18 



valuable for other cultivation. It must also be re- 

 membered, in passing, that, now that Government 

 contemplates relieving India by encouraging emi- 

 gration to Burma, land in that province will be still 

 more valuable than it has hitherto been. To give 



Difficulties in the M r> Koutledere's scheme a trial in the 



wa of trin Mr. 



hfflg ^^ j ^ ^ ^ impracfc J _ 



way of trying Mr. 

 Routl edge's plan on 

 the hills. 



able ; firstly, because of the scantness of the high- 

 land population (there being hardly a sufficient 

 number of men for our present timber operations), 

 and, secondly, because of the scarcity of water at 

 the season when the people of the plains might be 

 employed without sacrifice of life from jungle fever, 

 which the hill tribes are proof against. 



20. Having thus' completed my review of Mr. 

 Th ?os?d e r taiied ro " Routledge's proposition, I now proceed 

 to detail my own views. I have already stated 

 (paragraph 4) that in July, 1876, I submitted for the 

 approval of the Chief Commissioner of British 

 Burma, five specimens of paper. The first three of 

 these were made from the fibre of three different 

 varieties of the Ficus. These trees are valueless 

 The three varieties of for timber, so that in utilizing their 



Ficus valueless as 



timber. fibre we are turning to account a forest 



tree which flourishes abundantly in Burma, and 

 which is capable of being propagated from slips or 

 cuttings, the most simple and inexpensive mode of 

 reproduction. These slips or cuttings are not mere 

 twigs or tiny off-shoots, but huge limbs, seven or 

 eight feet in length, and about two feet in circum- 

 ference, indiscriminately cut or broken from the 



