INTRODUCTION 7 
have lost most of their distinctive characteristics 
during the centuries in which they have been under 
the fostering care of man or suffered his neglect 
or ill-treatment; but the larger areas of our English 
woodlands are probably at this time of artificial 
origin, and have been planted and managed with 
other designs than the production of marketable 
timber. There the forests are almost invariably 
the remains of the “shadowy desert” that in some 
places still retains the mastership of the soil; they 
depend on natural regeneration for their mainte- 
nance, and their management is conducted, not with 
a view to increasing the facilities for sport, not 
to enhance the beauties of the surrounding land- 
scape, or for other such private reasons, but, as has 
been said, solely for the public benefit, whether that 
demands the supply of timber, fuel, grazing or other 
forest produce to the people or to,the markets of 
the world, or whether it necessitates the protection 
of the soil in the hills or plains against the various 
climatic influences which are in India so drastic in 
their effects. 
Thus, the planting of trees, which in England is: 
synonymous with afforestation, is in India one of 
the least frequent duties of the Forest Officer, and 
when now undertaken is mostly for experimental 
purposes, with a view to study the habits of some 
valuable species. As a commercial speculation, with 
the object of growing timber, plantations cannot 
compete with the practice of forestry in natural 
forests, nor has the small staff of the Indian Forest 
Service the leisure from more important work to 
attend to the detailed treatment over a long period 
