1849.] 



exercised hij Trees on Clmate. 



449 



Extract from the Minutes of Consultation. 



Para. 1. TheRi^ht Honorable the Governor in Council has perus- 

 ed with much pleasure and satisfaction, the valuable and very inter- 

 esting Report furnished by Assistant Surgeon Balfour on the effect ot 

 trees on the climate and productiveness of a country, and deeming 

 it of importance that the local Revenue OjScers should be in pos- 

 session of information so intimately connected with the welfare of 

 the districts under their respective charges, he resolves to direct that 

 copies of the same be printed at the Fort St. George Gazette Press 

 for general distribution and for transmission to the Government of 

 India, and the Governments of Bengal, Bombay and Agra, and the 

 Honorable the Court of Directors. 



2. In Extract Minutes of Consultation, dated 8th October. 1847, 

 No. 1116, the Government called for information on the same sub- 

 ject through the Board of Revenue, and it is the intention of the 

 Governor in Council similarly to have printed and circulated for the 

 use of the Revenue OiBcers all reports which may be deemed by 

 the Board as useful and inducing suggestions for practical purposes. 



3. It will be for the Board of Revenue when they shall have re- 

 ceived all the information forthcoming on this subject to consider 

 the measures it will be necessary to take to prevent the too great 

 clearance of forests where they exist, and to promote their growtli 

 where they do not, or where they have been thinned. The pro- 

 priety of restricting leases for large tracts of forest land for cultivat- 

 ing purposes should also be had in view, and every opportunity 

 taken in connection with the usage and rules for planting topes and 

 trees in the several districts, of forming continuous and extensive 

 plantations of wild trees of large growth in suitable positions. It is 

 believed that when the local Officers interest themselves in the wel 

 fare of a district and feel how much of it is dependant on the 

 growth of forests, neither difEculty nor the expense of raising up 

 forest tracts will be great. It is the practice at present in some 

 districts to make an annual disbursement for planting palmyras for 

 Revenue purposes, an extension of the principle, and a judicious 

 selection of the sites and description of trees seem alone necessary 

 to ensure success in the department to which the Home and the 

 Indian Governments have now turned their attention. 



