FOREST OFFENCES. 61 



of the purchase-money until the purchaser can begin to realise 

 the value of his purchase, are useful measures. 



(ii) Provision should also be made for the sale, by printed 

 or written permit, of kinds of principal forest produce which 

 frequently form the object of misappropriation, such as hop- 

 poles, props for fruit-trees, cart-axles, wood for ploughs, pea- 

 sticks, thorny bushes or stakes for fences, bast for rope- 

 making, Christmas trees, faggots, stumps and roots of felled 

 trees, etc.* 



(iii) Permits, if necessary without payment, to remove 

 certain minor forest produce as far as is consistent with the 

 safety of the forest, should also be obtainable throughout the 

 year. For instance, to cut grass ; for dead fallen fuel ; to 

 collect berries, edible fungi, cones ; to utilise some kinds 

 of litter the removal of which is not harmful; in certain 

 cases for the temporary cultivation of crops. Tall coarse 

 grasses may frequently be removed to the advantage of a 

 forest, and thus may be secured less danger from frost and 

 fire, more heat and moisture in the soil, and loosening of the 

 surface, all of which are important for plantations. In the 

 case of temporary cultivation, potatoes are to be preferred to 

 cereal crops, as they impoverish the soil less. 



(iv) Supplying work in the forest during winter or at 

 other seasons when employment is scarce. When a village 

 near a State forest has been burned, building and thatching 

 material may be supplied free, or, at a low price, in order to 

 prevent dealers in such material from charging excessive 

 prices to the distressed villagers. Koads, drainage, ditch- 

 ing and removal of stumps, will furnish employment, in 

 addition to the ordinary felling and planting work in a forest. 



(v) In the case of communal forests we have moreover to 

 secure economy in the use of firewood by introducing the use of 

 improved stoves, ovens, etc. The firewood store-depots should 

 be centrally situated, so as to facilitate removal of the material 

 by the householders. The wood should be delivered dry and 

 in the smallest quantities in demand. 



* In " Rev. des E. et F.," 1905, p. 688, it is stated that sales of small felling 

 areas of coppice in Algeria have resulted in a considerable reduction of offences. 

 The people living near the forests formerly gained their livelihood partly by 

 illicit fellings or thefts of forest produce. 



