10G ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS IN INDIA. 



quantity of timber and other forest produce within a certain time on 

 a given area. 



The other trees indicated on the map, Babool and Sandalwood, are 

 satisfied with a moderate supply of moisture. The Babool tree is 

 spread over a great part of India, but it is wanting or does not grow 

 well in the moist zones. Without irrigation it seems to grow best 

 under a rainfall between 15 and 60 inches ; and where moisture 

 is supplied from below, it thrives well in the driest parts of India. 

 The Sandalwood is at home in India mainly in the southern dry 

 zone : it demands a hot dry climate. In gardens it is grown in 

 many of the more humid districts, but the heartwood is less 

 fragrant and less valuable. The tree is not, however, limited to 

 India ; it is also found in the Indian Archipelago, and there are 

 other species of the same genus yielding sandalwood in the Fiji 

 and other islands of the Pacific, from whence it is largely exported 

 to China. 



"What has here been advanced makes it sufficiently clear that 

 there exists an intimate connection between the climate of India 

 and its forest vegetation. The practical aspect of the subject, how- 

 ever, has not yet been touched upon. "Well may the question be 

 asked, why Ave should trouble ourselves concerning the maintenance 

 and improvement of the forests in a country which has a civilisation 

 many centuries older than our own, which has existed and has main- 

 tained an immense population so long, without feeling the want of 

 any systematic care of its forest lands. I must ask the reader at 

 once to dismiss the idea that by preserving and improving the 

 forests of India we may hope materially to change and improve its 

 climate. It is a widely spread notion, entertained by many writers 

 who are competent to judge, that forests increase the rainfall, and 

 that the denudation of a country in a warm climate diminishes its 

 moisture. Much of what is known regarding the history and 

 the present state of the countries round the Mediterranean seems to 

 support this theory, but it has not yet been established by con- 

 clusive evidence. In India, where, directly or indirectly, the success 

 or failure of the crops depends on ram at the right time and in suit- 

 able quantity, it is natural that the conservancy and improvement 

 of its forests should have been regarded as one of the means to be 

 employed for a better regulation of the rainfall. Many remarkable 

 facts are recorded, which seem to show that in comparatively recent 

 times, the denudation of certain tracts has been accompanied by 

 changes in husbandry, indicating a diminished or less regular rain- 



