107 



restrict injury to the trees and to ensure their reproduetiou 

 and perpetual maintenance by — 



(1) limiting the number, or the kinds and classes, of 

 animals grazed ; or 



(2) limiting the period during which grazing is al- 

 lowed ; or 



(3) combining (1) and (2). 



The first method, where it can be effectively carried out, 

 is the best— the best not merely in the interests of the vege- 

 tation but also of the animals, which are thereby well 

 nourished. But it requires, as compared with the second 

 method, a larger and better supervised establishment ; and 

 the small fees usually realised for grazing will rarely cover 

 the expenditure involved. In practice, therefore, the second 

 method, although much less effective, is often preferable. 

 Sometimes both methods may be enforced simultaneously, as 

 in certain of the Ajmere forests. 



It may be remarked in this connection that one of the chief causes of the 

 inferiority of Indian cattle is the smalliie.-s of the ftes charged for grazing and 

 the looee way in which these fees are collected. The Indian cattle-owner does not 

 li-nit the ntimbcr of his stock acooi ding to the grazing area at his disposal. He 

 usually lets nature perform this office, and keeps as many ill-fed or half starved 

 animals as can n.anage to escape death. This would not be the case veie the 

 fees charijed sufficiently high and were the nuiiilerof animals allowed to fituze per 

 acre strictly limited. It is a common practice for Go-vernment to sell the erazing 

 right by auction, or to rent it to a contractor on the condition that the fee charired 

 per capita shall be limited to a certain maximum. I'he contractor's interest tlicn 

 is to graze as many animals as possible on the land. The appalling number of 

 cattle which are killed off every dry year in the more arid pans of India has led 

 to many proposals for increasing the grazing areas and for throwing optn tne 

 Government forests to grazing. Such measures merely tend to incrense the number 

 of Hiiserable animals, which exist without profit and even to the detriment ot the 

 owners until the next season of drought does its work. The only remedy appears 

 to lie in limiting the intensity of the grazing in the Government estates to 

 what the land can support, and in charging Buch fees as will make it worth the 

 while of cattle owners to keep only animals that can bring them in a profit. 



Although the areas subjected to the pastoral method of 

 treatment should be worked with a view to the production 

 of fodder, it by no meaos follows that none of the wood pro- 

 duced can be utilsied. Apart from the fodder, a supply of 

 small timber can be obtained by ubjecting the trees to 

 branch-coppice fellings for instanc , or, where the number 

 of cattle is limited, over-mature tree can be removed by the 

 selection method. It should not, however, be overlooked that 

 the treatment is primarily intended to favour the produc- 

 tion of fodder not of wood, and that if restrictions are 

 introduced with the object of preserving the trees it is 

 because these trees arechiefly useful for the fodder they 



