304 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
raising food and other crops, for the forest supplies 
them with flesh and fish, with a thousand articles of 
domestic use, while the sale of surplus forest products 
affords them the means of purchasing those neces- 
saries or luxuries which are otherwise out of reach 
of the community. A village that cannot live on 
the forest cannot expect to live long in it under 
conditions that would soon kill the European of 
much stronger constitution, and therefore all the 
greater reason why colonization of forest areas 
should proceed from outside, where the base of 
operations rests securely on the settled lands. 
Another burning question in Bombay was that 
of cattle-grazing in the Deccan, where the rainfall 
is so small that tree growth survives with difficulty, 
and where it is of much importance that the soil 
covering should be maintained so far as it is possible 
to do so. It may be imagined that the rocky and 
infertile soil of this area does not afford much food 
for cattle, that these will devour with the avidity 
born of starvation almost any green thing that 
may be found, and that thus forest conservation 
and cattle-grazing are impossible within the same 
area. Consistent protection of such forests during 
twenty or thirty years merely encourages a growth 
of small trees and shrubs that are, it is true, enrich- 
ing the soil, and will doubtless prepare the way for 
better growth centuries hence; and the question 
arises whether it is worth while to risk the dis- 
content of the people during a lengthy period, when 
at its close no appreciable benefit may result to their 
descendants. The answer probably will be found in 
relinquishing all the small areas that cost much 
