( 42 ) 



As only trees with fully developed crowns bathed on every side in light can be fully fruit- 

 ful, a light clearing will be made, wherever necessary, round harra trees whose crowns are 

 pressed in by their neighbours. 



123. Next, the production of lac deserves special attention. The most must be made of 

 kusam, chheola, ber and ghont trees, where they stand in sufficient numbers for effective super- 

 vision and economical exploitation. The pruning of the trees in order to obtain a generous 

 growth of youag shoots should not be neglected before the seed lac is applied, and in the case 

 of productive trees, a sufficient quantity of the lac should be left unbroken at different points 

 high up in the crown for the purpose of propagation. Lac thus tied up or left unbroken for 

 propagation should be carefully removed after the insects have swarmed out and begun to 

 form their encrustations, for the dye which the larvae eat before emerging has now no market 

 value and the lac thus recovered will always form about 20 per cent, of the total yield. 



124. The mahua flower is another article, the utilisation of which is capable of very 

 great extension. It would appear that but for the high freights charged by the Great Indian 

 Peninsula Railway, large quantities would go to Bombay for export and to Poona for the 

 Great Central Distillery there. 



125. Katha is a produce that has hitherto been entirely lost sight of, and yet there are 

 large areas in which khair is abundant enough for its manufacture. The aggregate area 

 adapted for the industry is, however, not extensive enough to give continuous employment to a 

 gang of boilers, and it will be necessary to form a single Katha Working Circle embracing 

 the Jubbulpore and Damoh, and perhaps also the Saugor and Narsinghpur Divisions. Also see 

 Appendix VII. 



126. As certain iron mines are under the control of the Department, although situated 

 outside Government Forest, the revival and extension of the iron industry is one of the ends 

 for which we have to strive. The co-operation which the Locomotive Department of the East 

 India Kailway is giving us in the matter is an encouraging feature in the situation. That 

 Kailway carries on large foundry operations at Jamalpur, for which pig from Europe has to be 

 imported at great expense. The Kailway authorities are therefore trying to devise for us a 

 simple charcoal furnace, such as our local smelters could work and which could produce a 

 purer pig than that yielded by the local furnaces. The relations of mutual help thus begun 

 with the Kailway Administration should be maintained and if possible extended, and every 

 assistance required to make the Jamalpur experiments a success should be freely rendered. 



127. With respect to other articles of minor produce no special directions need be 

 given in this working plan. 



ARTICLE 4. Development of Water Transport. 



128. But little use has hitherto been made of the waterway offered by the Nerbudda- 

 By private enterprise a large quantity of timber, fuel and bamboos comes down to Gwari 

 Ghat from points even considerably above the town of Mandla. The Department has now 

 begun in earnest to turn this waterway to account and such efforts should not be relaxed. 

 Launching and catching stations should be established at convenient points and obstructions 

 in the river, so far as this can be done without costly operations, removed or mitigated. In 

 this matter there should be complete co-operation with the Mandla Division, which has a 

 considerable supply of produce to send down to Gwari Ghat. Such co-operation will ensure 

 both economy and efficiency and will render more effective the control of the river conferred 

 on the Department by Chief Commissioner's Notification No. 3845, dated the 17th August 

 1893, promulgated under Section 45 of the Indian Forest Act (1878). 



ARTICLE 5. Control of the Working Plan. 



129. The prescriptions of the Forest Department Code in regard to the maintenance 

 of Control Books will be strictly observed. Although the Annual Keturns in Forms 2 and 3 

 will give figures by Working Circles, yet for the purpose of the Divisional Officer and his 

 Assistants and the revision of the Working Plan details will be kept in the Divisional Office 

 by Felling Series. These details will be obtained directly from the " Accomplished" portion 

 of the Plan of Operation Forms. The Forest Journal will be kept in the form and manner 

 prescribed by the Conservator; by the entries made in it, it should be possible in a few 

 years to arrive at a complete and accurate knowledge of the habits and requirements of our 

 principal trees, whereby we shall be able to devise the best possible system of treatment to 

 follow in order to attain a given object. 



130. At the same time that the Control Books and Forest' Journal are maintained, a book 

 will be opened for a complete description of Compartments, which, as said in paragraph 84 

 above, will be the coupes themselves. A complete opening of the book will be given to 

 each Compartment. At the top of the left hand page will be made a sketch, on the scale 

 of 4-inches = 1 mile, of the Compartment, the serial numbers of the surrounding compart- 

 ments, &c., being indicated, and within the limits of the Compartment the distribution of the 

 various types of forest will be shown by means of washes and lines of representative colours. 



