OBITUARY. 113 



Government of India. He then set to work to introduce 

 systematic forest management throughout India. A regular 

 department was established and a forest law passed. Brandis 

 travelled from one end of the Bengal Presidency to the other, 

 advising and organising the department. He also visited 

 Bombay twice, and spent two years (1881-83) in Madras. The 

 department thus created has grown until it has now under its 

 management an area of 239,000 square miles, equal to twice 

 the area of Great Britain and Ireland. 



When Brandis first started operations he had to do with what 

 staff he could lay his hands on ; but he determined to obtain 

 one fit to deal with the requirements of the case. In 1866, 

 while on sick leave in England, he obtained the sanction of the 

 late Lord Salisbury, then Secretary of State for India, to train 

 young Englishmen in Continental forest schools, and under 

 this scheme a number of highly-qualified foresters have been 

 sent to India. The training at Continental forest schools was 

 subsequently supplanted by that at Coopers Hill College, and 

 now at the University of Oxford. 



But Brandis went a step further. In 1878 he started a forest 

 school at Dehra Dun for the training of natives of India, which 

 has now been raised to the rank of " The Imperial Indian 

 Forest College," and sends annually from forty to fifty trained 

 executive officers into the service. 



By these means a trained staff of 200 Englishmen have been 

 obtained, who control the operations of the Forest Department, 

 assisted by about 11,000 native officials of various grades. 

 The results are most gratifying. The supply of timber, fire- 

 wood, grass, and other produce from the teeming millions 

 of India has been placed on a satisfactory footing, while the 

 net revenue from the forests has risen from ;^4o,ooo in 1864 

 to ;^66o,ooo in 1904, although produce valued at a similar 

 sum is given free to the people of the country. 



During his career in India Brandis wrote an endless number 

 of reports, and in 1874 he brought out the Forest Flora of North- 

 west and Central India, a work which was so highly thought 

 of by Sir Joseph Hooker and others, that he was made a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society in 1875. ^t "^^y "ot be generally 

 known that Brandis was the first who compiled a rainfall map 

 of India ; it has been improved since, but as regards the main 

 points it holds good to this day. 



VOL. XXI. PART I. H 



