"SARTAGE" IN INDIA. 75 



and unpeopled country ; and the time seems to have 

 arrived when it would be most advisable to place it under 

 considerable check and regulation, if not entirely to pro- 

 hibit it. This latter course, I must observe, the authorities 

 in Mysore have, only within this last year, thought it 

 necessary to adopt. It was never permitted under the 

 Rajah's government, and can only be said, therefore, to 

 have been in operation for twelve or fifteen years at most ; 

 yet so rapidly has it increased, that the superintendent of 

 the Nuggur division, with whom I have had much con- 

 versation on the subject, has determined on putting a stop 

 to it, with a view to the preservation of the woods which 

 still remain. 



' I am not disposed at present to recommend its entire 

 prohibition ; but I think it would be well to do so in all 

 places accessible to the sea-ports, where timber and fire- 

 wood could be brought down, and to place it under regu- 

 lation in every other part of the district. The revenue 

 paid on this destructive kind of cultivation is very trifling, 

 and if the wood were preserved in accessible spots, the 

 duty upon the export of timber and firewood would, under 

 proper regulation, exceed it ten-fold. I have particularly 

 noticed the destruction which has taken place of forest on 

 the hills above the fine port of the Tadri, where it would 

 have been very valuable, from its vicinity to the coast. 

 The forests which have here been felled and burned, and 

 the magnificent trees which have been left to rot on the 

 ground, would have supplied the market of Bombay with 

 firewood for years. The same fact has been noticed by 

 Mr Forbes, my head-assistant. 



'I have referred above to the manner in which the 

 practice of Koomaree cultivation has increased of late 

 years. It was formerly confined entirely to the race of 

 wild and uncivilised people who dwelt habitually in the 

 jungles ; but others have since taken it up, and many of 

 the ryots from the plains, and others who have come from 

 the Mysore and Mahratta country, have adopted it as a 

 means of livelihood. There is little doubt, also, that the 



