KUMARI CULTIVATION. 129 



distant from the lines of water-carriage, the timber consumed 

 could not be turned to any other account (it being always under- 

 stood that no teak or sissoo, &c, should be touched). The above 

 remarks apply chiefly to the forests situated below ghats, and 

 which extend several miles from the hills towards the sea, and 

 from the Goa boundary to the river Tadri, which bounds the 

 Ankola taluk." 



(C.) Mr Thomas Cannan, Coffee-Planter. 



" With regard to kumari cultivation, the Government, in my 

 opinion, is the great loser, there being very seldom more than one 

 crop of ragi taken from any one patch, which, if cultivated with 

 coffee, would have yielded something every year for half a cen- 

 tury, in the way of rent or tax. In an old kumari the jungle 

 trees grow up again, but they are of kinds unfit for building pur- 

 poses ; and in this respect, settlers in the country are put to ex- 

 pense and inconvenience, as well as the Government in their build- 

 ing operations, and coffee-planters generally find their planting 

 operations brought to a very unsatisfactory and abrupt termina- 

 tion by a kumari, on which I have never been able to get coffee 

 to grow yet. In Nuggur, where kumari cultivation was prohibited, 

 stringent regulations with regard to the cutting of timber were 

 issued at the same time. Every person requiring wood was ob- 

 liged to apply before felling it ; the cultivator had not to pay 

 for it, but the non-cultivator had, and I am of opinion that these 

 measures have operated pretty well. The more I think of ku- 

 mari, the more surprised I feel that it has been tolerated for 

 such a length of time. It is carried on by a set of savages, in 

 every sense of the word, who would be much more profitably em- 

 ployed on public works or on coffee plantations." 



(D.) Mr A. Poulton, Government Timber-Agent. 



16ZA October 1852. 

 " I have also observed that the restrictions on kumari are pro- 

 ducing a good effect on the cultivation of rice, as considerable 



