THE NERBUDDA 291 



and before ' working plans ' of forest rotation had even 

 been heard of ; and officers had not been much instructed 

 in the scientific management since inaugurated. The 

 ideas possessed by the energetic officers who first stirred 

 up the Government to pay attention to the forests were 

 first derived from the British systems of arboriculture, 

 which had not arrived even at silviculture, and which 

 even to the present day know very little of the broad 

 principles of forest rotation, extending over several cen- 

 turies, which have been thought and worked out in France 

 and Germany. When timber for building and firewood 

 began to be scarce on the Rhine, the necessity which 

 mothers invention opened the eyes of the Germans, who 

 are a vorsichtig people, to the fact that timber might be 

 grown on land not suitable to wheat, as a crop, and in a 

 rotation exactly like a com crop. If primitive man had 

 relied on the natural growth of wild wheat here and there 

 in the woods to supply bread for his children's use, he 

 would have used his brains to as little purpose as do 

 those who rely on forests which are left to chance for 

 their replenishment, after everyone has had a free hand 

 to cut away and hack at the store which nature had in 

 thousands of years accumulated. The difference being 

 that mistakes in growing com can be remedied next year, 

 but mistakes in timber-growing not under fifty or a hun- 

 dred years. The peculiar situation of England , endowed by 

 nature with vast supplies of coal, makes her less provident. 

 It was the Government of India, under Lord Dalhousie, 

 which had the distinction of establishing a Forest Depart- 

 ment under the best expert supervision, and educating 

 its officers in approved forest schools. 



The improvement made in the forest administration 

 of the Satpura hiUs since the Department has been estab- 

 lished is now becoming apparent. In the report of the 



19 — 2 



