KASHMIR AND ASSAM 279 
exhausted. And thus it is that the mountains 
are scarred where the soil has slipped from the 
underlying rock, or where torrents have cut deep 
into their slopes, and that, even where such pro- 
nounced effects of erosion are not fully manifest, 
the forest is honeycombed with patches of dense 
grass and shrubs that are useless to man, and yet 
prevent the germination of any more valuable 
vegetation.. 
Such a system, excusable in the stress of the past, 
admits of no defence in the present, when there is 
no vital conflict with the forces of Nature, and 
when there is a Government ready to assist with 
the gift or loan of plough-cattle and seed towards 
the establishment of a permanent home. But 
custom will not be denied: on the one hand, the 
creed that what the fathers have done that also 
must the sons practise could not be discredited 
by argument alone; on the other, the Government 
would not intervene in practice before it had ocular 
and contemporary proof of the effects of shifting 
cultivation in the loss of fertile lands above, in 
damage to agriculture below, and in danger to 
the permanent water-supply of the country. The 
steps that have been taken to regulate the potato 
industry in Kumaon, and the inquiries instituted 
in Upper Burma, offer interesting evidence that 
the British Government is reluctant enough to 
interfere actively with established habits, and 
that action, when ultimately inevitable, often in- 
volves greater expense and fiercer criticism than 
if earlier steps had been taken in the same 
direction. 
