CH. V 



MAN AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS 91 



But it is not only for temporary cultivation 

 that large clearings of forest land have been made. 

 Many of them have been made merely with the 

 object of obtaining timber or firewood for the use 

 of a community, or for export, or again for permanent 

 cultivation. Within the last half- century or more, 

 capital has been attracted to the Tropics and utilised 

 for the cultivation of products in demand in civilised 

 countries such are coffee, tea, cinchona, cacao, coco- 

 nuts, and rubber. Large companies have been formed 

 which have been able to carry on the cultivation on a 

 large scale and to make extensive clearings. These 

 companies selected the most suitable soils, a great part 

 of which, or as great part of which as possible, was under 

 virgin forest. It is clear that, with the increased 

 population of the globe, and with the greater demand 

 for luxuries, it is not possible to jealously guard all 

 forest areas ; but there is a limit beyond which it is 

 not wise to go, and there are places where extensive 

 fellings may do an immense amount of damage to the 

 country, such as by interfering with the water-supply 

 or by causing silt and erosion. We may take Ceylon 

 as an example of a country which derives its wealth 

 very largely from the plantations created by European 

 enterprise. It was with coffee that the first step was 

 taken. The hill country was almost entirely covered 

 by a mantle of dense evergreen forests. Fellings on a 

 large scale were made, the trees felled being set alight 

 in order to obtain ash, and also to save the labour and 

 expense of cutting the timber up. The clearings 

 extended at such a pace that not only were the catch- 

 ment basins of all the important rivers threatened, but 

 an additional evil arose from the large masses of 

 silt which was carried into the low country, and 

 in raising the bottoms of the rivers, caused the 

 overflow of their banks and consequent floods, which 

 entailed considerable damage to field crops, and by 

 interruption of traffic (Fig. 15). The authorities, 

 therefore, on the recommendation of the Director of the 



