1849.] On the Influence of Forests on Climate. 799 



for the common good, proves a refreshing draft for their souls in the 

 next. When no descendants remain to pour the funeral libation in 

 their name, the water from the trees they have planted for the public 

 good is destined to supply its place ; every thing judiciously laid out to 

 promote the happiness of their fellow-creatures will in the next world 

 be repaid tenfold by the deity."* 



" If government wishes to have the Upper Doab, the Delhi, Muttra 

 and Agra districts again enriched and embellished with mango groves, 

 they will not delay to convey this feeling to the hundreds, nay thou- 

 sands who would be willing and anxious to plant them upon a single 

 guarantee that the lands upon which the trees stand shall be con- 

 sidered to belong to them and their heirs as long as these trees stand 

 upon them. That the land, the shade, the fruit, and the water will be 

 left to the free enjoyment of the public, one may take for granted, 

 since the good which the planter's soul is to derive from such a work 

 in the next world must depend upon their being so ; and all that is 

 required to be stipulated for in such grants, is that mango, tamarind, 

 peepul or bur trees, at the rate of twenty-five the English acre, shall 

 be planted and kept up in every piece of land granted for that pur- 

 pose ; and that a well of pucka masonry shall be made for the purpose 

 of watering them, in the smallest as well as in the largest piece of 

 ground granted, and kept always in repair. 



" If the grantee fulfil the conditions, he ought, in order to cover part 

 of the expense, to be permitted to till the land under the trees until 

 they grow to maturity and yield their fruit ; if he fails, the lands, hav- 

 ing been declared liable to resumption, should be resumed. 



" The person soliciting such grants should be required to certify in 

 his application that he had already obtained the sanction of the pre- 

 sent lessee of the village in which he wishes to have his grove, and for 

 this sanction he would of course have to pay the full value of the land 

 for the period of his lease. When his lease expires, the land in which 

 the grove is planted would be excluded from the assessment ; and when 

 it is considered that every good grove must cost the planter more than 

 50 times the annual rent of the land, government may be satisfied that 

 they secure the advantage to their people at a very cheap rate."f 



* Rambles and Recollections of an Indan Official, p. 191, Vol. 2. 

 f Ibid, p. 197, Vol. 2. 



