4i8 THE WORK OF THE FOREST DEPARTMENT IN INDIA. 



requirements. At present the resin industry is practically im 

 the position of having to retard or accelerate its expansion 

 with direct reference to the speed with which the remainder 

 of the Indian market can be secured and outside markets 

 such as Java, China, etc., developed. It is here that closer 

 co-operation with the trade interests of India is necessary 

 and more active measures have to be adopted to advertise 

 Indian rosin and turpentine. 



So far only the resin of the chir pine has been dealt with 

 commercially. This pine covers some 1,500 square miles in. 

 Government forests and another 1,800 square miles in Native 

 States, while the blue pine, the Khasia pine and Finns Merkusii, 

 the resin of all of which has been well reported on, extend over 

 some two hundred, eighteen hundred and twelve hundred square 

 miles respectively, all under the control of the Forest Depart- 

 ment. It would not be safe to assume that even half of the Gov- 

 ernment owned area will ultimately prove workable, but these- 

 figures are sufficient to show that the revenue now derived from 

 this industry is only a fraction of the return which may one- 

 day be realized. 



The industry is, therefore, one to which in recent years the 

 Forest Department has rightly devoted a good deal of attention, 

 and though expansion must be gradual, yet the prospects are 

 there and it only requires effort along sound commercial lines to 

 reap a good harvest. Any forest industry which yields such, 

 satisfactory financial results and yet leaves the main source of 

 forest wealth, namely the timber, a realisable asset, is deserving 

 of the most careful study. 



(2) The paper pulp industry. 



In India the manufacture of paper is a well established if 

 not a large industry : it dates back , some fifty years and is 

 carried on side by side with that of paper-pulp, differing in 

 this respect from the practice in force in Europe and America 

 where the two form entirely separate industries. This state of 

 affairs is due to the difficulty of preparing either mechanical or 

 chemical wood-pulp in India, for though suitable species of 



