94 KEPORT — 1851. 



" In recommending more general attention to the subject of planting in 

 India, it is perhaps unnecessary, after detailing the foregoing facts, to dwell 

 longer on what appears to be tiie absolute necessity of something being done 

 either by Government or by individuals for the preservation of old forests or 

 the formation of new ones, whether this be immediately profitable or not, 

 because so long a time is required to bring timber to perfection, that unless 

 some means are adopted to provide for the future, so great a dearth of timber 

 will be experienced as to put a stop to constructions of all kinds, that is to 

 almost everything required for civilized life, or to force the Government and 

 natives of India to import timber at any sacrifice, even when there are abun- 

 dant tracts of unprofitable land, which might have been occupied by valuable 

 timber, and which would have yielded yearly some returns long before the 

 trees were fit to cut doM'n. In India, not only would the thinnings and 

 prunings of forests be required for all the purposes for which these are sold 

 in Europe, but a constant demand and profitable sale must always give value 

 to even the smallest fragments of wood in a country where it is the universal 

 fuel for daily cooking the food of millions, as well as for imparting warmth 

 in the cold-weather months, and required also for all the chemical arts in 

 which heat is necessary, some of which, as the preparation of sugar and of 

 indigo, are performed on the very farms where the plants are grown. The 

 leaves also of many trees are employed as fodder for elephants, camels, and 

 in the Himalayas even for goats, sheep, and horned cattle. They are col- 

 lected also when dry for fuel, and are preferred, I believe, for some fires, aa 

 those for heating ovens ; but their more legitimate employment, of being al- 

 lowed to enrich the soil, becomes neglected." — Royle, MSS. cit. 



" Another object I would particularly call attention to, is the felling of 

 timber at the proper season when the sap is at rest. It requires no botanist 

 to point out when this is to be done ; although the leaves do not fall off in 

 India, as in more temperate climates, it is impossible to find any difficulty 

 in deciding, from the appearance of the tree, when the time for felling has 

 arrived. When the sap is rising, the leaves are generally somewhat soft and 

 perfect ; when it is at rest, the leaves are harder, and, in India, almost always 

 corroded by insects. In consequence of the facility of barking a tree when 

 the sap is rising, oaks are often felled at this season in England, always with 

 disadvantage to the timber ; and this same facility of barking is too often an 

 inducement to the renters of forests in India to fell timber at improper 

 periods of the year." — (Capt. Munro on the Timber Trees of Bengal, in 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. XI. new series, page 1.) 



It is not only in affording indigenous woods of wonderful variety, serving 

 all the purposes to which timber is applied, that the Indian forests claim our 

 attentive consideration. In them Nature presents to us other sources of 

 wealth, which under judicious management may yield a considerable increase 

 to the present revenue. Gums, drugs, dyes, resins abound, as gutta-percha, 

 caoutchouc, kino, gamboge, camphor, dammer, piney, varnisli, wood-oil, 

 with many other products not sufficiently known or appreciated, but which, 

 as the light of European science penetrates these partially explored regions, 

 will be applied to many useful purposes in the arts and sciences. 



The Isonandra gutta flourished for centuries in its native jungles, exuding 

 its juice only to be received by the soil, before the discovery Avas made that 

 gutta-percha was suited for such an infinite number of applications (the pro- 

 perties of the other species remain to be examined), and the geographical 

 limits of the Tahan-ivee have yet to be ascertained. To urge the necessity 

 of exercising careful vigilance in protecting the trees whence so valuable a 



