150 FORESTRY IN BRITISH EAST INDIA. 



of the Imperial Forest Service is once more under consideration, and 

 it is impossible to foresee what further changes will be introduced. 



The Provincial Service members are recruited in India and 

 trained in connection with the Forest Kesearch Institute, Dehra 

 Dun ; a certain number of posts in the service are, however, filled 

 by the promotion of specially promising Rangers. The teaching 

 is supplemented by practical instruction in various parts of India. 



The adequate instruction of the Subordinate Service was first 

 suggested by the author in 1873, when he was Conservator 

 in Bengal. Sir Dietrich Brandis was then on leave in Europe, 

 and after his return to India in 1874, he took up the subject, and 

 practical training was commenced at Dehra Dun in 1875. A 

 complete course of instruction had been established by 1878. It 

 is the oldest School of Forestry in the British Empire. The 

 instruction extended to Rangers and Foresters. Since then 

 schools for Rangers have been established at Pyinmana in Burma, 

 at Coimbatore in Madras, and at Dharwar in Bombay. Other 

 similar schools for Rangers are proposed. The training of subordi- 

 nates below the rank of Ranger has been provincialised. There 

 are now elementary forest schools in Madras, Bombay, Bengal with 

 Behar and Orissa, the United Provinces, Punjab with the North- 

 west Frontier Province, Burma, Central Provinces and Assam. 



section v.— progress of forest administration. 

 1. Establishment of Permanent State Forests. 



When the Forest Department was organised in 1864 the first 

 duty of the comparatively small staff consisted in ascertaining 

 the position, extent, and general character of the forests, while at 

 the same time organising a system of protection and exploitation 

 according to the condition of the several areas. Many of the 

 forests were more or less ruined by the careless exploitation of the 

 valuable species and by the ravages of forest fires. In drawing 

 up preliminary working schemes, the principle of a sustained yield 

 was recognised from the outset. This, however, caused a good 

 deal of friction between the forester and the timber dealer. The 

 former insisted on not only maintaining the present yield capacity, 

 but also on increasing it in the future, while the timber dealer 

 declared the supply of timber to be inexhaustible, a view wliich 

 was in many cases supported by the civil authorities. The 



