120 NORTHERN CIRCARS. ' 



few trees remain as standards per acre, to perpetuate the stock, 

 so remarkable is the germinating power of the seed, there is no- 

 fear of exterminating the forest. I measured the straight stump 

 shoots of two years' growth, and found them 12 feet high and 3 

 inches in diameter at the base. Large patches of sal forest are 

 cleared annually for the purpose of cultivation, and this is usually 

 effected by fire. I came upon several places where some hun- 

 dreds of fine straight charred poles were standing.i ■ 



The Kunds do not, however, destroy fruit-trees indiscrimi- 

 nately. They are careful to preserve the mango and the date, 

 the wood-apple and the Bottlera tinctoria, the bastard sago and 

 the Bassia ; the two last, as already stated, yield intoxicating 

 liquors. In Gumsur and the other Government tracts of forests, 

 no taxes are levied as by the adjoining Zamindars,* and no 

 revenue whatever is derived from them. 



Throughout the inland part of Gumsur there is far more 

 timber than is required for local consumption ; but there is no 

 doubt that, with the exception of the hill tracts, the jungles are 

 rapidly diminishing from Government lands on the level country 

 and up to the foot of the ghats, partly owing to increased culti- 

 vation, and partly to meet the demand for timber at Aska, Ber- 

 hampur, Busselconda, &c. In the days of the rajahs, the 

 felling of timber was systematically discouraged, so as to render 

 the country less accessible to a military force. At present there 

 is no system of forest conservancy, but orders have been issued 

 by the collector, forbidding the indiscriminate destruction of 

 trees. I may also state that I explained fully and particularly 

 to the principal wood-merchants and to the Aska fire-wood con- 

 tractors, that low cutting of trees and reservation of the finer 

 kinds was of the utmost importance to the Government and to 

 the people themselves. They promised to follow my instruc- 

 tions. The probability of the appointment of a Government 



* Such as As. 2 on a new cart, R. 1 on a new boat, E. 1 As. 8 on a mast, 

 As. J on a cart load of firewood, As. 2 on a bandy of bamboos, 2J on a 

 cart load of planks, and other small sums on wood taken for ploughshares, 

 sugar-mills, oil-presses, &c. The Zamindars also collect money on honey, 

 dammer, arrow-root, and other jungle products, which are sold separately 

 or collectively to a jungle renter. 



