106 



can be profitably utilised only by the pasturing of cattle, and 

 •which, in the interests of the community, should be devoted 

 to the production of fodder. Such areas require, however, 

 to be placed under forest treatment, with a view to the pre- 

 servation of the trees whose roots penetrating to deeper and 

 fresher soil maintain active vegetation in the dry season, 

 thus enabling the overhead cover to protect and conserve the 

 shallow-rooted grasses which would otherwise inevitably 

 succumb. 



As cashes in which the pastoral method may have to he organised, there may he 

 cited those tracts in some of the drier purts of India where the laud, except when ir- 

 rijrated or adjoining perenniHl rivers, is uncnlturahle. The rainfall is insufficient, 

 and tlie water level is too far below the surface for any system of well-irrigation to be 

 profitable. Cultivation is, therefore, confined to the banks of rivers; but, even there, 

 gives a poor return. Larsre numbers of people, however, frequently manage to subsist 

 in these areas owing to the addition to their income and food-supply derived from 

 their herds and ilocks. These animals obtain food from the trees and bushes dotted 

 about in the uninhabited and unculturable tracts away from the rivers, and which 

 even in years of drou-flit, owing to the depth to which their roots penetiate in the 

 soil, yield some leaves which can be used as fodder. In such cases the giazing lands 

 arc the very life of the people, but should tlie trees on tliem disappear they would 

 become almost absolutely barren. It is, therefore, necessary in the interests of the 

 people to subject the lands to forest management, and to restrict grazing so far as 

 may be neeessni-y to ensure the maintenance of the trees. It should not he sou-rht, 

 however, to produce timber except such as may be yielded by some method of treat- 

 ment that will not interfere with grazing. These lands in many cases orly produce 

 annually some two or three cubic feet of wood worth not half as many arnas. The 

 grazing fees, if the number of cattle were limited to what the lands could support, 

 might well bring in as much. Apart however, from considerations of State revenue, 

 if (he number of people benefited by the grazing, as compared with the number bene- 

 fited by wood culture, is taken into account, the result is much in favour of pastoral 

 treatment. 



Application of the pastoral method. — The treatment of 

 Indian forests, primarily with regard to the fodder they pro- 

 duce, has been perhaps insuflficiently studied in view of the 

 enormous importance of such areas in the economy of the 

 country. It may be accepted that the greatest quantity of 

 fodder will be obtained by absolutely closing the area to 

 cattle grazing and by allowing grass cutting only. For it is 

 indisputable that animals, while grazing, trample and destroy 

 more grass than they eat, damage young seedlings and trees, 

 and harden the soil. But the exclusion of cattle and the en- 

 forcement of grass-cutting is not often feasible, owing to the 

 distance to which the fodder would have to be carried and to 

 the small value of the animals. There are many areas wliich 

 it would be impossible to utilise except by cattle grazing. 

 In such cases it will generally be possible to suflBiciently 



