138 PASTUnAGB. 



of cattle during the rains, and, in the Himalayas, also during spring, 

 is a great bar to natural reproduction, if it does not entirely 

 prevent it. (5). Young animals are much more destructive than old 

 ones, since they nibble at forest growth not only for their food, but 

 also sometimes from pure mischief ; sometimes to relieve the irrita- 

 tion arising from the cutting of new teeth. (6). The continued 

 admission of goats into a forest results, in a few years, in its com- 

 plete disappearance, since these animals prefer the leaves of woody 

 species, when they can get them, to the finest grass. They also 

 gnaw off bark, and, besides standing up to their food, they throw 

 themselves on to flexible stems, thus bending them down under 

 themselves and getting at the tops of saplings up to 9 and 10 feet 

 high. Even camels, in spite of their very much higher reach and 

 the peculiar way they have of tearing off a long succession of leaves 

 and twigs, are less to be dreaded than goats. Sheep, from naturally 

 holding their heads along the ground, will seldom touch anything 

 else if they can get grass ; but when the grass is dry and hard, they 

 may nibble off leaves at the height of their heads. Buffaloes, even 

 when they eat only grass, crush young growth np to the size of sap- 

 lings, and when hard pressed for green food, have been known to 

 use their enormous weight to bend down to the ground poles up to 

 12 inches in girth and 14 feet high. Cows are the least harmful 

 of all domestic stock (elephants, ponies, and horses are in too small 

 numbers to be taken into account), and will, as a rule, not touch 

 seedlings and saplings of forest trees, even if ahundant and mixed 

 up with the grass, unless this last is very bad indeed. 



Some species, such as Anogeissus pendula and Prosopis spicigera, 

 are extremely resisting to the effects of constant browsing ; but, 

 even in their case, the appearance of new seedling growt.h, except 

 in the midst of thorny bushes, is an impossibility, and the indivi- 

 duals that survive are permanently stunted and often reduced to 

 low twiggy knotty bushes which spread out along the ground. 



The advantages and dangers connected with grazing in the 

 forest have now been briefly considered. It has also been shown 

 that the provision of grazing on a large scale is, in present cir- 

 cumstances, an unfortunate necessity. Some general rules must 

 hence be given for regulating its exercise, while avoiding or mini- 

 mising the attendant risks. In the first place, goats and camels 

 must be rigidly excluded from all areas which are intended to 

 grow wood, mature babul crops being, however, excepted in favour 

 of goats during the fall of seed immediately preceding the re- 

 quired appearance of the new crop. All other animals also must be 

 excluded fron^ areas under regeneration or containing abundant 



