260 FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



but it relatively small portion of them represent tbe Cupulilenr and other important hardwood 

 timber families so characteristic of our woods. 



In the greater part of India the hardwood forest consists not of a few species, as with us, but 

 is made up of a great variety of trees unlike in their habit, their growth, and their product, and 

 if our hardwoods oft'er on this account considerable difficulties to profitable exploitation, the case 

 is far more complicated in India. In addition to the large variety of timber trees there is a 

 multitude of shrubs, twining and climbing plants, and in most forest districts also a dense under- 

 growth of giant grasses (bamboos), attaining a height of 30 to 120 feet. These bamboos, valuable 

 as they are in many ways, prevent often for years the growth of any seedling tree, and thus form 

 a serious obstacle to the regeneration of valuable timber. The growth of timber is generally 

 quite rapid; the bamboos make large, useful stems in a single season. Teak grows into large-size 

 saw timber in fifty to sixty years. But in spite of their rapid growth and the large areas now in 

 forest capable of reforestation, India is not likely to at least within reasonable time raise more 

 timber than it needs. In most parts of India the use of ordinary soft woods, such as pine, seems 

 very restricted, for only durable woods, those resisting both fungi and insects (of which the white 

 ants are specially destructive), can be employed in the more permanent structures, and are there- 

 fore acceptable in all Indian markets. 



At present teak is the most important hardwood timber, while the deodar (a true cedar) is the 

 most extensively used conifer. Teak occurs in all moist regions of India except the mountain 

 countries, never makes forests by itself (pure forests), grows mixed with other kinds, single, or in 

 clumps, is girdled two to three years before felling, is generally logged in a primitive way, com- 

 monly hewn in the woods and shipped usually floated as timber, round or hewn, and rarely sawn 

 to size. Teak is as heavy and strong as good hickory, has little sapwood, stands well after 

 seasoning, and is remarkably proof against decay and the still more dreaded white ants, and is 

 really the only important export timber of India, about $2,500,000 worth having been shipped in 

 1894-95, bringing about $1 per cubic foot, or more than four times as much as good pine timber 

 in the market. 



As will be seen from the following figures timber forms only about 20 per cent of the export 

 of forest products, which consist chiefly of lac, the basis of shellac (really the product of an 

 insect) and of tanning materials : 



Exports of forest products from India, 1894-95. 



Lac (basis of shellac) $7, 000, 000 



Teak 2,800,000 



My robalans 2, 300, 000 



Cutch andgambier 1,450,000 



Caoutchouc 550,000 



Fancy woods sandal, ebony, rosewood 290,000 



Cardamoms 140,000 



Total 14,530,000 



The imports of timber into India have so far been very insignificant. Attempts at introducing 

 American coniferous timber (pine, spruce, larch, and hemlock) from the Pacific coast have not 

 been successful, though it would seem that some wood goods, such as boxes, sash and door, and 

 cheap furniture, should find a favorable and extensive market if once the trade is established. 

 Perhaps a treatment of these materials with some of the new flreproofing substances could be 

 made to render them at the same time more resistant to white ants and other insect borers, 

 and thus procure for them several important advantages at once. 



In the past the people of India, as far as known, never realized the importance of their 

 forests. They were cleared, destroyed, mutilated at all times and in all places, and the use of 

 wood never seems to have formed an important factor in Hindoo civilization. 



With the advent of foreign commerce the exploitation of the forests for the more valuable 

 export timbers received a new stimulus and the forests were culled regardless of the future, either 

 of forest or people. This matter was aggravated by the construction of railways, which, in 

 themselves large consumers, also ottered a premium on all that contributed to increased traflic. 

 When, finally, it was noticed that the demands of timber for public works in some localities could 



