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community derive from the forests all those advantages which they 

 are calculated to afford. There are numerous products of which the 

 value is known and appreciated, but which are collected in ways so 

 rude and wasteful, that it is doubtful whether more of them are not 

 lost in the process than are brought into commerce. There are others, 

 perhaps, more numerous, which are known only to the scientific ob- 

 server; to these it has been the endeavour of the Committee to direct 

 attention. It is no unauthorized inference, that in the depths of those 

 great forest masses, there may still be many substances which only 

 await recognition by instructed eyes to take their places among the 

 valuable agents of manufacturing industry, social comfort, or medical 

 practice. To correct the first, to extend the second, and to discover 

 the third, are the leading points to which the Committee would direct 

 attention ; and they have endeavoured to furnish, to the best of their 

 ability, information calculated to advance each of those interesting 

 ends. The general conclusions which appear to the Committee to be 

 warranted by the various statements of fact and opinion, may be sum- 

 med up as follows: — 1. That over large portions of the Indian em- 

 pire there is at present an almost uncontrolled destruction of the 

 indigenous forests in progress, by the careless habits of the native 

 population. 2. That in Malabar, Tenasserim and Scinde, where 

 supervision is exercised, considerable improvement has already taken 

 place in the forests. 3. That these improvements may be extended 

 by a rigid enforcement of the present regulations, and the enactment 

 of additional provisions of the following character, viz., careful n)ain- 

 tenance of the forests by the plantation of seedlings in the place of 

 mature trees removed ; prohibition of cutting until trees are well- 

 grown, with rare and special exceptions for peculiar purposes ; in 

 cases of trees yielding gums, resins, or other valuable products, that 

 greater care be taken in tapping or notching the trees, most serious 

 damage at present resulting from neglect in this operation, i. That 

 special care and attention should be given to the preservation and 

 maintenance of the forests occupying tracts unsuited for culture, 

 whether by reason of altitude or by peculiarities of physical struc- 

 ture. 5. That in a country to which the maintenance of its water- 

 supplies is of such extreme importance, the indiscriminate clearance 

 of forests around the localities whence the supplies are derived is 

 greatly to be deprecated. 6. That as much local ignorance prevails 

 as to the number and nature of valuable forest products, measures 

 should be taken to supply, through the officers in charge, information 

 calculated to diminish such ignorance. 7. That as much information 



