64 HAPPY INDIA 



years old, from which twelve tons of timber could 

 be got every year from every acre. That would 

 supply six families of five persons, or thirty people, 

 and if each of those people had an acre of land, 

 thirty acres in all, the fuel growth would require 

 I in 30, or 3 per cent, of their land. It might be 

 possible to induce the cultivators to give up one 

 acre in thirty for the sake of growing their fuel, 

 though they would probably require to be bribed 

 in the first instance until they discovered the great 

 advantage to their crops, and other advantages to 

 their cattle, resulting from the plantation of trees, 

 because this plantation would give the cattle shelter 

 in the hottest months, and might also provide them 

 with green leaves for fodder. It is not probable 

 that the timber would be grown in one small planta- 

 tion of one acre ; probably the plantations would 

 not be less than ten acres in extent, or a still larger 

 unit might be adopted twenty acres, which would 

 supply fuel for six hundred people. But in some of 

 the more densely populated areas there are two, 

 and sometimes three, persons to one acre. In the 

 latter case the proportion of ground required to 

 grow fuel, if not more than twelve tons is grown 

 in a year on one acre, would be 10 per cent, of the 

 area occupied for cultivation, and it is doubtful if 

 the cultivators would give up that proportion of 

 land, even though their crops were increased 20 per 

 cent, in consequence of the better manuring of the 

 land, and in these cases the fuel would have to be 

 brought in from a distance. 



