8 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
that comparatively small plantations require to make 
them successful. 
The word “comparatively ” is used advertently, for 
in India there were in 1907 over two hundred square 
miles of plantation, some of them, as at Nilambur, 
already more than paying their way ; but when the 
extent of the Indian State Forests is recalled, and 
also the fact that the present strength of the staff 
would give to each block of 1,200 square miles only 
one English officer, one Indian officer, and seventy- 
five native subordinates and clerks, it may be con- 
sidered fortunate that Nature in the East is in her- 
self sufficiently prolific to insure the reproduction 
of forest vegetation, provided that no hindrance is 
opposed to her efforts. 
Afforestation in India therefore does not mean, 
as in England, the creation of forests. “It implies 
rather that a certain area has been set apart for the 
practice of forestry, and the inference is, not that 
this area is to be sown or planted by artificial means, 
but that Nature will be aided in her work of cover- 
ing the soil with woody growth, and of ultimately 
yielding a harvest for the use of man. Such, 
indeed, are the present conditions in which forestry 
is practised in India; what the future may bring 
forth it is impossible to predict, but it is quite 
probable that it may be found later on necessary, 
and even remunerative, to stock the waste places of 
the earth artificially with tree growth, in order either 
to protect the water-supply or to supply timber and 
fuel to a growing population. When this time 
arrives, both the personnel and the expenditure of 
the Forest Department will have to be very largely 
