ON THE DESTRUCTION OP TROPICAL FORESTS. 85 



jungle of rank vegetation, still more unhealthy than the forest, which being 

 open below, admits of circulation of air ; but the scrub is a dense mass of 

 vegetation, and from bottom to top it is about twenty feet high. But however 

 this may be, I think it is a question worthy of serious attention, whether the 

 present unlimited destruction of the forest shall be allowed to continue, risk- 

 ing the diminution of rain, the effect of which would extend over the whole 

 of the southern part of the peninsula, and perhaps occasion most disastrous 

 consequences. 



" 7. More inland, Coomri cultivation is destructive of much sandal-wood. 

 There is now a case under inquiry in the Shikarpoor Talook, in which eighty 

 trees have been destroyed. The average valueof a sandal- wood tree is from 

 five to fifteen rupees. In the coffee districts this system is very objectionable. 

 Coffee will not grow in a Coomri clearing, the soil having been exhausted, 

 and the fires in the neighbourhood of plantations endanger it. The Coomri 

 cutters would be nmch better employed in the plantations. Upon a repre- 

 sentation of these objections, I forbid Coomri in the Chickmoogloor Talook 

 some months ago. 



" 8. This cultivation has great attractions to the lower classes of cultivators 

 and labourers; it leads numbers from the cultivation of the beriz-lands, and 

 thus directly injures the revenue, and produces in those who take to it law- 

 less and vagabond habits. Along the Ghauts t!ie Coomri cultivators, when 

 not engaged in their cultivation, employ themselves in smuggling, which the 

 clearings and their knowledge of the country greatly facilitate. In the MuU 

 naad a trifling rent is paid to the forest-renter. In the open Talooks a low 

 rent is paid directly to Government. In either case the payment of it is often 

 evaded by those who have clearings in remote and inaccessible parts, where 

 they are not easily discovered. The cultivation is of the rudest and simplest 

 mode. The trees are felled in January and February, and allowed to remain 

 in the ground till the next season, when they are burnt. The earth is not 

 turned at all, and the seed, ragee, castor-oil, or dhoU*, is thrown broad-cast 

 upon the ashes among the stumps. The crops thus produced are always 

 abundant. Formerly the practice was to take only one crop, and leave the 

 clearing, which allowed the stumps to shoot out again, and the same spot 

 would bear cultivation again after from twelve to twenty years. Rut of late 

 the practice of repeating the process the second year has grown up. The 

 same clearing will bear cultivation again after from twelve to twenty years : 

 when it has been cultivated for only one season the stumps of the trees shoot 

 out again if only once cut and burnt ; but if this is done a second year, they 

 perish, root and branch, and the spot is ever after productive of nothing but 

 scrub. The soil has been totally exhausted, and produces nothing but 

 weeds. It is probably this practice, which did not formerly exist, that has 

 caused such extensive destruction of the forest. 



" 9. Coomri cultivation is therefore directly injurious to the revenue ; it 

 has a demoralizing effect upon a great number of people, and is in all respects 

 objectionable, except under the circumstances explained in the following 

 paragraph. The renting system is unproductive of revenue, and destructive 

 of the forests ; I am therefore of opinion that it ought to be abolished, that 

 the forests should be kept in the hands of Government and preserved, and 

 that Coomri should be altogether forbidden, except under strict supervision, 

 and the orders of the superintendent. 



" 10. There are some parts of the country where clearing the jungle might 

 be done with great advantage in many ways. There are extensive ranges of 

 jungle composed of bamboo and stunted trees, which are quite unproductive, 

 * Eleusine coracana, Ricinus communis and Cajanus indieus. 



