.54 THE WORK OF THE FOREST DEPARTMENT IN INDIA. 



In Central and Southern India the cost of extraction to a 

 line of communication and the high freight on the timber in the 

 rough to the factory are the chief difficulties to be overcome ; the 

 solution undoubtedly lies in the formation of plantations, and 

 as Bombax malabaricum is easily propagated and grows fast this 

 should present no difficulties. 



(4) THE ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF TIMBER. 



As early as 1854 the question of treating timber came under 

 consideration in India, prominence being given to the subject 

 by the erection of a creosoting plant by the East Indian Railway 

 1 Company at Bally, near Howrah. As far as is known the plant 

 was not a success, and in any case it did not remain long in 

 existence. From that time onward considerable attention has 

 been paid to the subject, resulting in the erection at various 

 times of plants embodying the burnettizing, haskinizing, 

 creosoting, Boucherie and powellizing processes. In 1878, 

 Dr. Warth was appointed by the Government of India to make 

 a thorough investigation into the value and best methods of 

 treating timber antiseptically. His appointment resulted in the 

 publication of a valuable report, embodying definite proposals, 

 to which unfortunately full effect was not given. Sir Dietrich 

 Brandis, the then Inspector-General of Forests, about the same 

 time wrote a report on this subject, in which he gave a complete 

 list of timbers which, it was thought, would be suitable for 

 sleepers after treatment. The enquiry was started afresh in 

 1905, and has been prosecuted steadily at the Forest Research 

 Institute from the time of its foundation in 1906, though it is 

 only during more recent years that the preliminary work has 

 commenced to bear fruit and that the Forest Department has 

 actually turned out treated sleepers in commercial quantities. 



The idea of protecting timber by artificial means is a very 

 old one. The use of paints and tars was well known to the 

 Romans, while that of charring and smoking timber, to protect 

 it from decay, dates back to the later Egyptian period. It was 

 not, however, until modern times that it became possible, with 

 the help of science and machinery, to treat timber so as to give 

 -it thorough protection against decay and insect attack. 



