204 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



do, convert large trees to smaller scantlings by the saw, as it 

 is an undoubted fact that forests yield a larger aggregate 

 supply of timber when the trees are allowed to mature. The 

 argument is oue of a sort too readily applied to many Indian 

 subjects. Theoretically it is true enough, and in the distant 

 future it may be realised. But in the meantime the people 

 have not the capital wherewith to do it, even if the large 

 timber were growing ready for them, which it is not. We 

 have taken one step rightly enough, in strictly reserving 

 limited areas of the best forest to reproduce large timber. 

 But we have not released the rest, nor applied to it a method 

 which aims at the continued reproduction of small timber, for 

 which the teak tree is so admirably fitted by nature. Vast 

 expense is still incurred in attempting to conserve it all after 

 a fashion, and the problem of cheap and efficient management 

 of these forests will never, in my opinion, be satisfactorily 

 worked out until we revise our system altogether, with this 

 object kept in view. 



Of other trees than teak these forests produce a great variety, 

 some producing highly ornamental woods for fancy purposes, 

 others useful in the arts, and a good many, when fully ma- 

 tured and seasoned, capable of almost supplanting teak for 

 ordinary building purposes. The useful sorts, however, on 

 the whole, bear a very low proportion to the great mass for 

 which no general use has as yet been found. Eound the settle- 

 ments the valuable sorts have mostly been exterminated ; and 

 such parts as are not actually under tillage are covered with 

 a scrub composed of such thorny species as Acacia Arabica, 

 A. catechu, Zizyphus Jujuba, and others. It is remarkable, I 

 think, how the thorny species, which are the best armed to 

 resist destruction, have thus won the race for life in such 

 tracts. 



