ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, NOVEMBER 4, 1874. 207 



some " hold that the sole legitimate duty of forestry in India is to 

 provide fuel and timber, and that the forester has no concern with 

 hark, lac, gums, resins, caoutchouc, wax, oil, dyes, fruits, and other 

 marketable products of trees and shrubs. Such views will con- 

 tinue to be maintained until it is generally acknowledged that the 

 principal aim and object of forest management in India is the for- 

 mation of public estates, to be managed so as to secure large benefits 

 to the country of an indirect nature, as well as a continuous and 

 increasing yield of all descriptions of forest produce necessary to 

 supply the requirements of the people and their export trade. 

 Foresters in India will gradually understand that they are expected 

 to make the utmost of the estates intrusted to their charge for the 

 benefit of the present generation, while steadily improving the 

 capital value and productiveness of their estates ; and this will lead 

 them keenly to seek information regarding the various trees and 

 shrubs which may be turned to account. It is not possible to pre- 

 dict in what respect any particular plants may not eventually be 

 found useful, either by their produce, or because they further the 

 growth of the more useful kinds by their shade and shelter, or in 

 other ways. The only safe plan, therefore, is, at the outset, to take 

 a comprehensive view of the whole forest vegetation, instead of con- 

 fining our attention to those trees which we are accustomed, often 

 erroneously, to regard as most important." 



For besides the forests considered with special reference to the 

 value of the trees for manufacturing purposes are others called 

 " fuel forests," in which the timber is used almost entirely for burn- 

 ing. In the Central Provinces, Bombay, Berar, Madras, Mysore, 

 and Burma, " all the inferior woods, that are not specially protected, 

 are cut and used for the fuel supply. But even in the thickly- 

 wooded provinces provision has to be made for projected lines of 

 railway, and in Burma fuel reserves have, with wise forethought, 

 been set apart along the Prome road. The regular demand for fuel 

 of any organised steam service soon makes itself felt. The Irra- 

 waddy steamers have required large supplies of wood, and already 

 tracts of 'Eng' (Dipterocarpus) near the river in the Prome dis- 

 trict have been denuded, and the fuel stacked in 1873 consisted of 

 wretched billets of thin saplings. Acacia Catechu, the valuable 

 wood that yields the catechu of commerce, was ruthlessly cut for 

 this purpose." The wood of many other trees is commonly used 

 for fuel. " With regard to other products, such as gums, resins, 

 fibres, dyes, &c, in some provinces they are of much greater value 



