70 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 



cultivation of a cocoa-nut garden, or an ancestrial paddy 

 farm numbers of the population find the means of support. 

 It likewise suits the fancy of those who feel repugnant to 

 labour for hire, but begrudge no toil upon any spot of 

 earth that they can call their own ; when they can choose 

 their own hours for work, and follow their own impulse 

 for rest and idleness, it is impossible to deny that this 

 system tends to encourage the natives in their predeliction 

 for a restless and unsettled life, and that it therefore militates 

 against them attaching themselves to fixed pursuits,through 

 which the interests of the whole community would eventu- 

 ally be advanced. It likewise leads to the destruction of 

 large tracts of forest land, which, after conversion to Chena, 

 are unprofitable for a long series of years ; but, on the 

 other hand, it is equally evident that the custom tends 

 materially to augment the food of the country (especially 

 during periods of drought), to sustain the wages of labour, 

 and to prevent an undue rise in the market value of 

 the first necessaries of life. Regarding it in this light, 

 and looking to the prodigious extent of forest land in the 

 island, of which the Chena cultivation affects only a minute 

 and unsaleable portion, it is a prevalent and plausable 

 supposition, in which, however, I am little disposed to 

 acquiesce, that the advantages are sufficient to counteract 

 the disadvantages of the system.' 



In a number of The Cornhill Magazine issued lately 

 (March 1883), is a graphic detailed account of the practice 

 as followed b}* the hill tribes of Burmah. But it is a 

 practice by no means confined to Asia. In South Africa 

 something of the kind may be seen. Thus do Bechuanas 

 in some districts prepare virgin soil for culture. Thus do 

 the Boors burn down the Khenoster bush, herbs, and 

 arborescent shrubs growing on the ground, as a prelimi- 

 nary step towards bringing it under cultivation, converting 

 it from mid into land. And in the vicinity of Uitenhage 

 I have seen a portion of primeval forest cultivated in true 

 Koomaree style by Kaffirs, with the consent of the pro- 



