the Chief Commissioner for sanction. I then addressed the Secretariat, representing the 

 above facts and suggesting that, as I also had some remarks to offer regarding the doubtful 

 expediency of certain prescriptions recorded in the plan, a further reference should be 

 made to you on the subject before the plan was finally confirmed. It is in consequence of 

 receiving the Honourable the Chief Commissioner's permission to make these suggestions 

 that I am now addressing you. 



2. Adverting first of all then to the Commissioner's objections, two in number, which 

 will be found recorded in the attached copy of that officer's No. 10967 of the 15th November 

 1900, Mr Fuller argues (i) that considering the inferior type of the forests to be dealt 

 with and the small demand on them for anything but grazing, dry fuel and grass, it is 

 unnecessary to divide the nistar areas, as is prescribed in the plan, into 69 series contain- 

 ing the large number of 345 compartments, all of them subject to a system of closure for 

 five years after being worked ovrr. The Commissioner desires to see all these areas, as a 

 whole, thrown open permanently for the removal of all nistar requirements, as he thinks 

 the amount of protection afforded by the five-year's closure too insignificant to be of 

 practical use. Mr. Fuller also advocates (2) that as these nistar areas are valuable chiefly 

 for grazing, and are not to be given any fire-protection, except such as can be obtained 

 without burning fire-traces and appointing fire-patrols (classed as C protection in paragraph 

 96 of the plan) it will be better to allow such areas to be burnt under departmental 

 direction, especially as he thinks that grazing is improved by an occasional firing of 

 the grass. 



3. The forests tracts in question are those alluded to in paragraphs 67 and 72 of the 

 plan ; they are coloured yellow in the maps and aggregate 398,921 acres, or about four- 

 fifths of the whole forest area of the district ; and their character and composition, for the 

 most part, fall under type iii, paragraph 36 of the plan. Briefly, they are of very poor 

 character, and in regard to timber supply only a very limited demand. 



4. The plan prescribes no restriction on grazing in these areas, nor on the collection 

 and removal from them of dry material and grass. But paragraphs 72 and 73 provide for 

 dividing them into numerous series (69), each of which is to be sub-divided into five 

 compartments, of which one will be opened each year for felling green timber other than 

 certain good kinds which are to be reserved paragraph 67. 



5. Now, personally, I am inclined to think that, considering no protection whatever 

 is to be afforded these compartments from grazing, which is admittedly heavy, no systematic 

 attempt will be made to protect them from fire ; and that, as the period of closure is to be 

 limited to five years, the utility of the arrangement seems rather doubtful. I question 

 whether, under the prescribed conditions, which concentrate the fellings over certain open 

 compartments each year, the damage done to the resulting coppice re-growth will not be 

 greater than if those fellings were distributed over the whole nistar series, as they otherwise 

 would be, always remembering that there will be no protection from cattle and fire in either 

 case. The only reason given, so far as I can see for the proposed arrangement is to secure 

 for the timber fellings a certain amount of supervision see paragraph 72. But it seems 

 to me possible that the greater amount of care thus obtained will really tend to the future 

 detriment of the regrowth, strange as this may seem ; for if the open areas are to be 

 continually grazed over, as is considered unavoidable, the coppice would probably, I think, 

 have a better chance of survival and escape from injury, if the trees were felled two or 

 three feet from the ground, according to usual village practice, than were they to be felled 

 flush with the ground as is contemplated by the precaution of concentrating the fellings 

 over certain open areas. At any rate, it seems to me that the large amount of work that 

 will certainly be entailed by the proposed sub-division of the nistar compartments, will not 

 be compensated for by any equal sylvicultural benefit to the forests. I shall be obliged if 

 you will be good enough to decide this point, after reading my remarks further on regard- 

 ing the large increase of office work resulting from the arrangement paragraphs 9 and 10. 

 Personally, I think that all these so-called nistar series might be grouped into one class 

 in each circle and called the "grazing series" ; that no sub-division of such areas is required 

 in regard to their timber outturn, which is so small as to be of no practical account (under 

 half a cubic foot per acre per annum) and that certainly no sub-division is required for the 

 exploitation of. any other product, because the plan allows dry material and grass to be 

 removed from them and grazing to be exercised within them, as a whole, without any 

 restriction whatever. 



6. Regarding the Commissioner's second objection connected with fire-protection, 

 it is necessary to remark that lac cultivation is now being carried on over a considerable 

 area of this poor kind of forests and that fires are very damaging, because when fierce 

 enough, they entirely destroy the lac, and when of moderate strength, they kill the insects 

 and hinder the future spread of the material. There are extensive tracts no doubt, 

 especially in the Northern Range, which are nearly worthless for anything except grazing, 

 and where there can be no departmental objection, in my opinion, to systematic firing, 



