86 THIRD REPORT ON FOREST OPERATIONS 



(B.) Railways — The Eailway Cos. have on several instances ap- 

 plied to the different public gardens for a large number of young 

 trees, so that I presume they intend to plant both along the lines 

 and near to the stations ; this measure will tend to the comfort 

 of travellers, and ensure a partial supply of fuel and sleepers. 



30. Firewood. — The consumption of firewood has always been 

 great, inasmuch as it is essential to cooking, and in particular 

 districts the supply has been described by writers as barely suffi- 

 cient ; but the question of supply is one which is now pressing 

 more urgently on the attention of all the district authorities. 

 In connection with the progress of railways and the undertaking 

 of large public works, the scarcity of fuel is severely felt, and my 

 attention is drawn to it everywhere. The bond fide ryot is under- 

 stood to have a prescriptive right to the fuel and leaf manure 

 required for his house and field, and an abundant supply of these 

 is obviously beneficial, enabling him to apply the dung of his 

 cattle to fertilize his lands. The large towns are supplied with 

 firewood by persons who purchase annually at auction ; the con- 

 tract for cutting certain portions of the neighbouring jungle, and 

 the apportioning of woodlands, is made with reference to the 

 period when it will reproduce itself. The contractors are allowed 

 to remove, under regulations, the low bushes and less valuable 

 kinds of trees. A list of reserved trees is published in the dis- 

 trict gazettes, and hung up at the tahsildar's cutcherry. It is 

 customary to cut the wood into billets of 3 or 4 feet in length, 

 which are split into two or four pieces, according to the diameter, 

 and carried to market, where such billets are retailed and de- 

 livered at the door. The price varies exceedingly in different 

 districts and at different seasons; but I may mention that the 

 average has risen about 25 per cent, in most of the large towns 

 within a few years. This is the fuel used for cooking by 

 Europeans and a large proportion of the native population, who 

 also use brattles* made of cow dung. In Bellary and other barren 

 districts, the firewood chiefly consists of branches of thorny 



* Bratties, pidacalu, Tel. — cow-dung cakes dried in the sun; the dung is 

 frequently mixed with earth and the husk of paddy. This fuel is much 

 used for burning bricks and chunam, also for heating iron tyres of wheels, 



