3o6 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



and dry it as an article of food ; and a very important 

 article it is, in some districts, saving thousands from death 

 in famine years. It is a crop which is never known to 

 fail, no matter how dry the season. In Central India 

 every village claims its area of mahua-trees, and even in 

 the furthest jungle every tree has an owner, and descends 

 from father to son as a property, on which people marry 

 and live on the value of its product. It is not only the 

 poor man's bread, but his wine. From the sweet stuff, 

 which keeps when dried any length of time, like raisins, 

 the natives distil the mahua spirit in quantity only limited 

 by the duty chargeable to Government. In the Monghyr 

 district in 1873 duty was paid on* 1,750 tons of mahua 

 for distilling, and it was proved that, if carefully manu- 

 factured, the spirit could be easily freed from essential 

 oils, and made into a most wholesome spirit resembling 

 whisky. But the rum manufacturers of Calcutta and 

 Shahjahanpur petitioned Government, and a prohibition 

 duty was placed on its distillation. 



The wild mahua-trees of the Satpuras are very plentiful, 

 having never been cut down or hacked by the natives, 

 and show what the less fortunate timber trees might be 

 if the Gonds had spared them from mutilation. There 

 is another product of the mahua-tree which has been 

 proved to be valuable — i.e., the oil expressed from its 

 seeds. England imports yearly oil seeds from India to 

 the value of five to six millions sterling, principally linseed, 

 but the mahua oil is three times as valuable as linseed, 

 being as good as cocoa-nut oil for candles. Here are, 



* Statement of Mr. Lockvvood, civil officer of Monghyr, who calcu- 

 lates that each tree produces 2 to 3 cwt. of corollas, and that in the 

 4,000 square miles of his district there were over a million trees, making 

 the yield over 100.000 tons of nourishing food for man or beast. The 

 Santhals, he states, suffer no famines in consequence, and are a plump 

 and happy race. (' Report of the Linnean Society,' 1878.) 



