4 FIRST REPORT ON FOREST OPERATIONS 



been charged per tree. In some contracts for the supply of 

 the Madras railway, 3 or 4 annas has been the seignorage per 

 sleeper, according to the kind of wood and the facility of 

 transport ; and, with the permission of government, I would re- 

 commend that at least three annas be invariably paid. 



7. In other places, and from other causes, wasteful cutting 

 has been observed to a less injurious extent. Lieutenant Bed- 

 dome's report on the Pulney Hills, communicated by government 

 to the " Madras Journal of Science " (1857), describes the devasta- 

 tion which has been committed there in the formation of plan- 

 tain gardens. The green hills have been stripped of their woods, 

 and much of their beauty has departed. The reckless cutting 

 there, however, has been vigorously checked by the collector, 

 under orders from government. 



8. Slovenly felling. — The axe formerly, in many districts, was 

 laid to the trunk one yard from the ground, while a further 

 waste took place from diffuse hacking over a broad surface. 

 This unnecessary loss of timber has been prohibited by a printed 

 circular, enjoining all contractors, as well as forest employes, 

 to cut within one foot and a half of the ground, otherwise the 

 contractors are not paid. 



9. Wasteful trimming* — The former plan of cutting logs, by 

 which one-half the timber was wasted, is now obsolete. I have only 

 seen one or two specimens, and I hope that dragholes, as shown in 

 fig. 1, may be altogether dispensed with by an improved applica- 



Fig. 1. 

 tion of ropes and the introduction of sling carts, &c. The method 

 of trimming logs, so that they may fit carts in length and width, 

 is still prevalent in many parts, but is giving way to a better 

 system. The old state of things continues only at a distance 



* See Capt. F. C. Cotton in " Madras Journal of Science," N. Ser. vol. 

 ii., p. 94. 



