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servation, and improvement of all State forests in 

 the Bengal Presidency, of the supply of timber and 

 firewood to State Departments and the general public, 

 of the formation of new plantations, the reboisment of 

 denuded tracts, and the other very varied operations 

 of this extensive Department.* 



From the Military Department was transferred all 

 business connected with studs and horse-breeding. 

 From the Financial Department the supervision of 

 the Department of Inland Customs, and salt matters 

 generally, including all correspondence connected — at 

 first with the maintenance and guard, and later with 

 the gradual abolition,! of the vast customs' barrier, 

 then extending across the continent of India from 

 above Attock to near Cuttack ; with the working of 

 the great salt mines in the Punjab and the Sambhur 



* Although the Secretary possesses some knowledge of forestry, 

 and has co-operated cordially with Colonel Pearson, Mr. Baden- 

 Powell, and Dr. Brandis, who have successively (the first two 

 officiating) held under him the office of Inspector- G-eneral of 

 Forests, the real credit for the enormous progress effected in 

 forest administration, since the formation of the Revenue, Agricul- 

 ture, and Commerce Department, is primarily due to Dr. Brandis, 

 the founder, in India, of scientific forestry. 



t This, though the proposal was of old standing, and the mea- 

 sure has received the approval, and more or less the support, of 

 Lords Lawrence, Mayo, Northbrook, and Lytton, was more 

 especially the Secretary's work. Its feasibility depended on the 

 negotiation of a series of treaties with numerous native states. 

 Writing of this recently, the Secretary of State remarked (De- 

 spatch No. 3 of 6th February 1879, para. 8) : — " I entirely concur 

 in the high appreciation of Mr. Hume's long and valuable ser- 

 vices expressed by your Excellency's G-overnment ; for to him, as 

 you observe, is due the initiation, prosecution, and completion of 

 that policy which has led to the agreements entered into with the 

 several states concerned." 



