90 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



November; and on the 19th December 1856, Dr Cleghorn was 

 appointed Conservator of Forests in the Presidency of Madras. 

 An account of Dr Cleghorn's work during the first five years of 

 his tenure of this appointment is contained in three general 

 reports and other oflicial documents, which, with other impor- 

 tant unoflicial papers, were published in the little book, entitled, 

 "Forests and Gardens of South India," which Dr Cleghorn 

 published in 1861, when compelled to come home on sick 

 leave. This book has done much to pi-omote Forest Conser- 

 vancy in India. The reader must not expect to find in it the 

 record of a complete and scientific system of forest administra- 

 tion, the introduction of which, under the circumstances, at 

 that time would not have been feasible. But the record of the 

 woi'k accomplished by Dr Cleghorn during this period shows that 

 he directed his attention to such matters as called for immediate 

 action, and that his recommendations in regard thereto were in 

 the right direction. He justly laid great stress upon the necessity 

 of acquiring a good knowledge of the principal trees and shrubs, 

 as well as of the climate, soil, and forest growth in the difierent 

 foi'est tracts ; he arranged for the supply of timber, charcoal, and 

 firewood ; and in regard to the protection of the forests, he studied 

 the chief sources of injury, indiscriminate cutting, fires, and Kumri 

 cultivation. The result of his persistent I'epresentations was, that 

 by an order of May 1860, the Government of Madras prohibited 

 Kumri cultivation in Government forests without previous per- 

 mission, and directed that this permission should be given spar- 

 ingly, and never for spots in the timber forests. Dr Cleghorn 

 had thus accomplished for the Madras Presidency the same result 

 which, thirteen years previously, he had helped to bring about in 

 Mysore, and in both cases the result accomplished through his 

 persistent representations has been most beneficial for the country 

 and its inhabitants. Dr Cleghorn was able to carry his point in 

 this matter, becaiise he was known to be a true friend of the 

 natives ; he entertained feelings of warm sympathy towards them, 

 and had made himself familiar with their mode of life and system 

 of husbandry. As a medical man his name was widely known, 

 and he had acquired much influence among the native population. 

 When urging the discontinuance of Kumri cultivation in Madras, 

 as he had previously urged in Mysore, he knew that he was 

 pro])Osing measures which in the end would be highly beneficial 

 for the people themselves. Dr Cleghorn's single-minded desire to 



