282 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



so completely void of forest that millions of people 

 regularly burn cow dung as fuel. 



In the greater part of India the hardwood forest 

 (conifers are scarce and confined in locality) con- 

 sists not of a few species, as with us, but is made 

 up of a great variety of trees unlike in their habit, 

 their growth, and their product, and if our hard- 

 woods offer on this account considerable difficul- 

 ties to profitable exploitation, the case is far more 

 complicated in India. In addition to the large 

 variety of timber trees, there is a multitude of 

 shrubs, twining and climbing plants, and in most 

 forest districts also a dense undergrowth of giant 

 grasses (bamboos), attaining a height of 30 to 120 

 feet. These bamboos, valuable as they are in 

 many ways, prevent, often for years, the growth 

 of any seedling tree, and thus form a serious 

 obstacle to the regeneration of valuable timber. 

 The growth of timber is usually quite rapid; 

 the bamboos make large, useful stems in a single 

 season. Teak grows into large-size saw-timber in 

 fifty to sixty years. But in spite of this rapid 

 growth and the large areas not now in forest but 

 capable of reforestation, India is not likely — at 

 least within reasonable time — to raise more timber 

 than it needs. In most parts of India the use of 

 ordinary soft woods, such as pine, seems very re- 

 stricted, for only durable woods, those resisting 

 both fungi and insects (of which the white ants 

 are specially destructive), can be employed in the 



