HOLE : SOME INDIAN GRASSES AND THEIR CECOLOGY. 33 



work with a single species, viz. the Sal tree. It is hoped that, so far as possible, other 

 Forest Officers will do what they can, on the lines which have been briefly indicated in the 

 last paragraph, to start similar work for other important species. 



30. The principal object of the study of 0b J ectof 

 Indian Forest Grasses with which the present paper is immediately concerned is to acquire, F" re st 

 as soon as possible, information which will indicate the best treatment to apply to forest 

 grasslands for the purpose of (a) improving the yield of fodder and (b) accelerating their 

 afforestation. 



It was recognised that the information required might be obtained by carrying out ^"^Ex- 

 careful experiments. iieriments. 



Forest experiments, however, as noted in paragraph 28 above, usually require 

 long periods for their completion and they cannot therefore supply information of imme- 

 diate practical utility. In the second place anyone who has attempted to practically carry 

 out a forest experiment knows that it is exceedingly difficult to obtain a result which can 

 with certainty be ascribed to the influence of a single factor, owing to the co-existence of 

 other factors capable of affecting the results; in other words that it is very difficult to 

 obtain accurate information regarding the effect of only a single factor, the way in which 

 it acts and the conditions capable of accentuating or diminishing its action. 



In the third place a plant in nature is subject to the influence of not one but a number 

 of factors, each of which, under certain conditions, may be of dominant importance in 

 rendering the existence of the plant, or at all events its vigorous development, impossible. 



It is therefore obvious that a few experiments designed with the object of obtaining 

 information regarding the effect of a single factor, such as fire damage, when that factor is 

 of dominant importance, can only give results of very limited practical utility and which 

 are not found to hold good under other conditions, when some other factor has become of 

 dominant importance. 



It is a frequent experience that the results obtained from carefully conducted experi- 

 ments in one locality, while apparently accounting for the facts observed in that locality, 

 obviously fail to explain the facts existing elsewhere. 



Such apparently contradictory results are clearly of little practical value and they are 

 the natural consequence of an insufficient knowledge of all the factors capable of vitally 

 affecting the welfare of a plant in nature. It is only when a good knowledge of all such 

 factors has been obtained, of the way in which they act and of the conditions capable of 

 accentuating or diminishing their action that we can hope to recognise at once which of 

 these factors is of dominant importance in any particular case and what is the best practical 

 treatment to adopt under each set of conditions. 



It will therefore be seen that, instead of a few casual experiments, an extensive series 

 of experiments is required in the case of each plant and that such experiments cannot 

 possibly be successfully organised until a preliminary knowledge has been obtained as to 

 what factors appear to be of most importance in regulating the natural distribution of the 



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