MANUAL OF THE Nil,AGllU DISTRICT. 443 



on the recommendation of Captain Campbell (then employed at ClI. XXVI. 

 Jackatalla (Wellington) as Assistant Executive Engineer) and forests 



Mr. E. B. Thomas, to sanction a grant of Rupees 10,000 for experi- 



mental plantations of exotic timber trees, chiefly Australian. 

 The money was divided between Captain Campbell and Mr. 

 Thomas. The site selected by Captain Campbell was 3| miles 

 from Wellington near Bleakhouse. The plot selected was 100 

 acres in extent, covered with coarse grass and bracken. It was 

 purchased for Rupees 700. By the beginning of 1858, 8 acres 

 had been planted chiefly with Acacia robusta [melanoxylon). 

 Some deodars and pines were also planted. Captain Campbell 

 also had made efforts to replant the felled portions of the Great 

 Kota Shola with indigenous trees of sorts most esteemed by the 

 Badagas. By the end of 1859 Captain Campbell had expended 

 about Rupees 10,000 on these several operations. There were at 

 this date already 90 acres planted, containing two lakhs of trees 

 of various ages. 



Meanwhile, Mr. Thomas at Ootacamand had planted out —planting at 

 8,000 Australian trees and resown certain denuded sholas with ° a^caman . 

 such seed. The presence of Australian acacias in the heart of 

 some of the sholas near Ootacamand is due to this officer's 

 practice of thus disseminating the seed of such trees. 



The Government at this time ordered the planting of 10,000 

 trees in and about Ootacamand for ornamental purposes at a cost of 

 Rupees 1,350, the operations to be under Mr. Mclvor's direction. 

 This sanction was made "^ under the conviction that the outlay 

 (was) trifling in comparison with the advantages to be derived 

 from the proposed plantation, even in an economical view, and 

 that it is highly desirable that an example of successful planting 

 should be placed before the residents on the Hills in each of the 

 chief places of resort as an encouragement to others to engage 

 in an enterprise which, while it will be generally beneficial, will 

 also be individually remunei^ative." 



Mr. Mclvor had estimated that for an expenditure of 10,000 

 rupees in ten years Government would get a return in the same 

 period of Rupees 50,000. The result of this planting is observable 

 now, especially at the western extremity of the Lake. 



Subsequently some other plantations were formed on the Hills, —other 

 notably the Governor's Shola, about 3 miles to the west of ^ ^" ^ ^^^^^ 

 Ootacamand ; but in 1869, when the Nilagiri woods and planta- 

 tions were handed over to the chai'ge of the Conservator, the area 

 of the plantations amounted to 191 acres only ; when retrans- 

 ferred the area had risen to 919 acres. In 1876 the area was 960 

 acres, of which 339 acres were in the neighbourhood of Ootaca- 

 mand, and 621 in that of Wellington and of Coonoor. 



