MADRAS 289 
will not afford it unless they have a personal interest 
in doing so ; if the whole population of a Province is 
given the rights of entry to, and removal of produce 
from, State reserves, then the interest of the local 
population will be confined to securing, during the 
scramble that ensues, a good share of the spoil before 
all disappears. The work of the Forest Officer cannot 
in such circumstances be successful ; he may wander 
over the rocky slopes, inserting seeds from forest 
trees in each pitiful pocket of earth that he may 
discover in the clefts. He may do all in his power 
to minimize the evils he cannot prevent, but success 
will ultimately be with the herds of goat, sheep, 
and cattle, whose owners, coming from a distance, 
may not have the slightest claim to the soil, and for 
whose profit agriculture will pay in the future as 
soon as the forests are no longer in a condition to 
do so. 
But not all, even of the few forests of Madras that 
I had an opportunity of visiting, are ruined by the 
ill-regulated demands of the people; some there are 
on the slopes of the mountains, or in secluded places, 
where grow excellent rosewood, blackwood, and 
teak, which bring in a good revenue to the State 
because they can be worked in a rational manner. 
But the area of such forests is not so large as it 
should be, or, indeed, might be, if the policy above 
indicated controlled the forest management more 
fully. 
At Nilambur is a famous teak plantation, already 
a great financial success and superior to anything of 
the kind in Burma—well situated, too, on a floating 
stream for the removal of the harvest. But here the 
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