( 71 )* 



Forest Department, is a matter upon which I am not prepared to give an opinion. Their 

 value would, of course, hardly be appreciated as long as such a large amount of forest-land 

 co-exists, but as the area of agrarian lands increases, their importance would soon be felt. 



(6.) The dri/ forests of the Prome district are the most difficult forests to deal with. 

 Practically, few of them are of real market value to the country, and, being leaf-shedders, 

 they contribute little towards a moderation of the excessive heat of this district. The s/ia- 

 Jbrests are here the most valuable, and those growing on rocky or gravelly soil, would be best 

 fitted for reservation. In fact I should think that the " shah" forests are in the Prome district 

 of greater importance than the few teak-forests there are, and it is a mistake to allow these 

 trees to be used for fuel for the Irrawaddi steamers, or to be indiscriminately cut down for the 

 manufacture of cutch. The peculiarity of the Prome district (owing to the sterile imperme- 

 able nature of the substrata and consequent aridity) rests in the probability that it is more 

 easy to destroy good grown forests than to recall them to existence hereafter. 



Had I to deal with the Prome forests, I should invariably protect all forests of whatever 

 kind that grow on rocky or coarse gravelly grounds, while I should give up arable lands to 

 the population without any restriction. 



(7.) The open foreds are of a varied character, and many tracts in them, especially the 

 low forests, furnish good agrarian lands in spite of the heavy stiff clay, of which they are com- 

 posed. The true eng-forests, growing always on indurated laterite, may fairly be classed 

 along with the dry for eats of the Prome district, and dealt with in the same way, while the 

 low forests might be given up uneouditioually to agricultural enterprise. 



The kaboung (iitrych)ioH mix vomica ) forms here sometimes whole forests, and might 

 possibly give a handsome outturn by the manufacture of strychnine, but the same tree is also 

 common in the upper-mixed forests. 



(8.) The next class of forests comprise those growing chiefly on permeable silicious 

 sandstone (and also on metamorphic rocks), and are generally known to foresters as the upper 

 mixed foreds. With reference to the growth of trees, these are undoubtedly the best grown 

 deciduous forests of Pegu, and, therefore, for large timber are tlie most important. But at the 

 same time the destruction that is going on in them, is in my opinion comparatively greater than 

 that which takes place in the plains, owing to thewasteful system of toungya cultivation. The 

 quality of the teak-timber, however, grown on these sandstone hills is considered inferior to that 

 of the hills east of the Sittang (chiefly schists and syenites), and also to that of the Malabar 

 hills, and this can easily be explained from the physical nature of the rocks on which 

 they grow. Whatever may be the practical difficulties in the transport of timber (water-carriage, 

 cooly-hire, etc.) or the physical difficulties in the nature and configuration of the hills them- 

 selves, the whole Yomah, as far as silicious sandstone exists, is judiciously made at present 

 the nucleus of the reserved forests of Burma. The hills are hardly fit for the support of a 

 large population, even when rational agriculture shall have supplanted the present erratic 

 method in vogue amongst the Karens. But there are difficulties of no small degree to be 

 contended against in a strict conservation of the forests, and the interior of the Yomah hills 

 is hardly more than nominally under control, for toungya cleariugs are made iu situations 

 which would hardly be permitted if a forest officer had been applied to. 



These are the remarks I have ventured to offer as a botanist ; practical foresters may 

 possibly dissent from my views. 



It is, in my opinion, not quite correct to judge climatological questions merely from a 

 consideration of the woodless plains* of lower Bengal. It is my conviction, that in a 

 climatological point of view the absence of forests in tiie lower Gangetic alluvium is quite 

 counterbalanced by the presence of the numerous village groves, cousistiug chiefly of maugo, 

 jack, bamboo, and other evergreens, which influence the climate more powerfully than large 

 tracts of deciduous forest could do. After all, we could hardly expect on these plains other 

 forests (had they been spared) than savannah and lower-mixed forests. Both are of little 

 climatological importance ; they are not by any means regulators of excessive climes, aud 

 besides tliis, the drainage which these plains receive from the Himalayas and Kliasya 

 hills, etc., is enormous At the same time I should think it would not be at all a bad plan 

 to raise evergreen tropical forests on such large alluvial expansions as those of the Irra- 

 waddi, Ganges, etc. The trees to be cliosen for the purpose would necessarily have to be of a 

 character most suitable for alluvium, and least subject to the influence of an excessive clime, 

 and I should think that mango, jack, and tamarind trees intermixed with bamboo, would be 

 suitable. Possibly mahogany might be added, but this tree loses its seeding qualities to a 

 great extent, f probably on account of its being a lime-stone loving tree, or on account of the phy- 

 sical quality of the subsoil After such a forest is well established, other trees, of a more deli- 

 cate nature, might be added at will, such as wood-oil-trees, litchi or other fruit-trees. Such a 



These remarks only refer to extensive alluvial plains. 



t While West Indian trees liuit IVeely, and liave Irom 40 to 60 seeds in each capsule, the maho<any trees 

 in the Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, gave according to Dr. Anderson's and Dr. Cleghorn's reports, only 4 to 5 

 capsules, with only 10 to 30 seeds iu each. Tiiis would form a serious obstacle to the self propagation of tho 

 tree, but 1 eutertaiu some hope that these relations will be equalized it' the tree is growa on calcareous substrata. 



