inn FEI.LINC; AND CONVERSION. 



contractors. In such cast-s the workmen are often brought from 

 a distance, as Itah'ans in South German}', &:c., and it is necessary 

 to make arrangements which the ordinar}- course of forest-work 

 does not require. 



(e) Work done by Forest Settlers. — Hitherto it has been pre- 

 supposed that for ordinary fellings the necessary labour-gang could 

 be secured within easy distance of the forest, but there are forest 

 districts where the population is so scattered and scanty that the 

 needful force of labour cannot be obtained in the neighbour- 

 hood ; the manager is then obliged to engage labourers from a 

 distance and settle them in a regular colony within his forest. 

 It is evident that only in the last extremity of scarcity of local 

 labour would a forest-manager resort to such an expensive 

 measure as the above. 



Such colonies of forest-labourers arc found at Herrenv.ies in 

 the Black Forest, and in other parts of Germany, also in certain 

 districts in Hungary. The settlers must be supplied with 

 houses, food, medical attendance, schools and churches, plots of 

 land to be cultivated and of meadow-land for each head of a 

 family, also litter and firewood, and even their widows and 

 orphans must be maintained. 



[Imported labourers from Chota Nagpur arc largely employed in 

 the Assam tea-gardens under conditions similar to the above, but the 

 Indian Forest Department has hitherto been able to dispense with 

 the necessity of resorting to such a class of lal)our. — Tii.] 



5. I'Jie Forest L(ih(nir-<Ji((sti()n. 



As already stated, the position of labourers has altered greatly 

 in the last thirty years, and instead of the former contented, 

 industrious woodcutter, forest management has to deal with a 

 fluctuating i)roletariat. The forester is called upon to improve 

 this state of things, not only on the grounds of national 

 economy, but also from a special forest economic point of view ; 

 although he cannot control all the factors in the question, ho 

 can to some extent assist in reorganising a physically and morally 

 strong force of woodcutters. Some notes showing how he should 

 proceed to gain this object are given below. 



"Wages should be high enough to remunerate fairly the hard 



