235 



India such instances are extremely common, the forest having 

 been first cleared for cultivation and grassland now occupying 

 the abandoned fields. It has been well said that : " woodland 

 and grassland stand opposed to one another like two equally 

 powerful but hostile nations, which in the course of time have re- 

 peatedly fought against one another for the dominion over the 

 soil,"* and nowhere does the Forester perhaps realise the truth 

 of this more strongly than in India. The seedlings of many of 

 our most valuable tree species, in the first year or two of their 

 existence, may only attain a height of a few inches above the 

 ground and have no chance of surviving in the struggle for 

 existence in a dense mass of grasses which effectually shut out 

 the necessary light. 



216. In many parts of India the Conversion 



afforesting of these grass lands is one of the most difficult pro- of Grassland 

 blems which the Forester has to solve. The difficulty of the 1U 

 task, moreover, is often increased by the fact that these 

 clearings were frequently made in the middle of dense forests. 

 Tall tree-growth therefore, in such cases, surrounds the clearings 

 like a wall which, by interfering with the free circulation of 

 air, is largely responsible for the grassy area becoming what 

 is known as a frost-hole, where only the most frost-hardy 

 species can exist. In many cases it has been noticed that 

 if such grasslands are protected from fire and grazing they 

 become in time naturally reconverted into woodland. At 

 first small grasses form a dense mantle completely covering 

 the ground and hiding it from view ; the grass-crop then 

 becomes gradually thinner, and the small species are replaced 

 by taller, coarser grasses, under the shade of which patches of 

 unoccupied soil are visible. Between these grasses a growth of 

 .shrubs then creeps in, the shade of which while sufficing to kill 

 off the grasses still allows the seedlings of many tree species to 

 establish themselves. Finally the thinning out of the shrub 

 growth allows these seedlings to develop, and the area becomes 

 once more covered with forest. That this process has occurred 

 and is still in operation in many of our fire-protected forests 

 there can be no doubt, but at the same time the process is often 

 exceedingly slow. Various plans have been resorted to in differ- 

 ent parts of India with the object of hastening the naturally 

 slow progress of events. In some cases the seeds of tree species 

 are sown with low-growing field crops, the injurious competi- 

 tive action of which is less injurious than that of the wild 



* Plant Geography by Dr. A. F. W. Schimper, Eng. Edn., 1903, p. 162. 



