Indian AgricuUure in its Physical Aspects. 55 
is hardly, if at all, required, and embanking of land to hold the 
water up, and to prevent its washing the soil away, takes its 
place. Further south, on the rocky land, canals and channels 
again have their use, and storage of water is effected, not by 
shallow surface reservoirs as in IBengal, but by the digging of 
" tanks," as they are called, but which are really embanked 
lakes formed by intercepting watercourses. To the digging of 
wells, the formation of tanks and reservoirs and embanking of 
land, the Government gives encouragement through a system of 
advancing money at easy rates to the cultivators, and by defer- 
ring increased assessment for the improvements effected. Thia 
is known as the taccavi system. 
The next point of striking importance in the external sur- 
roundings of agriculture is the supply of wood for timber and 
fuel, and the provision of grazing by means of those forests 
which still remain to the country. There can be little doubt 
that India in the past has suffered great detriment both as regards 
its climate and its agriculture by the reckless devastation of 
wood and forests which has until within recent years been allowed 
to go on unchecked. It is, therefore, a matter of much satis- 
faction that now, late though it be, the charge of the forests has 
been put under a responsible Department, and that they are 
being preserved for the benefit of the State and the welfare of 
the people. Not that the work is complete, nor that reservation 
of forest land has been effected without considerable friction 
from an increasing population which presses its cultivation up 
to the limits of the forest area in the endeavour to find room for 
itself. But it is equally certain that the Native, if left to himself, 
would as speedily exterminate what remains as he has done in 
the past, whether by wholesale clearance for cultivation, or by 
excessive grazing with cattle, and, worst of all, by the destructive 
herds of goats. Then, but only when too late, would the dis- 
covery be made how important is the relation which the forests 
bear to agriculture, and how essential to the latter the forests 
really are. 
The spread of cultivation to the limits of the forests has altered 
in great measure the scope of the Forest Administration, which 
was at first non-agricultural and confined itself to the produc- 
tion of large timber. Now, however, the position is changed, 
and the Forest Department is recognising that the areas under 
its control must be more used in the direct interests of agri- 
culture, and that, as far as possible, not only a timber supply 
for the great works of the country is needed, but also that the 
provision of wood for agricultural purposes, and for fuel, as also 
of fodder and pasturage for cattle, forms part of its duties. That 
