118 INDIAN FOREST MEMOIRS. 



CHAPTER III. 



Suggestions regarding the Practical Treatment of Local Grasslands. 



98. Before attempting to make suggestions 

 regarding the practical treatment of grasslands it is obvious that we must clearly define the 

 object which we desire to attain, seeing that it is frequently impossible to satisfactorily 

 attain two distinct objects by one and the same method of treatment. It is therefore 

 highly advisable at the outset to draw a line between — 



(1) Grasslands required for grazing and for the production of fodder, 



(2) Grasslands which are not required for fodder-production and which it is desir- 



able to afforest, 



seeing that the production of grass and production of trees are two distinct and more or 

 less mutually incompatible objects which cannot as a rule be satisfactorily attained at the 

 same time, on one and the same area. 



Occasionally grasslands are of course required for purposes other than those defined 

 above, e.g. for the production of munj fibre, of thatching grass, and so on, for each of 

 which a more or less special treatment is required, but as a general rule the maximum pro- 

 duction of the best quality of wood and fodder respectively is undoubtedly the most import- 

 ant object which we desire to attain by a judicious treatment of our forest grasslands. 



A point of some importance consists in the fact that grasslands tend to become highly 

 inflammable in the hot season and therefore greatly increase the danger of fire-damage in 

 the adjacent woodlands. It is however possible to prevent such damage, (1) by successfully 

 afforesting our grasslands and thus killing out the grasses or (2) by managing these areas 

 chiefly with a view to satisfying the demand in respect of fodder production and grazing 

 needs, in which case the old, inedible and inflammable grass is either removed by burning, 

 or else is not allowed to accumulate, owing to the young grass being continually cut or 

 grazed. 



The suggestions which it has been possible to make regarding the treatment of the 

 grasslands in the locality here dealt with and which are based mainly on the detailed study 

 of the representative species described above, have therefore been arranged with reference 

 to these main objects as below :— 



A . — Treatment with a view to F odder-Production. 



99. The first point of primary importance 

 consists in this that the robust hygrophilous, or markedly mesophilous, grass species are, as 

 a rule, too coarse to yield good fodder and only the young shoots and young leaves, or the 



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