176 PLANTATION OF AUSTRALIAN TREES. 



rived, the half-decayed baskets are potted in the holes which 

 have been prepared. This answers well. * 



In working the great Kota-shola for the requirements of the 

 barracks, Capt. Campbell has attended to conservancy rules and 

 economical management. He has planted the cleared portions 

 with thousands of young trees, of sorts most esteemed by the 

 Badagas, species of Gleyera, Gordonia, Hex, &c. He has pruned 

 the stumps, and made ventilating paths through the densely wooded 

 portions. Hitherto, when a glade has been doomed to the axe, 

 it has speedily disappeared ; but in this case, when the demand 

 for fuel was urgent, there has been simultaneously an organised 

 system to promote reproduction. A broad outer fringe has been 

 left to protect from high winds and to keep out herds of cattle ; 

 the timber has been removed by well laid out cross roads fenced 

 throughout; a necessary measure, as the depredations of cattle 

 and wild animals of various kinds are very injurious to the wel- 

 fare of young plantations. The roads are sufficiently broad to 

 allow two laden carts to pass one another easily. In several 

 rocky turns of the road, a few Himalayan Deodars and other 

 trees have been planted in an ornamental manner. 



2. Planting in the vicinity of Utakamand. — In E. M. C, 

 No. 989, 26th Sept. 1857, B. D., a sum of Ks.2500 was placed at 

 the disposal of the collector, Mr Thomas, for planting trees in 

 and about Utakamand. Mr T. states, 13th July 1857, that he 

 has planted about 8000 Australian trees, different species {Acacia 

 and Eucalyptus), at a cost of Es.400, and re-sown the old denuded 

 forests to a certain extent. To prevent the destruction of the 

 young trees by cattle, he finds it best to employ a watcher on 

 Ks. 4 or 5 a month, as a ditch or fence, to be really effective, and 

 to protect a plantation of several acres, would entail large expen- 

 diture, and would be unsuited to his operations. So far as I 

 could judge in my visit to the Nilgiris, the watchman was ineffi- 

 cient, and many young trees had been eaten down by hares, or 

 broken by cattle and deer roaming about. A hut is an essential 



* The employment of moss for this purpose has been adopted by Mr W. 

 G. M'lvor. It has the advantage of economising space in carriage and soil 

 in planting. 



