CHAPTER IV. UTILIZATION OF THE PRODUCE. 



Section. 1. Marketable products and quantities consumed in past years. 

 16. The statement giving the main products consumed and their quanti- 

 ties is given in Appendix VI. 



The averages for 9 years were as follows: 



Logs 39,626 cubic feet, 



Poles 29,681 do. 



Fuel 1,174,258 do. 



Revenue from grazing ... ... ... Rs. 6,178 



Do. do. minor products and other]sources. ... ,, 1,951 



Section 2. Lines of export. 



17. The working-plan under revision, (pages 26, 27,) goes fully into the 

 lines of export which, with the exception of the railway which has extended 

 eastwards from Mai to Madarihat, have not altered appreciably. 



18. The Tista and the Dudua are the only rivers utilized for floating 

 purposes. The former is practically open the whole cold weather but the 

 latter, passing via the Jaldaka and Dhurla rivers into the Brahmaputra, ia 

 only open for a month or two after the end of the rains. The other rivers have 

 too rapid a current to enable boats to be brought up stream without diffi- 

 culty and the same objection applies to the first-named rivers during the 

 rainy season. 



' 19. Timber is mostly exported by rail owing to the convenience of 

 rapid transit, but the rates are so high that export by cart to markets south 

 of the district still obtains. Ramshai, Barodighi and Ldtaguri on the Bengal 

 Duars Railway are the main stations for the export of timber from the 

 Tondu forest, and Binnaguri station would be the natural outlet for timber 

 from the Muraghat forest, were it not that the rate on the northern section 

 of the railway, that is 0'8 of a pie per maund, per mile, is too high to enable 

 purchasers to profitably remove timber over the long length of line, viz., 

 44 miles, between Lataguri and Binnaguri, though* the distance by road 

 is only 24 miles. 



The following figures show the export of timber from the District by 

 rail over the Bengal Dudrs Railway in the past five years: 



Years. Tons. 



1900 . . 393 



1901 

 1902 

 1903 

 1904 



514 



199 



459 



1,010 



Section 3. Markets, 



2. Nearly every station on the Eastern Bengal State Railway is the 

 nucleus of a market for timber, the most important being Rangpur and 

 Nattore. Mandalghat is the chief market on the Tista rive*, and Mathabhanga, 

 where the Dudua meets the Jaldaka, is a market from which timber is 

 subsequently carried by large boats to Eastern Bengal. Tea gardens, of which 

 thirty-three now tike fuel from the forests, are almost the only customers for 

 firewood. 2,170,282 cubic feet of firewood were removed during 1904-05. 



