NOTES ON FORESTRY. 



of forestry in this country, than a mass of 

 technical details, not always applicable to the 

 diversified conditions of Indian forests. Broad 

 principles are of world-wide application, but in 

 matters of detail we must base our own system 

 upon our experience of local conditions. 



There is yet another object which I have had 

 in view in penning these pages. The Forest 

 Department has been subjected to severe outside 

 criticism. In one place, financial results appear 

 utterly inadequate to the area under the control 

 of the Department ; in another, financial results 

 may be satisfactory, but the work not being in 

 part of a definite plan based on known data, there 

 is a suspicion that the future well-being of the 

 forests is being sacrificed for present returns. 

 These criticisms are of the greatest advantage 

 in keeping persistently before every forest officer 

 a knowledge of what is required of him, and the 

 necessity of a precise acquaintance with the 

 capabilities of his charge ; but while, on the one 

 hand, these criticisms are in many instances 

 essentially just, it may, on the other hand, be 

 fairly urged that sufficient allowance is not 

 always made for the ruined state in which some 

 of our forests came into the hands of the Depart- 

 ment, and the consequent impossibility of secur- 

 ing satisfactory financial results, with due regard 



