}2 THE WORK OF THE FOREST DEPARTMENT IN INDIA. 



charge of a President. There are five main branches of 

 research, namely Silviculture, Forest Botany, Forest Economic 

 Products, Zoology and Chemistry, each branch being in charge 

 of a research officer. In addition specialists are appointed tem- 

 porarily when necessary and are attached to the Institute to 

 carry out investigations in subjects of particular economic im- 

 portance. Thus a cellulose expert has been employed for some 

 time to investigate possible new sources of paper-making 

 materials, of which the forests of India contain abundant 

 supplies, while more recently a tannin expert has been engaged 

 to study the question of tanning materials. 



It is unlikely that all forms of forest research will continue 

 to be centralized wholly at Dehra Dun. It has now been recog- 

 nised that as regards Silviculture at any rate, on which the 

 future treatment and economic working of the forests must 

 depend, the best results can be attained only by the employment 

 of local research officers who will carry out detailed investiga- 

 tions under the widely differing conditions of climate, soil and 

 other environment factors in their respective provinces. These 

 local research officers will, however, work in close communica- 

 tion with the Central Institute, thus ensuring continuity of 

 general principles and preventing duplication. 



The results of forest research are published from time to 

 time in the form of memoirs, records or bulletins. Such public- 

 ations, however, do not by any means represent the total results 

 of the research officers' labours, for much information and 

 advice is imparted verbally or by correspondence both to officers 

 of the Department and to others. In addition the research 

 officers deliver courses of lectures in their own subjects to the 

 Provincial Service students, who thus imbibe during the period 

 of their training the latest results of scientific enquiry. 



6. Forest Organisation and Exploitation. 



Organisation-. The management of some 250,000 square 

 miles of forest of many and widely differing types and under a 

 variety of local conditions is a large undertaking, and matters 

 are not simplified either by the fact that in many cases these 

 areas had been more or less ruined by misuse of all kinds before 



