272 E. J. BUTLER. 



numbers' in wliich diseased trees occurred and the number in 

 each. When a Kevenue Inspector comes round (an effort is made 

 to inspect each village once a month) the register is produced and 

 a certain percentage of the entries checked by an actual visit to the 

 survey numbers indicated. Payment is then made at a fixed rate 

 of I anna per tree cut to the village officer. 



Delays naturally occurred in the introduction of the new system. 

 A circular had to be issued to all the village officers, but as these are 

 sometimes illiterate and often careless, its purport had to be explained 

 by the inspecting staff. By January 1909 most of Ramachendrapur 

 and Cocanada Taluks had begun regular cutting and the village 

 officers were reported to be co-operating fairly well. In Amalapur, 

 however, they were slow to perform their share of work and Rajah- 

 mundry and Nagaram were worse. In March 1909 only 260 villages 

 out of 566 in the infected Taluks of Godavari District sent in reports, 

 in April, 327. 



From April 1st, 1908, to March 31st, 1909, about 140,000 palms 

 were cut out in the Godavari District at a total cost of Es. 14,109 

 (£940). 



In the face of considerable difficulties Mr. Green continued to 

 effect an improvement in the work of the village officers. He was 

 given powers of reprimand and of inflicting small fines directly in 

 cases where the village officers were persistently remiss in seeing that 

 trees were cut. This gradually told and in August 1909, 432 vil- 

 lages out of 566 in the infected Taluks of Godavari submitted reports. 

 By December the number had risen to 518 and by the beginning of 

 this year cutting was progressing practically simultaneously over 

 the whole of the infected area in Godavari. The total number 



1 For land record and revenue purposes each field in a village receives a number on the 

 village map. It is therefore easy to find any particular field and check the trees cut. Later 

 on the stems of cut trees were consecutively numbered, to avoid any risk of the sams tree being 

 entered and paid for more than once. 



