THE INDIAN FOREST SCHOOL. 163 
waste of time and money on the training of men who, from 
their tastes or otherwise, are unsuited for a forest life. As 
a rule, then, the students are already employés of the Forest 
Department, or are holding scholarships, at the time that 
they enter the school, and they continue to receive their allowances 
while they are under instruction ; they are not charged school 
fees, but they maintain themselves while there. It would 
not be possible at present to obtain candidates whose main- 
tenance and education are paid for by their relatives, but the 
existing arrangement will probably be modified as soon as the 
institution and the prospects of the men who pass through it 
become better understood. This will be the case when the 
subordinate grades of the department are more fully organised, 
and when the number of passed students of the school occupying 
good positions is increased. At the beginning of the present year 
nine men who have passed out since 1881 were holding appoint- 
ments the salary attached to which varies from £125 to £200 a 
year, and this fact will no doubt have an influence in drawing 
eligible candidates to the school. 
In his remarks regarding the last course of instruction, the 
officiating Inspector-General of Forests says that the present 
arrangement is thoroughly practical and works well, and that 
there can be no doubt that a very efficient professional education 
is secured to men who obtain the Rangers’ Certificate. Those 
Conservators of Forests who have given an extensive trial to the 
education afforded at the school, have expressed their decided 
opinion that the passed students are markedly superior to their 
untrained comrades. 
When making his proposals in 1878 for the establishment of 
the school, Mr Brandis stated that on 1st April 1876 the area of 
demarcated or reserved forests under the Government of India, 
i.e., excluding those in Madras and Bombay, was about 15,000 
square miles; but on the Ist April 1883, the date of the last 
available statement, the area in square miles of the forests of all 
classes in British India was as follows : 
Reserved Protected Village 
Forests. Forests. Forests. Total. 
Bengal, P : 35,667 3,397 18,428 57,492 
Madras, ; ; 2,782 dis ee 2,782 
Bombay, . é 9,823 Byie = 14,996 
Total, . 48,272 8,570 18,428 75,270 
VOL, XI., PART II. M 
