2/8 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



need of a forest policy on account of its insular 

 position and topography, although one-quarter of 

 the country is waste, on which it would pay to 

 cultivate wood-crops. It imports nearly all its 

 needed wood suppHes with over ^100,000,000. Of 

 the 3,000,000 acres of woodlands, mostly devoted 

 to purposes of the chase or to parks, 2 per cent are 

 state forests, and so encumbered with rights of 

 adjoining commoners as pasture or for wood sup- 

 plies that no rational management is possible. 

 But in India there is a well-organized state forest 

 administration, and the government there exercises 

 itself also in promoting private forestry. The 

 policy here differs from those in existence on the 

 Continent of Europe, in that it is based on the sup- 

 ply question rather than the protective value of 

 the forest cover. 



In the past the native people of India, as far as 

 known, never realized the importance of their for- 

 ests. They were mostly more or less common 

 property, or else belonged to the rajas. They were 

 cleared, destroyed, mutilated at all times and in all 

 places, and the use of wood seems never to have 

 formed an important factor in Hindoo civilization. 



With the advent of foreign commerce, exploita- 

 tion for the more valuable export timbers received 

 a new stimulus, and the forests were culled regard- 

 less of the future either of forest or people. This 

 exploitation was aggravated by the construction 

 of railways, which, in themselves large consumers, 



