312 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
remains the consideration of the probability of the 
deterioration of the stock of standing trees, and of 
the possibility that the soil may not respond to a 
second rotation of the same species without expen- 
sive preparations, or that insect and fungus damage, 
so frequent in pure plantations in the tropics, may 
work havoc, as was the case, for example, with 
coffee. Of the rubber industry it can be said, as of 
many others, that it is perfectly sound in itself, and 
it will ultimately rest on a firm basis, but that 
individual enterprises of the present day may vary, 
as regards their future, between those that can be 
classified as hopeless and others that possess all the 
attributes of unqualified success. 
And so we left for England, having visited the 
forests of every Province of British India, and seen 
something of those of an adjacent colony ; but there 
was still regret that, though opportunity had been 
afforded by the courtesy of Political Residents, there 
had not been time to gain a knowledge of the 
forests of native States in the centre and south of 
the Peninsula better than that possible to a railway 
traveller through these territories ; and thus, though 
during the past thirty-five years, save when absent 
on leave, some seven months of each year had been 
spent in laying up stores of experience and local 
knowledge, one result of this labour was to prove 
how very much more was left to learn. 
