Oct. 1, 1900.] Supplement to the "Tropical Agriculturist.^' 
296 
ment has made but " one mistake " when it took 
about forty years to discover the mistake in 
question and to have it rectified. People must 
not jump to the conclusion that vre have adopted 
the vrisest course iu connection with the whole 
forest area of India by following the German 
plan of management and thereby entirely dis- 
carding the naturial condition of annual purifi- 
cation by fire under which all the great forests 
of India have been grown during past generations. 
Probably time may show even from a forestry 
point of view that it would have been better 
not to have had our eggs all in one basket. 
There are many weighty reasons from the agri- 
cultural standpoint (now that the culivator has 
had restored to him some of the privileges of 
which Governmeut, while ill-advised, saw fit to 
deprive him) why certain forest areas as of old 
should be regularly purged by fire. The position 
is fully discussed in the chapter of Forestry in 
Indian Agriculture ; and the late Dr. Oleghorn, 
who kindly read the proofs of that chapter, 
without assuming any responsibility for the 
statements it contains, declared that, if my views 
proved to be correct, very important changes 
might require to be made in the system of forest 
management in India. After a lapse of ten years 
one of the most important changes asked for has 
been giveu effect to. Whether other necessary 
alterations will be made and how long it may 
take for their accomplishment remain to be seen. 
It was specially gratifying to see General 
Michael, writing on 2nd August, emphasise the 
credit due to the late Dr. Cleghorn for the very 
important p^art which he played in the establish- 
ment of scientific forestry in India, but no one 
mentioned the fact that General Michael himself 
may be justly described as the pioneer of Indian 
Forestry, The forestal condition of India to-day 
might have been iu a sorry plight, indeed, but 
for the grasp which the then Lieutenant Michael, 
from the time of his appointment as a forest 
officer in 1848, took of the situation iu Madras, 
and the great success which he achieved in saving 
what remained of the ancient forests of Southern 
India, which were being rapidly and wastefully 
destroyed. There is no gainsaying the fact that 
the so-called "benighted Presidency" gave origin 
to the Imperial Forestry Department for all 
India, which with all its defects has achieved 
80 much, and General Michael (1848 to 1855), 
followed by Dr. Cleghorn in 1856, were the 
instruments used iu the preliminary work which 
led to its formation and to the appointment of 
Sir (then Mr.) D. Brandis as Inspector-General 
in 1864. It is a significant fact that largely 
owing to the judicious way forest conservancy 
was introduced in Madras the absence of friction 
between the forest officers and the people has 
been a conspicuous feature of the forest manage- 
ment in that Presidency. The so-called "old 
jealousies" to which your correspondent refers 
were experienced further north, where forest 
conservation was introduced more on the cast-iron 
German system (now happily begun to be relaxed), 
which did not sufficiently respect and adjust itself 
to the interests of the agricultural community, 
and to which it was my painful duty to refer in 
■writing in 1898, "that much of the valuable time 
of the Forestry Department is taken up iu fighting 
the Agricultural Department." — I am, &c. 
RoBEET Wallace. 
August 15th, 1900. 
ARTIFICIAL CHANGES OF PHYSICAL 
PROPERTIES OF SOIL. 
(Continued). 
Keeping in mind liio great influence directly 
and indirectly exerted by the temperature of the 
soil upon the growth of plants, the practical 
agriculturist will endeavour to And means to 
modify the temperature according to the necessi- 
ties of the plants. In colder climates, naturally 
efforts must be made to promote a rise in temper- 
afcifte, while in warmer regions it will often be 
uecessarj' to proceed in the opposite direction. In 
what ways and to what extent the temperature of 
the soil may be influenced is briefly discussed 
below. 
In the cultivation of plants which furnish 
products of high market value, such as vines, 
fruit trees, &c., and which require a rather 
high temperature, artificial changes in exposure 
or inclination (producing south-west, south or 
south-east exposure, or inclining the plane 
of growth more directly towards the south) may 
-be of considerable benefit especially in cold 
climates. The method will, however, be produc- 
tive of good I'esults only when the soil contains 
sufficient moisture, because ouly in that case 
is the high temperature beneficial, and the increase 
in yeild sufficient to justify the outlay required to 
make the change, This method need not be res- 
tricted to hilly lands but can be applied to level 
soil^. Roof-like elevations may be constructed 
with broad surfaces facing towards the south and 
rather narrow exposures towards the north. The 
former may be planted with crops that require 
considerable warmth, the latter may be renewed 
for grass or such other foliage as requires less 
heat. This method is uot adopted to extensive 
field culture of crops furnishing products of 
comparatively low market value, both on account 
of the very unequal growth of the plants on the 
two opposite inclinations, and because the benefit 
derived even under favourable circumstances 
would not justify the outlay. 
On hilly land in hot climates a reduction of tem- 
perature of the soil may be necessary on steep 
inclines facing the south, south-east or south- 
west, because under such conditions, not taking 
into account the fact that the moisture is generally 
insufficient for maximum crops, the temperature 
of the soil frequently exceeds the limits for the 
perfect development of plants. In such'.cases the 
construction of terraces offers special advantages, 
since by their means the temperature of the soil 
may be lowered and the moisture in the soil regu- 
lated in accordance with the needs of the plant- 
Another common method of altering the exposure 
of the soil consists in the construction of beds, 
running through the whole length of the field and 
separated from each other by furrows. The effect 
of this arrangement is to bring about a more rapid 
removal of water from surfaces of high water 
capacity, but, leaving out of account the fact that 
