80 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 



up, and on the Railway they have ample experience of 

 various kinds of fuel, Acacia sundra bearing an excellent 

 reputation and Pongamia glabra the reverse. It is the 

 same with charcoal, no blacksmith will use any charcoal 

 but that made from E. Jamboolana sal, Teak or hard and 

 heavy Acacia wood. Eucalyptus globulus is also esteemed. 

 I have given examples of the growth of this tree ; some 

 imagine that the faster the tree grows the worse the wood 

 is. Even London is not free from this idea. On page 647 

 " Encyclopaedia of Agriculture," he writes, that " a certain 

 slowness of growth is essentially necessary to the closeness 

 of texture and durability". . . but Lindley (" Theory of 

 Horticulture" page 415,) maintains that " fast grown timber 

 is the strongest." It is a well-known fact amongst experi- 

 enced arboriculturists that in places where the soil, climate 

 and elevation is suitable, fast grown Teak is the best, but 

 in low, swampy situations, fast grown Teak is apt to be 

 spongy. For instance, Palghaut Teak cannot be compared 

 with Anamallay or Wynaad. Nor can the Teak grown 

 in low situations in Burmah be compared with that grown 

 in the Attaram Forests. Timber really derives its good- 

 ness from the soil, not from its rate of growth. Given 

 a good soil, good situation, and good climate, the tree must 

 grow fast and produce good timber ; let any of these be 

 wanting, and the result is spongy or knotted and twisted 

 timber of slow growth and small. It is rather a puzzle 

 to know where the casuarina grown in pure sand obtains 

 its hard timber. Silica and water it has in abundance, but 

 the lime potash and other ingredients that go to build 

 up a tree, where do they come from ? The answer is, they 

 must be in the water. For instance, rain falls inland on 

 high ground : then by percolat^i is carried down through 

 various strata until it can sink Wo lower ; then by under- 

 ground passages it finds its way for miles, it may be ten 

 or a thousand ! finally, no longer repressed by rocks or 

 beds of clay it rises by syphouic* action to the surface, 



* We have an excellent example of this syphonic action in the celebrated 

 rock of Ghoty which rises some 1,000 feet high out of the plain and 



