THE WORK OF THE FOREST DEPARTMENT IN INDIA. ^3 



they were made over to the charge of the Forest Department or 

 by the numerical weakness of the staff employed for the manage- 

 ment of this vast estate. Again the introduction and elabora- 

 tion of efficient systems of management is necessarily a slow 

 process, for the forest officer must look many decades, and it 

 may be a century or more, ahead, while mistakes made are not 

 rectified in a day and may prove extremely costly before they are 

 discovered. 



Natural forest tracts, when first taken in hand, are seldom 

 in a condition lending itself to the immediate adoption of the 

 most efficient form of management. Nature does not select the 

 most valuable timber trees or produce regular and sustained 

 yields of these to the maximum possible extent, but rather 

 endeavours to multiply the species best fitted to flourish in the 

 particular environment. Thus in rich tropical forests the 

 economic value of the crop may be small owing to the large 

 admixture of worthless species struggling for existence under 

 conditions favourable to vegetative activity, while on the other 

 hand in arid tracts the sparse and stunted nature of the forest 

 growth may make it impossible to produce valuable forest with- 

 out the aid of irrigation. Steps have accordingly to be taken 

 to make fuller use of the productive capacity of the soil by 

 increasing the proportion of valuable species, improving the 

 density of the crop, and bringing the forest into the condition 

 of producing the maximum possible amount of valuable timber 

 or other produce per acre year after year and century after cent- 

 ury. Nature has to be studied closely, imitated and even coerced 

 where necessary, and the process must often be a lengthy one. 



Working Plans. The first step towards the introduction of 

 a regular system of management in a given forest tract is the 

 preparation of a working plan setting forth the general objects 

 to be attained and prescribing for a series of years the opera- 

 tions to be carried out in order to reach these ends. Thus the 

 foundations are laid for the gradual amelioration of the forest 

 with the view of building up an active capital which will, when 

 established, produce the highest possible return. The working 

 plan further estimates what amount of timber or other produce 

 may be removed annually or periodically from the forest With- 

 in? 



