464 THE XORTHERX FORESTS. [Part IX. 



with the small grain, and other articles that form the 

 second crop after the Indian corn has been pulled, 

 require two years to come to maturity ; one party 

 is left beliind to tend and gather, wliilst their com- 

 panions move forward into the forest to commence 

 the process of felhng the trees, and forming anotlier 

 Chena farm. 



The Chena cultivation lasts but for two years in any 

 one locahty. It is undertaken by a company of specu- 

 lators under a license from the government agent of the 

 district, and a single crop of grain having been secured 

 and sufficient time allowed for the ripening and collection 

 of the cotton, the whole enclosm-e is abandoned and 

 permitted to return to jungle, the adventurers moving 

 onward to clear a fresh Chena elsewhere, and take a crop 

 off some other enclosure, to be in turn abandoned hke the 

 first ; as in tliis province no Chena is considered worth 

 the labour of a second cultivation until after an interval of 

 fifteen years from the first harvest. 



During the period of cultivation great numbers resort 

 to the forests, comfortable huts are built ; poultry is 

 reared, thread spun, and chatties and other earthenware 

 vessels are made and filled ; and by this primitive mode of 

 Hfe, which lias attractions much superior to the mono- 

 tonous cultivation of a coco-nut garden or an ancestral 

 paddi farm, numbers of the population find the means of 

 support. It likewise suits the fancy of those who feel 

 repugnant to labour for like, but begrudge no toil upon 

 any spot of earth wliich they can call then' own ; Avhere 

 they can choose their own hours for work and follow then- 

 own impulses to rest and idleness. It is impossible to 

 deny that this system tends to encourage the natives in 

 their predilection for a restless and unsettled life, and tliat 

 it therefore militates ao'ainst tlieir attachino; themselves 

 to fixed pursuits, through which the interests of the whole 

 community would eventually be advanced. It Ukemse 

 leads to the destruction of large tracts of forest land, 

 which, after conversion to Cliena, are unprofitable for a 



