ACACIA 437 



Bombay Deccan : agri-silvicultural sowings. Mr. L. S. Osmaston ^ has 

 described the results of experiments in sowing babul and other species in 

 the Bombay Deccan in dry localities where the rainfall is scarcely 20 in. He 

 states that in his experience the only successful method of restocking the 

 forests of these dry tracts is by sowing in conjunction with the raising of field 

 crops : the crops employed here are chiefly sesamum, cotton, and the lesser' 

 hemp. 



Operations are conducted where possible by lessees and not depart- 

 mentally. A two years' lease is given, and two different methods have been 

 tried : 



1. In the first year the lessee is allowed to cultivate field crops, the tree 

 seeds as well as field crops being sown in the second year, one line of tree 

 seeds to three lines of field crops, the distance between the lines of tree seeds 

 being about 4 ft. : the lines are weeded twice in the first rains. 



2. Tree seeds are sown in the first year of the lease in broad strips 4 ft. 

 apart four lines 1 ft. apart' alternating with strips of field crops 8 ft. broad : 

 the lessee cultivates field crops between the strips of tree seedlings in the 

 second year of the lease, and also weeds and sows up blanks. 



The first method had been tried only recently, but if experience in Berar 

 holds for the Bombay Deccan, the distance between the lines of babul may 

 be found too small. The second method promises well, but success must 

 depend largely on favourable rainfall : babul seedlings 3| years old had 

 a maximum girth of 11 in. and a maximum height of 16 ft. In departmental 

 sowings on this principle the cost of formation -including cost of collection 

 of seed and weeding, but not of supervision for the first three years amounted 

 to Rs. 28-11-0 per acre : the receipts from the produce of the agricultural 

 crops amounted to Rs. 32 per acre, leaving a profit of Rs. 3-5-0 per acre. 



In the Poona district deep ploughing with broadcast sowing of seeds 

 Avhich have been swallowed and ejected by sheep and goats has proved 

 fairly successful. 



Sind : broadcast sowings with and without field crops. In Sind broadcast 

 sowings are carried out to supplement natural reproduction on new riverain 

 land subject to annual inundations. The seed is scattered on the water when 

 the floods are subsiding and sinks into the ground. 



Broadcast sowings in conjunction with the raising of field crops are 

 carried out extensively on land above the reach of ordinary floods which is 

 capable of being irrigated by lifts. The babul seed is sown broadcast along 

 with the field crops in the first year ; in the second year the area is again 

 ploughed up and a second field crop is sowai together with more babul seed. 

 The second ploughing seems to do little damage to the babul crop, the culti- 

 vator learning to avoid the patches of babul, and the results attained are 

 highly successful. The cultivator pays the current rate of land revenue during 

 the two years in which he cultivates, and is also bound to irrigate the young 

 babul crop for a third year and to protect it by means of thorny hedges. These 

 plantations are formed entirely free of cost. 



United Provinces. The babul has played an important part in afforesta- 

 tion schemes in the southern and drier parts of the United Provinces, where 



1 Ind. Forester, xxxiii(1907). p. 265. 



