20 MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS. 



obliged to drive his saw very slowly, or he got no work 

 done ; again, on account of fever, his men were perpetually 

 laid up, and he had to sharpen his saws himself, a very 

 fatiguing operation, his saws buckled if he did not closely 

 superintend the work, and to straighten a circular saw, re- 

 quires some skill. It was always my opinion that the Forest 

 officer and his establishment had quite enough to do to work 

 the forest in the roughest manner. Even if establishments 

 were doubled, they will be sufficiently occupied with plant- 

 Fever and other ing, supplying the market demands, and conservancy ge- 

 nerally. Allowing for fever and its concomitant evils, there 

 will never be more than one-half the establishment at work 

 all the year round. 



At one time I was very anxious to obtain a small portable 

 saw-mill that could be set up in any part of the forests, and 

 simply cut a beam in half longitudinally, as sometimes, I 

 have had over thirty beams in one spot, each over sixty cubic 

 feet that required to be reduced before they could be got out 

 of the forest, and was obliged to employ sawyers, as it was 

 not possible to obtain a portable Sawiug Machine. The 

 sawyers, what with fever and advances, gave endless trouble 

 as they worked in a set of three, if one man was ill, the other 

 two were idle, and, of course, got into debt, and all work was 

 at a dead lock. There are many trees in Wynaad and the 

 Anamallies which measure over sixty cubic feet, and to cut 

 them in half (say they are thirty feet long) is to ruin them 

 for large spans so much required in engineering works, but 

 this was found to be the common custom in Wynaad under 

 the Assistants ; in spite of orders to the contrary which were 

 to keep logs up to forty cubic feet intact. A fifteen-foot 

 log represented a cart-load, and so they cut them to thai 

 length, thus reducing the value of the timber to one-half. 



