134 MOD&Etf FOREST ECONOMY. 



Sverige Norrige Lappland, published in Stockholm in 

 1823, in 3 vol. 8vo ; and from what is said by Lars Levi 

 Laestadius, in a work entitled, Om Mojlighsten och Ford- 

 elan af allmenna UppodUngar i Lappmarken, published 

 in Stockholm in 1824, it appears that the practice of burn- 

 ing over woodland at once to clear and to manure the 

 ground now spoken of as having prevailed extensively in 

 Finland, was at that time, and from other incidental 

 references to it, it appears still to be there a recognised 

 usage iu Swedish husbandry. 



It is a practice, says M. Parade, extrement ancienne, arid 

 such it appears to have been in France ; but there may be 

 claimed for it an antiquity far greater than is indicated 

 by the practice of it in France, in Sweden, or in Finland ; 

 for amongst the conservative tribes of India it has been 

 practised to an extent which makes the Hartage ot France, 

 and the Svedjande of Sweden and of Finland, appear 

 as mere childish play. In the Cariara district it is known 

 as Kumari. In a document issued by the Board of Revenue 

 in India, in 1859, it is stated that, ' In some parts of 

 Bekal, which is the most southerly of the taluks of Canara, 

 Kumari cutting forms part of the business of the ordinary 

 ryots ; and as many as 25,746, or one-sixth of the population, 

 are supposed to be engaged in it ; but to the north of the 

 taluk it is carried on by the jungle tribes of Malri Kadeos 

 and Mahratais to the number of 59,500.' Here we have 

 upwards of 85,000 men felling, burning, and destroying 

 forests, for the sake generally of one or at most of two 

 crops sometimes, but rarely of three. 'After which the 

 spot is deserted until the jungle is sufficiently high to 

 tempt the Kumari*cutter to renew the process.' 



By this practice vast quantites of most valuable timber 

 has been destroyed. 



A good crop of hill rice, or Nullet, is obtained in the 

 first year after the consumption of the wood. A small 

 crop is taken off the ground in the second year, and some- 

 times in the third, after which, as has been stated, the 



