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only to meet the requirements of big towns but also the needs 

 oi the agricultural community. The great decrease in the area 

 of grazing lands and wooded tracts, especially in Northern India, 

 has been a serious matter to the people for the last 40 years and 

 instances have time and again been given where the absence of 

 forest areas has resulted in the death of thousands of cattle in 

 famine years. The opening-up of communications by rail and road 

 throughout the province has mitigated to a certain extent the 

 severity of fodder famines, but experience shows that the expense 

 of transporting fodder from sub-montane districts is prohibitive. 

 The appalling rate at which that portion of the country known as 

 the Gangetic Plain is being eroded, the increasing sterility of the 

 soil, the sinking of the spring water levels, the severities of the 

 climate, all of which are directly due to this wholesale clearance of 

 the natural forests, require such an Herculean effort to combat that 

 Government has, up to quite recent years, hesitated to take the 

 initial step. 



The Forest department, which was started in 1864 for the 

 purpose of conserving the remaining forests, has, on occasions, been 

 called in to assist agriculture in the creation of local fuel and fodder 

 reserves. The earliest efforts date back from 1873, when Dr. 

 (subsequently Sir Dietrich) Brandis gave great impulse to what 

 has been, on occasions, termed agricultural forests in Ajmere- 

 Merwara and, later on, in Madras. The great dislike of the masses 

 to any restriction of their former so-called rights over the forests, 

 their ignorance and suspicion of Government's motives, are both 

 serious obstacles in the way of any improvement and Government 

 policy has been apt to favour the contentment of the present 

 generation rather than the material advantages of their successors 

 for all time. The people in their present condition are likely to 

 do little to find a remedy for these evils and it is only within the 

 power of Government to do anything to ameliorate the present 

 state of affairs ; action should no longer be delayed. 



The necessity for burning dung for domestic purposes owing 

 to the scarcity of firewood, thus robbing the soil of its fertility, is quite 

 sufficient reason for drastic action, but it is intended to show further 

 how essential forests are for the very existence of agriculture. 



Anyone who wishes to study the close relationship of forests 

 to agriculture is recommended to read Dr. J. A. Voelcker's com- 

 prehensive report on the improvement of Indian Agriculture, 1893 

 (Eyre and Spottiswoodi. It will be readily understood that those 

 forests which are essential to the preservation of the country and 

 for the improvement of agriculture should be managed quite apart 

 from any commercial considerations. 



