32 



42. To prevent these fires extending to our State 

 Si c st ution th5r Forests, these are surrounded by roads, 

 fibs! state with an intermediate belt of high forest, 

 which is intended to check the spread of sparks ; 

 the inner cordon is 100 yards wide, and the outer 

 25 yards, both being cleared of high coarse grass 

 and other vegetation. It often happens, however, 

 that even this precaution is insufficient, for the fires, 

 fanned by the high winds which prevail at this time 

 of the year, travel with such rapidity and fierceness, 

 that the tongue of flame leaps over the outer road, 

 and, setting fire to the fallen dead leaves in the 

 intermediate belt of forest, ultimately even crosses 

 the inner fire-trace, and baffles the efforts of the fire- 

 watchers to extinquish it. As a remedy for this (it 

 being found impracticable to keep the intermediate 

 strips of jungle free of fallen leaves), an excellent 

 suggestion was made by my native overseer just 

 before I left Burma, namely, to plant the strip of 

 jungle with pine-apples, which are known to thrive 

 best under wide-spreading trees; and there is no 

 doubt that if the fibre of these plants, which is of 

 very superior quality,* were turned to account, the 

 system would be doubly beneficial. f 



43. In speaking of the utilization of materials at 



* "Average weight sustained by slips of paper in the water-leaf, or un- 

 sized condition, each weighing 39 grains, 71 Ibs. Average weight sus- 

 tained by slips of paper of 39 grains, after being sized, 74| Ibs. Worked 

 very " wet" in pulping. Makes a good and very strong paper." Report 

 on Rheea Fibre, by J. Forbes Watson, M . A. , M. D. , LL.D., &c., Reporter 

 on the Products of India. 



t It has always been a matter of surprise to me that a company for the 

 distillation of pine-apple wine, or spirit, has never been started in Burma, 

 when this fruit in the season can be purchased at the rate of two for a 

 penny. 



