9 6 
THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1889. 
in obtaining it for the appointment as " Forest Banger,' 
on salaries rising t'roai R600 to R3000 yearly the 
lower, in Hindustani, leading to the forester's certi- 
ficate, which qualifies the holder for appointments of 
from R240 to R480 per annum. The ranger's 
course lasts twenty-one months, of which eight are 
spent in theoretical instruction, and the rest in prac- 
tical work in the field. The subjects taught are 
forestry, botany, the elements of zoology, chemistry, 
physics, geology, mathematics, and surveying, with 
elementary engineering, such as road-making and the 
construction of forest export works, and forest law. 
The forester's course lasts sixteen months, four in 
theoretical study, and the rest in the field, and the 
subjects taught are elementary forestry and botany, 
mathematics, surveying and plan-drawing, and depart- 
mental procedure. 
The students wear a neat uniform of Tcharhi drill 
with a turbau or helmet, and they are regularly ex- 
ercised in drill, most of the European and Eurasian 
students, however, preferring to join the Dehra Doon 
Corps of Mounted Infantry. When on tour in the for- 
ests on practical instruction, each has a small tent, 
with furniture of a camp table, chair, and bedstead, 
and some of them amuse themselves occasionally in 
sport, one student last year distinguishing himself by 
carrying off the first prize for shootiDg in the province. 
The forests attached to the School Circle consist of 
those of the Dehra Doon, Saharanpore, and Jaunsar 
Forest Divisions. The two former contain chiefly for- 
ests of the sal tree (Shorea robusta), the chief gregar- 
ious tree of India, and the most valuable timber for 
building purposes, after teak. They occupy respectively 
the northern and southern slopes of the Siwalik Range, 
and are carefully managed as training forests. The 
Dehra Doon forests are now being worked under a work- 
ing plan prepared by Mr. Fernandez, the Professor of 
Forestry. These forests had, till some twenty years 
ago, been very badly treated, so that at present the 
older portion of the stock consists chiefly of trees 
which are crooked and unsound, the good and sound 
one3 having previously been all cut out to provide 
sleepers for the East Indian, and Sind, Punjab, and 
Delhi Railways. The present working plan provides 
for a temporary rotation of twenty years, during which 
(1) all the old, unsound, and crooked sal trees which can 
be cut without letting in too much light are removed ; 
and (2) all trees of the less valuable kinds that are not 
required for shade are cut away. These operations 
have now been carried on for a few years with the most 
beneficial results, for the ground is being rapidly 
covered with good and straight saplings and coppice 
shoots of Sell. The forest operations, the selection 
of the trees to be cut, and their; making and enu- 
meration, are all done by the students themselves, 
so that in this way they obtain a valuable amount 
of practical experience. 
The forests of Jaunsar lie on the hills of the outer 
Himalaya at an elevation of some 5,000 to 10,000 feet, 
and consist chiefly of coniferous trees. The deodar 
cedar (Cedrus Deodar a) is, of course, the most valu- 
able of these ; then come the pines, the " kail " (Finns 
excelsa), which so often accompanies the dodar, and 
the "chir" (Pimm longifolia), which forma gregarious 
forest at the lower elevations. The silver and spruce 
firs (Abies Wehhiana and Smithiana) also occur, as 
well as oaks (Quercus ineana, dilatata, and semicar- 
pifolia) and other temperate trees. These forests are 
also carefully treated under working plans, and in 
them the students of the School learn the manage- 
ment of coniferous forests, the extraction of timber 
by roads and slides, the planting of blanks in the 
forest, and the measures necessary for protection 
against fire and frost. 
At the end of their course, and on obtaining their 
certificates, the students return to the provinces from 
which they were sent, qualified to carry out ordinary 
forest works in their own country ; and some of them 
have already obtained promotion into the higher staff 
of the Department as the reward of their good work, 
industry, and energy. j 
The Forest .School at Dehra Doon may thus be | 
said to bo doing an excellent work, a work which I 
cannot fail to have the best possible effect in th 
country, and to show the truth of Sir Edwin Arnold' 8 
saying that " the Forest Conservancy carried ou 1 
by the British 'Raj' is one of the g reattst benefi 
to the peninsula." 
Soon, perhaps, the extension of forest work will 
necessiate the establishment of other or branch es- 
tablishments in Madras, Burmab, an delsewhere ; but it 
is to Dehra Doon that all will look up as the pioneer of 
scientific forest teaching for the natives of our 
great dependency. —Nature. 
Earthworms.— It is interesting to note the fact 
thst at the present time we know of three especially 
large kinds of earthworms ; that, of these, one comes 
from South Africa, another from the southern parts 
of India and Ceylon, and the third from the South 
of Australia. We know as yet little about the dis- 
tribution of earthworms, but the same laws which 
governed the distribution of other animals must 
also have governed theirs, and it is just possible that 
these great earthworms may be the lingering relics 
of a once widely spread race of larger earthworms, 
whose representatives at the present day are only found, 
as occurs with other forms of life, in the southern parts 
of the large land-masses of the earth's surface. Possibly 
careful search will reveal the existence of a large 
earthworm in the southern parts of South America 
— Nature. 
Wynaad Notes, J une 3rd.— I very muoh regret that 
I am not in a position to write particularly cheer- 
fully on planting prospects. In fact many, if not 
most, of us are sadly disappointed in the result of the 
really magnificent blossom, which naturally tempted 
us to hope that a good time was coming at last. 
In point of fact, with the exception of one or 
two estates, on which the rainfall was early and 
sufficient a large proportion of the blossom has to- 
tally failed. This is the more extraordinary, as to 
all appearance it was aa healthily developed as pos- 
sible. Ia the midst of our own disappointment we 
have large rooms for sympathy with our brother Plan- 
ters in Mysore, Ooorg, and the Hills. We hear depress- 
ing accounts from these districts, and may, by com- 
parison, consider ourselves fortunate. Of course all 
our hopes now rest on the prospect of continued high 
prices, and so far the news from hom9 promises satis- 
factorily. The protracted hot weather has introduced 
another old enemy, an ancient bogie which had be- 
come a well nigh forgotten terror to us. Borer has 
re-appeared very badly on several estates, but it is 
hoped that the early monsoon may do something to- 
wards destroying this much-to-be-dreaded pest. I can- 
not understand why planters do not go in more for 
Liberian Coffee. My own small olearing has been such 
a success that it is to be extended this year. The trees 
are wonderfully hardy, and know not leaf desease, bug, 
or borer. They crop tremendously, and I hear that 
there is a very fair market for the coffee at home. 
The disadvantage of it is the difficuity of pulping and 
curing it. But surely a little ingenuity and perseverance 
might overcome this. I have two special trees eleven 
years old and about 24 feet high, which have never had 
an ouuee of manure since they were planted; every 
branch is covered with crop, and they have never 
suffered from any of the ills to which the ordinary 
coffee is liable. I have just heard of an experiment 
made with Ledger Cinchona which has so far proved 
very successful. This is shaving the trees, as is done 
with succirubra. Hitherto Ledgers have always been 
coppiced, under the belief that they would not stand 
shaving, and the trees that did not die of it would 
deteriorate, so that a second shaving would be use- 
less. The experiment is young so far, and I cannot 
tell you the result of a sucond shaving, but the first 
has been very successful, the percentage of Quinine 
higher than by the old system, and the trees which 
were carefully covered do not appear to suffer. The 
only perceptible effect on them is an enormous blossom, 
which of course may weaken them. Otherwise they 
look perfectly healthy. — Madras Times. 
