1 -.,-,,. 



6 NOTE ON SAIN OR SAJ. 



The fruit has been found to contain 4 per cent, of tannic acid. In 

 Western Bengal and Hyderabad the tree is the mainstay of the tasar 

 silk industry, being pollarded before the rains to provide young leaves 

 for the caterpillars. Mr. T. F. Catania writing to the Indian Forester 

 in 1899 laid great stress on the future that probably awaited the tasar 

 silk industry in Hyderabad, favoured by the fact that natural jungles 

 of Terminalia tomentosa extend for miles as if they had been created for 

 the propagation of this industry. He compared the planting of millions 

 of mulberry trees which would have had to be undertaken to feed the 

 Univoltine variety of the silk-worm, eggs of which had been offered to 

 the Nizam by the Indian Government. In parts of Bombay the tree is 

 extensively lopped for ash manure for crops, the process being continued 

 from year to year until the hills, for example in Satara, along the line of 

 the Ghats, are studded with huge pollards (Brandis) . Lac is occasionally 

 gathered on the branches and in Oudh and the United Provinces the 

 leaves are lopped for cattle fodder (Braudis). A number of experiments 

 made in the United Provinces to determine the proportion of bark to wood 

 by weight gave the following results : 



With 6 trees of 1st and 2nd girth classes, the weight of wood fit for 

 timber and fuel being 100, the weight of dry bark was 16'5 : with 6 

 trees between 4' 6" and 8' 9" in girth the proportions of dry timber and 

 dry bark were 100 to 14'6 : with 6 trees between 3' 4" and 8' 0" in girth 

 the proportions of green wood to green bark, which in this case included 

 the weight of unbarkable branches, was 100 to 25. 



5. Natural Reproduction and Rate of Growth. 



Few trees show better natural reproduction than this, both from seed 

 and coppice shoots. Reports from nearly all districts describe it as being 

 fair to good, and it has the advantage that young seedlings are not 

 overcome by the coarse grass that often covers the moist flats where it 

 attains a large size. From the United Provinces alone do the reports 

 indicate that seedlings are not plentiful, and this may be due to the 

 extent to which seed-bearers have been removed in order to benefit Sal. 

 Cattle and monkeys eat it and where heavy grazing is the rule, the 

 young trees are usually destroyed. H. H. Haines states that in the 

 Central Provinces coppice reproduction is somewhat uncertain, especially 

 when trees are felled in the rains, but shoots may grow to 6 feet in two 



