G6 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fields and gardens. The boundaries of estates over heath and 

 moorland are as well defined as where they run between farms and 

 houses. In India, on the other hand, the propi'ietaiy rights in 

 forest and waste-land had not developed to the same extent as the 

 rights in the cultivated area. In most parts of the country, 

 whether the rulers were Hindus, Buddhists, or Mahommedans, 

 the prevailing idea was that the forest and waste belonged to the 

 ruling power. This idea, however, was by no means general. In 

 some provinces, noblemen and other large proprietors had, in course 

 of time, appropriated all the waste-land and forest ; and in other 

 districts, where the system of village communities had become fully 

 developed, the waste and forest, and sometimes a part of the culti- 

 vated lands also, were regarded as the joint property of the village 

 community. Hence there was in many cases great uncertainty 

 regarding the first and fundamental question, who is the proprietor 

 of the forests 1 And the difficulty was increased by the existence 

 of what ai'e called " rights of user " in the forests — viz., the rights 

 which the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages had exercised 

 from time immemorial to cut firewood and timber, to collect 

 grass and other forest produce, and to graze their cattle in the 

 forests. Similar rights of user, as yo\i are all aware, are found, 

 not only in India, but in many forest lands of Europe. In the 

 New Forest, for instance, the largest of the British Crown 

 forests, the Crown has unrestricted proprietary rights in a small 

 part of the area, while of the remainder a portion only may at 

 one time be enclosed and planted, the same being thrown open to 

 pasture and the exercise of other rights by the commoners when 

 another area is enclosed. 



The British Government in India, as the guardian of public 

 interests, could not any longer delay action in the matter. It 

 had become apparent to all thoughtful observers that the long 

 period of peace and quiet, brought about by the consolidation of 

 the British power in India, had stimulated the process of clear- 

 ing the forests for cultivation,' so that everywhere forest was 

 disappearing to make room for fields. This steady increase of 

 cultivation was the necessary consequence of the just and good 

 govei-nment which India had enjoyed under British rule. At the 

 same time, the consumption of timber was augmented, and the 

 destruction of the forests was intensified by the construction of 

 railways, the building of roads, bridges, and canals; by the 

 erection of public buildings throughout the country, the gi'owth 



