298 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Nov.  1,  1892. 
forest  areas  which  would  be  costly  to  demarcate  and 
to  supervise,  and  which,  moreover,  might  with  ad- 
vantage be  utilised  as  village  forests.  In  the  forest 
Provinces,  such  as  the  Northern,  the  North-Central 
and  Eastern  Provinces,  and  a large  portion  of  the 
North-Western  Province,  the  cost  of  reserving  thou- 
sands of  acres  and  of  demarcating  and  supervising 
them  will  not  be  greater  than  on  one-tenth  of  the 
area  in  Saharagamuwa  and  portions  of  the  Western 
Province. 
The  length  of  boundaries  cut  by  the  Survey 
Department  in  ooDneotion  with  foreet  surveys 
has  been  116,788  chains  and  the  boundary  pillars 
ereoted  have  been  321. 
The  area  surveyed  during  the  year  amount  s to  63 
squnre  miles  and  232  acres,  and  the  total  area  of 
forest  surveys  amounts  to  359  square  miles  and  216 
acres.  The  cost  to  the  Survey  Department  amounts 
to  R25,760'25  for  the  year,  but  to  the  Forest  Depart- 
ment it  only  comes  to  R5,184'50,  wbioh  was  disbursed 
on  cooly  pay,  chiefly  in  the  Western  Province. 
The  completion  of  the  survey  of  lands  taken  up 
for  railway  fuel  plantations  at  Galboda  was 
urgently  required, — we  Eay  was,  because  we 
presume  the  work  was  completed  before  the  report 
was  issued  in  the  middle  of  September  1892.  We 
quote  what  is  said  about  working  plans  (for 
thinning  and  replanting  natural  forest)  and 
Enumeration  Surveys: — 
Working  Plans. — The  work  in  the  Nanuoya  forest 
has  been  carried  out  ou  the  strip  system,  as  desoribed 
in  the  annual  report  for  1889.  Plots  Nos.  14  to  29, 
amounting  to  25  acres,  were  felled,  and  plots  14  to  22, 
amounting  to  15  acres,  were  replanted  with  blue  gum. 
Eucalyptus  robusta,  Citnodora  amygadalina  and  di- 
versicolor, Acacia  decurrens  and  Melanoxylon.  No  work- 
ing plan  has,  however,  yet  been  drawn  up.  At  Nanu- 
oya system  of  working  has  merely  been  adopted,  but 
the  possibility  and  rotation  have  not  yet  been  properly 
fixed.  Some  of  the  Assistant  Conservators  have  also 
adopted  special  systems  in  their  forests.  It  is  hoped, 
however,  that  before  long  working  plans  for  the 
railway  fuel  reserves  at  Mirigama  and  Nanuoya  will 
be  submitted  for  the  sanction  of  Government. 
Enumeration  Surveys. — On  bis  return  from  Dehra 
Dun  Forest  School  Mr.  J.  St.  L.  Hansard  was  deputed 
to  Mirigama  to  report  on  and  make  enumeration 
surveys  in  the  forests  set  apart  for  the  railway  fuel 
supply.  After  a stay  of  about  three  months  he  was 
permitted  to  exchange  duties  with  Mr.  Ferguson,  who 
carried  on  the  work  until  he  took  over  the  duties  of 
Superintendent,  Railway  Fuel  Supply,  at  the  end  of 
November.  The  work  is  not  yet  completed,  but  enough 
has  been  done  to  show  that  the  forests  have  been 
cut  into  in  a most  extensive  manner,  and  that  at 
present  the  average  yield  per  acre  is  very  low,  and 
that  a larger  extent  will  be  required  to  satisfy  the 
yearly  requirements  of  the  Railway  Department. 
The  following  paragraph  is  one  of  a series  in  which 
the  Government  Agent  of  the  Western  Province 
is  represented  as  ignoring  or  plaoing  himself 
in  dead  opposition  to  the  officers  of  the  Forest 
Department : — 
For  some  unacountable  reason  the  200  acre  block 
referred  to  in  my  annual  report  for  1890  has  not  yet 
been  taken  in  hand.  I have  drawn  the  attention  of 
the  Hon.  the  Government  Agent  to  this,  but  hitherto 
without  success,  and  it  appears  as  if  it  would  be  even 
too  late  to  do  anything  in  1892.  The  orders  of  Govern- 
ment as  regards  this  experiment  were  issued  more 
than  a couple  of  years  ago,  and  it  is  strange  that, 
although  the  land  has  been  subdivided  into  plots  for 
different  villages,  they  should  not  be  allowed  to  begin. 
An  enumeration  by  Mr.  Huddleston  at  Trinco- 
malee  of  trees  per  acre  in  Government  forest  was 
disappointing,  the  totals  being  30-81  sound  trees 
and  6-54  unsound.  The  prevalent  timbers  were 
palai  or  palu,  eatinwood,  ebony,  ranai,  with  very 
little  halmilla  and  milla,  while  “ other  good  speoies  ” 
not  described  were  about  one-third  of  the  whole. 
Between  thirty  and  forty  years  ago,  the  Trinco- 
malee  forests  were  subjected  to  a barbarous  system 
of  destruction  from  which  it  will  take  them 
long  to  recover.  On  10  acres  of  what  Mr.  Tooke 
called  “good  ordinary  forest”  in  the  Northern 
Province,  be  enumerated  1810  trees  of  satin,  ebony, 
palai,  and  ranai  per  acre, — a “ beggarly  account  ’’ 
surely.  Mr.  Broun  in  view  of  his  Indian  experience 
remarks  : — 
This  table  is  useful  for  comparison  with  the  table 
given  above  for  Trincomalee  forests,  for  it  shows  0‘6 
satin  tree  per  acre  above  6 ft.  in  girth  ngainst  O’Ol 
in  Trincomalee,  03  ebrny  against  0'02  in  Trincomalee. 
The  palai  is,  however,  somewhat  less  abundant — a 
fact  which  rather  surprises  me,  as  the  Northern 
Province  forests  usually  teem  with  palu  of  large  girth- 
Still,  taking  the  four  species — satin,  ebony,  palu,  Bnd 
ranai — there  are  in  the  Northern  Province  sample 
area  15  tree  per  acre  above  6 ft.,  while  in  Trincomalee 
there  are  only  0 89.  The  other  girth  classes  not  being 
the  same,  it  is  difficult  to  make  comparisons  between 
trees  of  smaller  girth.  There  are,  however,  in  the 
Northern  Province  5 8 trees  of  the  same  four  species 
per  acre  between  4 and  6 ft.  iu  girth,  while  in  the 
Trincomalee  District  there  are  only  6 81  between  3 
and  6 ft.  in  girth.  To  a Forester  who  has  been 
accustomed  to  work  in  gregarious  forests  neither  of 
these  results  appear  good,  and  if  Mr.  Tocke’s  enumer- 
ation is  a good  sample  of  a fairly  good  forest,  it 
helps  in  explaining  why  the  working  of  our  forests  is 
so  expensive  compared  with  that  of  good  Indian 
forests,  and  it  shows  that  we  require  large  areas  of 
supplying  the  same  requirements  in  good  timbers. 
It  seem3  hard  that  Mr.  Broun  should  have  to  tell 
the  publio  whioh  pays,  in  regard  to  “ sample  plots  ” : — 
Notwithstanding  my  remarks  in  paragraph  19  of  my 
last  aimual  report  little  zeal  has  been  displayed  by 
the  large  number  of  the  Assistant  Conservators  in 
establishing  Bample  plots  in  natural  forests.  Every 
year  wasted  means  one  year’s  delay  in  the  progress 
of  the  Department.  The  sample  plot  near  Anuradha- 
pnra  has  not  yet  been  measured — indeed  it  had  a 
narrow  escape  from  beiDg  sold — and  the  only  offioers 
who  have  taken  active  measures  are  the  Assistant 
Conservators  of  the  Central  and  North-Western  Pro- 
vinces. Near  Dimbulla  two  sample  plots  have  been 
started,  and  in  Narigama  forest  in  the  Chilaw  District 
a sample  plot  among  kumbuk  trees  was  started  in 
1890  by  Mr.  Tatham.  Measurements  were  again  taken 
in  1891.  In  this  sample  plot  there  are  20  trees  rang- 
ing in  1890  from  2 ft.  7 in.  to  7 tt.  10J  in..  The 
average  girth  increment  of  these  trees  is  i-37  in.,  but 
if  they  are  taken  girth  class  by  girth  class  the  mean 
annuel  girth  increment  is,  for — 
1 tree,  Vlth  girth  class  (paragraph  23)  100  in. 
10  trees,  Illrd 
do 
..  135  „ 
7 trees,  Ilnd 
do 
..  1'43  „ 
2 trees,  1st 
do 
..  P50  „ 
If  this  sample  plot  is  a fair  example  it  accounts 
for  the  large  girth  which  the  kumbnk  attains,  for  it 
attains  its  highest  mean  annual  increment  only  when 
it  gets  well  above  6 ft.  iu  girth.  Another  sample  plot 
for  palu  and  tammana  was  started  in  the  Kulugaha 
forest,  Kuranegala  District. 
Sample  areas  were  also  chosen  in  plantations  in  the 
Eastern,  North-Western,  and  Eva  Provinces.  These 
will  be  referred  to  under  the  head  “Artificial 
Reproduction.” 
Under  the  heading  “protection  and  improve- 
ment” it  is  stated  by  Mr.  Broun:— 
In  six  of  the  Provinces  the  dealings  between 
Government  Agents  and  the  Assistant  Conservators 
have  on  the  whole  been  satisfactory,  notwithstanding 
occasional  friction.  The  Government  Agents  consider 
the  Assistant  Conservators  as  their  Assistants  in  forest 
matters,  and  entrust  them  largely  with  the  forest 
administration  of  their  respective  Provinces.  Where 
this  co-operation  exists  the  administration  is  by  far 
the  most  successful,  and  the  headmen  knowing  that 
the  forest  officers  have  the  Government  Agent’s  sup- 
port are  much  more  willing  to  help  them.  The 
Eastern  Provinoe  and  Sabaragsmuwa  oan  be  quoted 
as  examples  in  point.  On  the  other  hand,  iu  the 
