OP FOREST SOILS, &C., IN INDIA. 103 



again with the advent of the monsoon, the surface soil 

 travels to the sea. 



The roots of giant forest trees penetrate the soil to great 

 depths and bring up to the surface the elements of plant- 

 life there found. The koomaree cultivator therefore not 

 only exhausts the soil on the surface but to great depths 

 below. The result is that each successive crop of trees is 

 not as vigorous as the one preceding. Until in course 

 of time trees refuse to grow at all, and a scrubby 

 growth of thorns takes its place. If, especially on 

 steep declivities, the thorns are also " Tuckled," finally 

 everything will cease to grow, and disastrous landslips 

 take place. In fields under the plough, especially where 

 high cultivation is practised, it is easy enough to restore 

 the fertility of lands exhausted by cereals or root crops, 

 by turning up the sub-soil, and heavy manuring ; but how 

 is it possible to restore the fertility of a soil required for 

 the growth of trees where every particle of vegetable food 

 has been abstracted by the roots of successive growths 

 of trees for generations and generations, and then finally 

 removed entirely from the surface of the soil by the united 

 action of rain and floods ? 



It will be seen from this of what vital importance it is to 

 the well-being of the country that this system of cultivation 

 especially on steep slopes should be put an entire stop to. 



Our mountain chains especially, consist almost entirely of a 

 skeleton of solid rock gneiss, covered in many instances with 

 but a thin coating of soil, derived from the decomposition of 

 the felspar in it. Many portions of the Western Ghats, the 

 Chenat Nair (Palghat) Forests for instance, have barely an 

 average coating of twenty feet of soil on them and where the 

 practice of koomaree cultivation is steadily carried on, it is not 

 difficult to predict how long it will take for the bare rock to 

 appear in nil its naked deformity. Unfortunately, very large 

 areas of the Ghat Forest belong to private proprietors, whose 

 only thought is to cut them to pieces, and realise every farthing 

 that can be wrung from them as soon as possible. The only 



