450 



Notes 071 the Infltience 



[No. 3G, 



4. Various other points may occur to the Board, or suggest 

 themselves on a perusal of the reports which may be furnished to 

 them, and the Government expect that the Board will take the same 

 interest as they themselves feel, and propose for practical operation 

 whatever they may consider conducive to the well being of the country. 



5. The Governor in Council resolves to furnish to Assistant 

 Surgeon Balfour a copy of the foregoing Proceedings, and to convey 

 to him at the same time the thanks of Government for his interest- 

 ing communication. 



Reyenue Department. 



No. 488. 



Extract from fhe Minutes of Consultation^ under date the X^tlt 

 May, 1849. . 

 Read the following letter. 



No. 9. 



From Major General W .Ctjj.JjE'^^, Resident at Trava7icore and Cochin. 



To J. F. Thomas, Esq., Chief Secretary to Government., 



Fort St. George. 



Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of a letter from the 

 Secretary to Government No. 1118 of the 8th October, 1847, with 

 its enclosures, copy of a letter from the Government of India, and of 

 a despatch from the Honorable the Court of Directors, requiring in- 

 formation " respecting the effect of trees on the climate and pro- 

 ductiveness of a country or district, and the result of extensive 

 clearances of timber." 



From my own knowledge of the features and general appear- 

 ance of these two provinces, Travancore and Cochin, I was not 

 of opinion that any such considerable, and at the same time perma- 

 nent clearances of forest lands had taken place within the last half 

 century, as to cause any sensible effect upon the climate or produc- 

 tiveness of the country. 



I have observed in various places partial clearings, but these ap- 

 pear to have generally been followed by the abandonment of equal 

 tracts of previously cleared land, for the clearances have not been 

 the consequence of a steadily increasing population, and therefore 

 permanent in their nature, but chiefly from the mere nomad propen- 

 sities of a scanty hill population, aware of the superior fertility of 

 all such newly reclaimed land. The heaviness of the rains and the 



