THE WORK OF THE FOREST DEPARTMENT IN INDIA. 53. 



facturers and shippers, who have now practically captured the 

 Indian trade at the expense of Sweden and Norway. 



In the above mentioned memoir on the prospects of the 

 match industry in India is given a detailed list of timbers- 

 suitable for making match-splints and boxes compiled from the 

 re ults of tests carried out mainly by an up-to-date firm in 

 Germany. The most universally used wood in India for match- 

 making is Bombax maldbairicum,, the simul or cotton tree. The 

 timber of this tree makes up into a strong good box of fair 

 appearance. It yields fair sticks, the drawbacks to the timber 

 being that it discolours, that it does not allow of the stick being, 

 cut uniformly square in section, and that the waste in conver- 

 sion is considerable. A far superior stick can be obtained from. 

 Ahies Pindrow and Picea Morinda, the silver fir and spruce 

 respectively. The chief drawback to these species lies in the 

 difficulty of extraction from the high elevations at which they 

 grow in the Himalayas, a difficulty which, however, can probably 

 be overcome by mechanical extraction. Many other species of 

 timber occur which are fairly suitable for match making,, 

 amongst which may be mentioned Anthocephalus Cadamha,. 

 Bombax insigne, BoswelUa serratp,, Evodia fraocinifolia, Givotia 

 rottleriformis, Populus euphratica and Trewia nudiflora. 



The difiiculties under which the industry has laboured in 

 India may be summarised as follows : — (1) imported matches, 

 are sold at extraordinarily cheap rates, (2) great difficulty has 

 been experienced in obtaining a first-class indigenous timber 

 within a working figure of cost, (3) railway freight has hit the 

 local trade, especially in connection with imports of chemicals 

 and distribution of the manufactured product and (4) the cost 

 of landing the timber in the round at a factory site has in many 

 cases turned out to be excessive. In spite of the manifold difii- 

 culties experienced the industry still persists, and the solution to 

 the problem in Northern India may perhaps be found to lie in 

 the erection of portable or semi-portable splint machines in the 

 hills, in the vicinity of the spruce and silver fir forests, and by 

 exporting the prepared splints to central match factories in the 

 plains, a system of working which it is understood has been, 

 inaugurated in Japan and other countries. 



