“SARTAGE” IN INDIA. 85 
The following are copies of the order of the Government 
issued in regard to the extract of minutes, and of the 
report of the Conservator of Forests given in reply :— 
‘Order of Madras Government, June 1859. 
‘I; Before passing a final order on this paper, the 
Governor in Council resolves to transmit a copy to the 
Conservator of Forests for his opinion as to the sufficiency, 
as regards the Conservancy Department, of the means 
proposed by the Board (in pars. 43 to 47) for checking the 
practice of Koomaree cultivation. 
' €%, The chief mischief of this practice is found in its 
destruction of timber; but the Governor in Council wishes 
to have Dr Cleghorn’s opinion whether, jn the existing 
state of the forests of Canara, it is important to stop it on 
that account in localities where valuable timber, such as 
teak and blackwood is not met with. In Bekal téluk it is 
stated (par. 44) that there is no valuable timber; but in 
Supah and Yellapur, which contain a large quantity, it 
might be expedient to make the prohibition even more 
absolute than the Board advise (par. 47). 
‘3. Par 438. With regard to considerations apart from 
the Conservancy, the Governor in Council is not prepared 
fully to adopt the reasons advanced against the prohibition 
of the practice. It is urged that this sort of tillage affords 
a livelihood to wild races who can only gradually be 
brought to regular habits of agricultural industry. The 
Government have strong doubts whether the way to teach 
industrious habits to such classes is thus to tolerate and 
even encourage the continuance of contrary habits. It 
appears, too, that there must be something very profitable 
or otherwise very attractive in Koomaree cultivation, as a 
very large number of ordinary ryots appear to be engaged 
in it—nearly 26,000 in the sing'e téluk of Bekal (par. 5). 
‘4. Again it is stated that the grain thus obtained is 
necessary to the subsistence of the population. It may be 
granted that the grain is necessary, but it does not follow 
that this mode of raising it should be so; and the 
