]40 PASTURAGE. 



undecomposed debris, it should be a condition of admission that 

 they are driven regularly backwards and forwards over the whole 

 area, and especially there where they can do most good. If the 

 animals are penned within the forest at night, a special spot must 

 be fixed for them which is a natural blank, and is not immediately 

 surrounded by promising and abundant young growth. Every 

 animal of the bovine class should have a bell hung from its neck, 

 so that no animal may stray without the fact being at once de- 

 tected. The leaders of a fleck of sheep should also have bells. 

 The herdsmen, when out in the forest with their cattle, should not 

 be allowed to carry any woodmen's tools with them ; but in case 

 they are allowed to lop, they may have with them light hatchets 

 or bills. Infringement of rules on their part must be followed by 

 heavy fines or summary expulsion from the forest, together with 

 suspension, if necessary, from the privilege of grazing for a deter- 

 minate period. 



Lastly, in crops of mixed ages, especially if young growth is 

 deficient, every assignment should be further divided into two or 

 more equivalent portions and a rotation established, so that each 

 area may have a certain period of rest. 



When grazing is charged for, the fee per head to be levied for 

 the different classes of animals should be regulated by several com- 

 bined considerations, the principal of which are (1) their relative 

 destructiveness from a forest point of view, (2) their relative value, 

 (3) the quantity of fodder they consume, (4) the market value 

 of the fodder, (5) the wealth of the general population, and (6) the 

 degree of conservancy to be adopted. Thus, although a goat will 

 eat less than a fifth of what a plains cow will consume, the respec- 

 tive fees to be levied should be considerably in excess of the ratio 

 of 1 to 5. As so many different considerations affect the question 

 of the amount of grazing dues, it would be absurd to adopt the same 

 tariff of rates for a whole province or even for a whole district ; 

 and often even two neighbouring forests, which are under difPer- 

 ent degrees of conservancy, will require different rates. Similarly, 

 the proportionate rates for the different classes of animals ought 

 not to be the same everywhere. For instance, in the North-West 

 Himalayas, the diminutive hill cow is hardly worth more than a 

 sheep or goat, while in most other parts of the country the value of 

 a cow is 4 to 10 times higher than that of a sheep or goat. The sim- 

 plest way of reducing the number of animals of any class grazing 

 in a given forest is to raise the grazing fee. Remembering this, 

 if the grazing in any forest is in excess of its capability, we have 

 only to gradually raise the rates until the number of cattle is 



