departmental logging is 

 advisable to operate as a check both on the cost of taking out tim- 

 ber and, in the case of teak in Burma, as a controlling influence 

 on the market price. 



The teak logging operations of the Forest Service in Burma must 

 rank amongst the mos-t profitable in the world. The average net 

 profits were in 1914 $40 per M feet board measvue on logs de- 

 livered in Rangoon. 



Though Indian stumpage rates appear high as a rule, consider- 

 ing the earning power of the population, the stumpage on teak 

 is low compared to the profit of taking it out. If Government 

 operations may be taken as a criterion, the private company log- 

 ging teak makes a profit on the logs alone of about $22 per M 

 after pa>ing stimipage of about $16.50 per M. There is a large 

 profit to be added from the sawmills run by the logging companies. 



The grazing problems have been continuously difficult. India 

 is densely popiilated with cattle, buffaloes, goats and sheep, 

 for which grazing must be foimd, and which in many instances 

 interferes with natural regeneration. Altogether 14,500,000 

 animals grazed in the forests in 1913 to 1914. The grazing is 

 regulated so as to close forests against injurious cattle during the 

 regenerative period. 



