144 KUMAKI CULTIVATION. 



appears certainly to retard the improvement of the forest races, 

 and tends to keep them in their present degraded condition. It 

 has been already noticed, that in Mysore the practice of Kumari 

 cutting has been entirely abolished ; and that in the jungle 

 districts of Bombay it has been so very nearly. The Government 

 now prohibit Sarkar Kumari, or Kumari cultivation in Grovern- 

 ment forests, without previous permission. This permission 

 should be given sparingly, and never for spots in the timber 

 forests. 



" 20. It only remains, lastly, to direct, that the collections on 

 account of abolished Wargadar Kumari held in deposit be now 

 brought to account. 



" J. D. BOUBDILLON, 



" Secretary to Government. 

 "To the Conservator of Forests." 



Note. — The documents relating to this system of upland cultivation 

 are very voluminous ; but I have endeavoured to select from them every 

 important statement bearing on the subject. The opinion of Sir J. E. 

 Tennent, as given in his great work on Ceylon, vol. ii. p. 463, is worthy 

 of perusal. I would only remark that the " chena cultivation" of Ceylon 

 there described is more careful and varied than the Kumari practised in 

 Mysore and Canara. " Chena" lasts two years, and includes the culture 

 of chillies, yams, sweet potatoes, cotton, hemp, &c. H. C. 



