KASHMIR AND ASSAM 277 
that somewhat unsatisfactory results have been 
obtained in Assam from the Ficus elastica as com- 
pared with those recorded from other species; yet 
it seems certain that even under rather adverse con- 
ditions the Assam plantations will yield a good 
return on the capital expended, while they have 
served the purpose for which they were designed, 
that of showing the way to the establishment of a 
new industry in the Province, and thus Government 
intrusion into an industrial enterprise has been 
justified. 
The Province of Assam is as regards its forests in 
a backward condition. The work of creating a per- 
manent forest estate from public waste land has 
been approached on a different system from that 
followed in the Central Provinces. There the whole 
area comes under Forest Law as a State Reserve, 
and portions are from time to time handed over to 
the agriculturist as demand arises. In Assam 
reserves are cut out of the public waste whenever 
extension of State forests is deemed desirable. This 
is an inferior method in a Province where, though 
the river connections are good, railways have yet 
much scope for extension, because no protection is 
available for the waste-land forests pending a 
decision as to their future ; while all kinds of rights 
and interests may grow up within the area that 
subsequently interfere with the formation of large 
blocks of forest for national use. Up to the present 
the forests of Assam are far from being exploited to 
their full extent, and in one instance it was almost 
ludicrous to observe the importation from a distance 
of articles manufactured from a timber that grows 
