DRY ZONE AFFORESTATION. 



101 



falls being in July and August. If from this is deducted the early 

 monsoon and cold weather rains, which rarely exceed 4 inches, a 

 balance of 23 inches is the rainfall proper. Of this comparatively 

 poor average-, half, owing to storms, benefits the ridge but little, as 

 the rain washes away everything and brings about the erosion which has 

 been the chief cause of denudation, carrying away each time whatever 

 deposit has been formed by heavy sand-storms. 



The extremes of temperature are also very great. In the summer 

 115 0 F. is but a common record in the shade, whilst in the sun the 

 ridge rock becomes so heated that, by 10 o'clock during the summer 

 months, it is impossible to walk on it. On the other hand, in the cold 

 weather, the temperature often drops to 22° F., which is sufficiently 

 cold to destroy numberless young seedlings. 



The prevailing north-west hot winds that blow across the ridge 

 during May and June can be compared with the Algerian sirocco, 

 and, coupled with the radiation of heat from the exposed rocks, makes 

 plant life very difficult to establish. 



Besides the adverse climatic conditions prevailing, which cause a 

 large percentage of mortality amongst newly planted trees, porcupines, 

 hares, and rats account for the destruction of fully one-fourth of the 

 seedlings, while white ants, always active in a new site brought under 

 cultivation, are equally destructive. The grazing nuisance has been 

 partly checked by fencing in all the sites and proclaiming them as 

 Reserved Forest Area. 



Two distinct methods of afforestation were originally suggested, 

 one based on experience already gained, aiming at making use of 

 natural depressions or pockets for planting or sowing operations ; 

 and the other, the ambitious terrace system, which aimed at terracing 

 portions of the ridge and creating artificial tablelands by covering 

 the rocks with clay brought from below (fig. 1). The latter method 

 always appealed to the practical mind as a Utopian undertaking 

 not justified by the expenditure it involved. It must of course be 

 admitted, if funds were plentiful, that it would be the quickest way 

 of reafforestation, and that it would greatly help to stop or check 

 the erosion and retain the greatest portion of the rainfall for the 

 benefit of the plantations, each terrace being made to retain its own 

 rainfall plus the drainage of the hill area above. But the experiments 

 conducted have proved prohibitive from a financial point of view, 

 and yet the advantages it afforded for direct sowing, whenever the 

 weather permitted, enabled young seedlings to gain the subsoil before 

 the dry season set in. It must be admitted that this method would 

 enable the ridge to be clothed with vegetation very rapidly, and I have 

 no doubt that within five or six years, water being made available 

 in sufficient quantity, the whole ridge could be so covered that no 

 rock would be visible. This system is, however, for the time being, 

 kept in abeyance, and I doubt whether it will ever be adopted in 

 ordinary circumstances. 



The method adhered to is, what may be termed, the natural 



