' 



92 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 



1860-61, reports a great devastation in the Bedee Talooka, 

 which had been occasioned by this practice of Koomri, 

 and mention was subsequently made of dullee cultivation, 

 which I conjecture to be the destruction of forests for 

 permanent agriculture. It was subsequently recommended 

 that no Koomri or dullee cultivation should be made either 

 on hill or on other land without express permission from 

 the collector of the district; it was again enjoined that 

 existing orders relating to dullee or Koomri cultivation 

 should be scrupulously attended to, and that the village 

 authorities should be held responsible for this being done ; 

 and a hope that this would secure the forests from that 

 destructive system was expressed by the Government. 



. 



This was done in 1864. In the course of the same 

 year the Secretary of State, in a dispatch to the Governor 

 of Bombay, in Council, brought under their atttention a 

 letter which had been addressed to him by an officer in 

 the Bengal army, alleging that the prohibition of 

 Koomaree had the effect of producing fever. An enquiry 

 was instituted by the Government at Bombay, the result 

 of which satisfied the Government, both at home and in 

 Bombay, that such was not the case. 



Up to a comparatively late time this subject is adverted 

 to in the reports of the Indian Forest Administration, 

 and special reports on the subject are not awanting; but 

 it is chiefly in those of an earlier date that I find such 

 discussions of it, as I consider it expedient to cite. 



In 1864 the effects of the practice on the health of the 

 inhabitants of districts in which it prevailed, and the 

 effects of stopping the practice upon the sanitary condi- 

 tion of different districts, commanded the attention of 

 many officials in different parts. The opinions advanced 

 were very conflicting, so conflicting that, to cite many of 

 those which I have before me, would do more to confuse 

 than to enlighten a, student of Forest Science, who was 

 not prepared to investigate the matter thoroughly. The 

 facts adduced seem to me to indicate that the injurious 



