* SARTAGE” IN INDIA. ai 
cultivation should be allowed, I would specify from about 
2,500 to 4,500 feet, this being, I understand, the extreme 
range within which coffee planted on a large scale is 
found to thrive. It is of importance to give every facility 
for the cultivation of coffee; but it is desirable to limit 
the clearing of those situations where this peculiar shrub 
can be grown with advantage. I have observed some 
clearings where the ground is so precipitous that it is 
extremely improbable that the soil can last many years. 
It may be urged that, in general, people are sufficiently 
alive to their own interests to select only those sites which 
are in every way eligible; but from the inexperience of 
many who engage in coffee planting, it seems desirable to 
lay down some rule. I need only point to the vast amount 
of land cleared and subsequently abandoned, both in this 
country and Ceylon, either before or after planting, 
In regard to this report by Dr Cleghorn, it was stated 
in an order of Government subsequently issued :—‘ The 
Government fully concur in Dr Cleghorn’s views as 
enumerated in this paragraph, which may be stated in a 
few words to be, that while it is desirable to give every 
encouragement to the extension of coffee cultivation, the 
destruction of timber must be prevented by restricting 
grants of coffee lands to places where the shrub can be 
grown with advantage; and at the same time the denuda- 
tion of the higher ridges and slopes of hills which, if 
allowed, may result in a serious diminution of the rainfall, 
should be absolutely prohibited.’ 
Attention having thus been directed to the subject, it 
was observed that a wasteful destruction of forests similar 
to what had there been occasioned by the extension of coffee 
plantations was going on elsewhere, though to a somewhat 
less injurious extent. Captain Beddam, who afterwards 
aoted as officiating Conservator of Forests in the Presi- 
dency of Madras, while Dr Cleghorn visited England on 
sick leave, had, in the year before, in a report on the 
Pulmy Hills, described devastations committed in the 
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