NOTES ON INDIAN FORESTRY IN 1906. 231 
on a level, undrained soil, they died as soon as their roots 
reached the water-level; but there are a good many thriving old 
trees of 10 to 15 feet girth. Some diseased trees were therefore 
felled, and the heart-wood was found to have an abnormal 
colour, and to emit rather a strange, unpleasant smell. Some 
infected trees were also dug out, and a search was made for 
insects or fungi, but without success. It is probably a fungous 
‘disease; but whatever its cause, the disease seems to be fast 
spreading. Up to now it has been seen only in the plantations, 
but it may soon spread to the numerous Deodar trees growing 
spontaneously in the locality. 
Since its foundation (in 1878) a fine Forest Museum for all 
India has been formed at the Dehra Din College, but within the 
last five years a good beginning has been made in forming local 
or provincial forest museums. In 1902 Mr Gass, Conservator 
of the Southern Circle of Madras, started a collection of 
specimens of timber and other forest produce, and set apart one 
of the rooms in his office for this purpose. It was then intended 
that the collections should be limited to that Circle, and, with 
the approval of the Board of Revenue, a circular was issued to 
all forest officers in the Circle explaining the object and scope 
of the proposed institution, and communicating the heads under 
which specimens were required. Specimens soon began to 
arrive, and increased in number so rapidly that it soon became 
evident that a most interesting and instructive forest museum 
could be formed if its scope were extended to the three Circles 
of the Presidency. This has since been done, and the practical 
value of the museum has become so evident that in 1906 the 
late Governor (Lord Ampthill) sanctioned the erection of a 
special building for housing the exhibits on up-to-date lines. 
Of the 100,000 square miles of reserved and protected State 
forests in India, 70,000 have now been surveyed, chiefly on the 
four-inch scale, and the forest maps are probably superior to 
those of any other country in the world. But, as many of the 
remaining 30,000 square miles of unsurveyed forests are not of 
sufficient present value to justify the extra expenditure, the existing 
one-inch maps will probably in most cases suffice in the meantime. 
Since 1904 the Superintendent of Forest Surveys and the whole 
Forest Survey Branch have been placed under the direction of 
the Surveyor-General of India, in place of being, as formerly, 
under the direct control of the Inspector-General of Forests. 
