46 



This mode of culture has been observed to impoverish the soil so 

 much that the forest destroyed is not alw ays replaced by a new growth, 

 and now only in districts where the uneven and stony condition of 

 the ground renders it difficult to carry out regular husbandry does 

 this mode of culture still prevail. 



Some of the evils resulting from the similar practice in India, 

 known as Kumari, are detailed in reports embodied in the volume 

 entitled, " The Forests and Gardens of South India," by Dr. Cleghorn. 

 There are two forms of it which have been utilized in France, known 

 respectively as Sartage a feu courant and Sartage a feu convert. 



" Apart from the destruction of the trees and the laying bare of the 

 soil," says Marsh, " and consequently the free admission of sun, rain, 

 and air, to the ground, the fire of itself exerts an important influence on 

 its texture and condition. It cracks and even sometimes pulverizes the 

 rocks and stones on or near the surface ; it consumes a portion of the 

 half-decayed vegetable mould which seemed to hold its mineral parti- 

 cles together, and to retain the water of precipitation, and thus it 

 loosens, pulverizes, and dries the earth ; it destroys reptiles, insects, 

 and worms, with their eggs, and the seeds of trees and of smaller 

 plants ; it supplies in the ashes which it deposits on the surface 

 important elements for the growth of a new forest clothing, as well as 

 of the usual objects of agricultural industry ; and by the changes thus 

 produced it fits the ground for the reception of a vegetation different 

 in character from that which had spontaneously covered it. These 

 new conditions help to explain the natural succession of forest crops, 

 so generally observed in all woods cleared by fire and then abandoned." 



