Vlll PREFACE. 



the interests of the State. After having been tested for 

 a period of two years, they were found unsuitable. Since 

 then rules have been formed to regulate and control the 

 present and prospective condition of the forests ; but dif- 

 ficulty has all along been experienced in adjusting public 

 and private interests — in giving free scope to individual 

 enterprise, without lowering the character of the timber 

 and permanently diminishing the sources of supply. So 

 much was this the case, that these rules were often a dead 

 letter — they " were violated everywhere : undersized and 

 green timber was commonly felled ; the large logs were 

 often sawed up into ' loozars' (short lengths). The felled 

 timbers were in many instances left in the forest, to be 

 burnt during the periodical fires ; and no attention was 

 paid to the renewal of the tree." When Dr Brandis was 

 appointed by Lord Dalhousie to the charge of the forests 

 of Pegu, it was intended to pursue a policy of strict con- 

 servancy, such as was proposed by Wallich upwards of 

 thirty years before ; but, as it was then impossible to 

 adhere to it, it has again been found necessary to relax 

 the stringency of rules which were too. severe to be prac- 

 ticable. 



In 1805, the Bombay Government, for the first time, 

 laid claim to the indigenous forests of the western coaat, 

 and appointed commissioners to fix their boundaries, 

 the Company's right of sovereignty being asserted by 

 a proclamation issued in 1807. From this period up 

 to 1822 a partial and somewhat ill-advised attempt at 

 conservancy was made, but it thoroughly failed in its 

 object ; and all the restrictions which had been imposed 

 during its existence were removed. This relaxation, or 



