"SARTAGE" IN INDIA. 81 



cultivation should be allowed, I would specify from about 

 2,500 to 4,500 feet, this being, I understand, the extreme 

 range within which coffee planted on a large scale is 

 found to thrive. It is of importance to give every facility 

 for the cultivation of coffee ; but it is desirable to limit 

 the clearing of those situations where this peculiar shrub 

 can be grown with advantage. I have observed some 

 clearings where the ground is so precipitous that it is 

 extremely improbable that the soil can last many years. 

 It may be urged that, in general, people are sufficiently 

 alive to their own interests to select only those sites which 

 are in every way eligible ; but from the inexperience of 

 many who engage in coffee planting, it seems desirable to 

 lay down some rule. I need only point to the vast amount 

 of land cleared and subsequently abandoned, both in this 

 country and Ceylon, either before or after planting/ 



In regard to this report by Dr Cleghorn, it was stated 

 in an order of Government subsequently issued : ' The 

 Government fully concur in Dr Cleghorn's views as 

 enumerated in this paragraph, which may be stated in a 

 few words to be, that while it is desirable to give every 

 encouragement to the extension of coffee cultivation, the 

 destruction of timber must be prevented by restricting 

 grants of coffee lands to places where the shrub can be 

 grown with advantage ; and at the same time the denuda- 

 tion of the higher ridges and slopes of hills which, if 

 allowed, may result in a serious diminution of the rainfall, 

 should be absolutely prohibited/ 



Attention having thus been, directed to the subject, it 

 was observed that a wasteful destruction of forests similar 

 to what had there been occasioned by the extension of coffee 

 plantations was going on elsewhere, though to a somewhat 

 less injurious extent. Captain Beddam, who afterwards 

 acted as officiating Conservator of Forests in the Presi- 

 dency of Madras, while Dr Cleghorn visited England on 

 sick leave, had, in the year before, in a report on the 

 Pulmy Hills, described devastations committed in th<3 



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