ON THE DESTRUCTION OF TROPICAL FORESTS. 79 



also shelter the soil from the direct action of the sun, and thus prevent eva- 

 poration of the water furnished by rains." In this way, as Humboldt states, 

 the forests contribute to the copiousness of streams. 



The question as between the maintenance and removal of forests appears 

 to us to be a question of compensations. Wherever the progress of popu- 

 lation requires that every portion of the soil be made to yield its quota of 

 human food, there the destruction of forests is to be desired, and the disad- 

 vantages to which want of wood for social and general purposes may lead, 

 must be compensated for, as they doubtless will be, by the ingenuity which 

 is born of necessity. But there are localities in nearly all countries to 

 which the tide of population can never flow, but where the forest can 

 flourish, and wliere it ought to be maintained. To tropical countries, the 

 preservation of the springs which feed the rivers, on which the fertility of the 

 land and the prosperity of the people are so essentially dependent, is of the 

 greatest importance. These springs rise in the mountain regions where 

 forests prevail, and it is to such regions that a protective agency should be 

 extended, for there can be but little doubt that the entire removal of wood 

 leads to the diminution of water. In a single sentence, we would say that 

 where human exigences, whether for subsistence or for health, require the 

 destruction of forests, let them be destroyed ; but where neither life nor 

 health is concerned, then let a wise system of preservation be introduced 

 and acted upon. 



The planting of such trees as are desirable from the fruit which they 

 afford, or grateful from the shade which they yield, is an act which has been 

 held in high esteem in eastern countries, especially India, from very early 

 times. The eastern appreciation of the luxury of shade led to the banks of 

 the canals, constructed by the Mahommedan emperors, being planted, and 

 the waysides of the imperial roads being lined with trees of various kinds ; 

 in the Sunnud of the Emperor Akbar, it is directed, " that on both sides of the 

 canal down to Hissar, trees of every description both for shade and blossom, 

 be planted, so as to make it like the canal under the tree in Paradise ; and 

 that the sweet flavour of the rare fruits may reach the mouth of every one, 

 and that from those luxuries a voice may go forth to travellers calling them 

 to rest in the cities where their every want will be supplied*." 



But the planting of trees for timber seems to have been neglected there, as 

 it has been in most other countries, until modern times. This is no doubt 

 owing to self-sown forests being more than sufficient to supply all the wants 

 of man in tlie earlier states of society. As population and civilization are 

 advanced, such forests are looked upon rather as impediments to agriculture, 

 than as sources of wealtli, and the means of removing trees are more thought 

 of than the readiest modes of propagation, or how they should be treated so 

 as to produce tiie best timber in the shortest time, and in the fullest quan- 

 tity that the ground is capable of bearing, and so managed that it may yield 

 some profit even M'hile the timber is growing f. 



British India is so extensive an empire, so diversified in soil and climate, 

 as well as in natural and agricultural products, that it is impossible to pre- 

 dicate anything respecting it generally ; that which is descriptive of one 

 part, is not necessarily applicable to another. Thus some parts are covered 

 with primaeval forests, as the mountainous coasts of Canara and Malabar, the 

 country surrounding the Neilgheerics the Tenasserim Provinces, much of 

 Central India, the base of the Himalayan Mountains from Assam up to the 



* Calcutta Review, No. 23. 



t The substance of the above and following paragraphs is extracted from a valuable MS. 

 Report of Dr. Royle on the advantages of increased planting in certain districts of India. 



