LEAVES FOE PODDEn. 161 



mense thickness of soil, are left on the surface to enrich it, and the 

 same matter is thus repeatedly used, year after year, by successive 

 generations of trees. If we remember this fact, and also that it is 

 the dead fallen leaves alone -which can, by their decomposition, 

 draw fresh supplies of nitrogenous substances from the atmosphere, 

 and convert refractory compounds of potassium, calcium, and mag- 

 nesium present in the soil into soluble and assimilable constituents 

 of plant-food, it is evident that the continued removal of the leaf- 

 production of an area injures it not only in the present, but even 

 more so also for the future, and that the injury is greater in pro- 

 portion to the natural infertility of the soil. Sooner or later, the 

 evil consequences of removing leaves become apparent in the lan- 

 guishing growth of the forests In a sandy soil, the most careful 

 conservation in other respects will fail to make the trees attain 

 their normal size or grow close enough together to form a leaf- 

 canopy. In very rich soils, the trees may still attain their usual 

 size and form a dense growth, but at a comparatively early age 

 they will begin to decay at the centre, so that they will be unable 

 to furnish timber of any size. 



The evil effects of lopping are thus extremely grave and incon- 

 testable, and yet we have to permit its continuance in many of our 

 forests in consequence of admitted prescriptive rights. In the 

 higher ranges of the Himalayas, the maintenance of these rights is 

 doubtless unavoidable on account of the severity of the climate 

 during the winter and early spring, when the leaves of trees are 

 almost the only kind of fodder available. But in all other places 

 the right of lopping for fodder is totally unjustifiable, as it only 

 gives encouragement to improvidence. It is true that the leaves 

 of trees are actually lopped only when the grass on the ground is 

 dry and wanting in nourishment, but the same grass might have 

 been cut in time and converted into hay, and therefore wholesome 

 nutritious fodder, in anticipation of the coming dry season. 



No effort should therefore be spared to suppress, whenever pos- 

 sible, the practice of lopping. Where we are powerless to stop it 

 entirely, it should at least be restricted within the narrowest 

 possible limits, and be regulated on lines having for their objective 

 the safety of the trees lopped. In forest regions rich in species, 

 there will nearly always be many kinds which are more or less 

 useless from the point of view of timber and firewood, but which 

 yield good fodder. Every endeavour should be made to confine the 

 lopping to such species, and even then the lopping should be effect- 

 ed only in such a way as to maintain, to the fullest extent possible 

 under the circumstances, the productive power of the trees lopped. 



