October 7, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



409 



guidance, military officers may with great advantage be em- 

 ployed in forest work. 



PROTECTION OF THE FORESTS. 



For the protection of the forests, however, it would have been 

 a serious mistake to employ a military force in India. The 

 employment of troops as a police force for the protection of the 

 Yellowstone Park and other Reservations in the United States, 

 doubtless, is the right course to pursue in order to enforce 

 efficient protection against timber thieves who would rob the 

 forest, and herdsmen who would otherwise set fire to it, in 

 order to produce better pasture for their sheep. Where public 

 property and the vital interests of the nation must be protected 

 against the selfish cupidity of individuals the rigid discipline 

 and the stern action of the military force are necessary. In 

 India matters were different. The ruling power, it is true, was 

 always regarded as the proprietor of all waste and forest that 

 had not been alienated, but the people living in the forests and 

 in their vicinity had been in the habit, from time immemorial, 

 to use the forest for their own requirements, to cut wood and 

 bamboos, to graze their cattle, to clear and burn the trees for 

 their shifting cultivation. When the work of demarcating state 

 forests was commenced, the question arose, how this cus- 

 tomary user of the forests should be dealt with. From the 

 outset I insisted upon what I considered as the only just plan, 

 namely, that the customary user should be regarded as a right, 

 but as a right which the Government, as the guardian of the 

 public interests, had power to regulate, to commute, and, by 

 the grant of equitable compensation, in land or in money, to 

 extinguish. This view of the case was accepted and embodied 

 in the forest laws which were passed successively for different 

 parts of the empire. But the provisions of. these laws were 

 enforced with due consideration for the habits and customs of 

 the people, and the employment of a military forest police 

 would have been a great mistake. In Burma and in other por- 

 tions of the empire was it possible, by giving congenial and 

 profitable employment to the inhabitants of the forests, to make 

 them our allies, and to enlist their interest upon the side of forest 

 protection, but this was not everywhere possible. The estab- 

 lishment, the efficient protection and the regular methodical 

 management of the forests unavoidably interfered with the 

 habits and prejudices of the people, and although just and 

 equitable compensation was always liberally given, still the 

 alteration of circumstances made itself felt. It is true that the 

 area of reserved forests in the whole of the provinces under 

 British administration amounts to only 7.5 per cent, of the total 

 area, and that in most provinces the forests are situated on 

 the hills, away from the open, densely inhabited country. But, 

 nevertheless, their aggreagate area is very large, 71,600 square 

 miles, or forty-six millions of acres. And as just related, from 

 more than one-third of this area has it been possible to exclude 

 fires. The demarcation of a reserved forest, its efficient pro- 

 tection, and particularly the prevention in it of the annual jungle 

 fires, are measures which completely alter the aspect of the 

 country and which unavoidably, in many respects, interfere 

 with the old-established habits of the people. The small 

 amount of dissatisfaction that has, fortunately, manifested 

 itself among the people concerned, proves that the forest laws 

 have been administered in a considerate spirit and with due 

 regard to their habits and prejudices. And this could not pos- 

 sibly have been effected if the protection of the forests had 

 been undertaken by a military force. 



TEAK AND BAMBOOS. 



Like the Oak and the Scotch Pine, the Teak-tree demands 

 much light. As already mentioned, it does not, as a rule, form 

 pure forests, and it thrives best where the ground is protected 

 by a dense underwood of Bamboos, which forms a lower story 

 of the forest thirty to sixty feet high. This underwood of 

 Bamboos is analagous to the lower story, which the Beech, 

 the Hornbeam and the Silver Fir in Germany form under the 

 Oak or the Scotch Pine, and which, according to Pinchot and 

 Graves, in Pennsylvania the Hemlock forms underneath the 

 White Pine. The Bamboo, therefore, may be regarded as a 

 useful companion, a friend and ally of the Teak-tree, but in 

 young Teak plantations it often is a most formidable enemy. 

 The forest cleared by the Karens for their toungyas, to a 

 great extent, is composed of Bamboos. Each Bamboo clump 

 consists of two portions. Underground is an entangled net- 

 work of rhizomes, while above ground rises the gigantic tuft 

 of hollow woody stems. The rhizome is not, as a rule, killed 

 when the toungya is fired. During the first few years these 

 rhizomes produce slender shoots, but gradually they recover 

 their strength, and then all at once a number of stems grow 

 up of the ordinary thickness, and at once attain their full 

 height, which varies according to the species, Dgndrocalamus, 



thirty to forty ; Bambusa polymorpha, which is the species 

 that prevails in the moister forests, from fifty to sixty feet. At 

 that time the young Teak, if properly cared for, is extremely 

 vigorous, the stems, fifteen to twenty feet high, on the current 

 year's shoot, with four to five pairs of leaves two to three feet 

 long and eight to ten inches broad. Weeds, seedlings and 

 coppice-shoots of other trees no longer endanger its existence 

 if the early cleanings have been carried out regularly, and the 

 plantation seems safe. At that time, however, the Bamboo- 

 shoots come up all at once in dense masses, the Teak is over- 

 topped, a large proportion of the plants is killed, some linger 

 with a few miserable leaves under the dense shade of the 

 Bamboos, while others continue the struggle, but are mostly 

 forced up into long, slender, weak stems. Here prompt and 

 vigorous action is needed in cutting back the Bamboos. 

 Obviously Teak plantations, particularly those established on 

 toungyas in the heart of the forests, require constant care 

 until the Teak has overtopped the Bamboos, which is not gen- 

 erally the case before it is fifteen to twenty years old. The 

 Bamboos associated with Teak in the Burma forests have been 

 compared to the companions of the Oak in Europe, and the 

 White Pine in North America, to the Beech and the Hemlock. 

 But the life-history of the Bamboo is very different. When the 

 stems, which constitute the Bamboo clump, have attained a cer- 

 tain age they produce flowers, and after ripening theirseed they 

 die off, and in most species not only all stems of one clump', 

 but all clumps in one district, bear seed and die. The dead 

 stems fall and form a tangled mass of Bamboos, through 

 which it is hardly possible to force one's way. The fires of the 

 next hot season, however, sweep away this dry mass, and 

 when the rains set in the enormous crop of Bamboo-seed ger- 

 minates, and the result is a carpet of young slender Bamboo- 

 plants, a portion of which, after a series of years, grow up into 

 clumps. Hence, the flowering and seeding of the Bamboo is 

 an event of great importance, which recurs after a certain 

 number of years ; thirty years in the case of some species, 

 forty in the case of others. At that time, when the cover over- 

 head is thus suddenly removed, the seeds of Teak and other 

 trees which have not been destroyed by the conflagration get 

 a chance and grow up. 



Bonn, Germany. Dietrich Brandts. 



Recent Publications. 



The Nursery Book. Third Edition. Macmillan & Co., 

 New York. 



This is not merely a reprint of the manual which was 

 issued some half-dozen years ago under this title, but it is 

 a thorough revision of that work with much new matter, 

 with many more illustrations, and with the nursery list 

 expanded and brought down to date, so that it honestly 

 fulfills the promise of its subtitle and is "A Complete Guide 

 to the Multiplication of Plants." The chapter on Pollina- 

 tion, which was in the original book, is not found in this 

 edition, but this leaves space for much other practical mat- 

 ter like the discussion of the question whether plants prop- 

 agated by grafting are constitutionally weakened by this 

 process. It ought to be said that the useful notes on polli- 

 nation are not lost, but are now included in Plant Breeding, 

 another book belonging to the series aptly named "The 

 Garden Craft Series,'' which now includes, besides the two 

 we have named, The Horticulturists Rule Book, with the 

 promise that others are in preparation. Altogether, The 

 Nursery Book is in every way a helpful little volume which 

 may be safely trusted by the novice as a guide to all ordi- 

 nary manipulation which is required for the propagation of 

 plants, and even the skilled propagator will find it conve- 

 nient to have such a handy volume within reach for refer- 

 ence in matters where his memory is at fault, or in some 

 particular where his experience is limited. In the popular 

 language of this country the word nursery has come to 

 mean an establishment for propagating trees and shrubs. 

 It need hardly be said that this work is not so limited in its 

 scope, but treats of the multiplication of all plants, whether 

 woody or not, in every practicable way. 



Notes. 



Five houses of Messrs. Dailledouze Brothers are now filled 

 with new crop Carnations, the houses measuring 125 to 200 

 feet in length. Flowers have been cut from these plants for 



