758 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[May 1, 190c). 
were, therefore, unsatisfactory. Planting operations, 
especially tlioae conducted by private agency, were 
cortailed) and the maintenance of trees planted in 
previous years was a matter of special difficulty, 
owing to the drought that prevailed and the low level 
of the sub-soil water. But there were probably 
additional reasons for the comparative want of success. 
The Director of Land Records and Agriculture, who 
has watched the working of the present system for a 
Dumber of years, seems disposed to question whether 
the allotments are always spent to th-3 beat ad- 
vantage. Making dne allowance for the unfavourable 
nature of the season, he thinks "' we want more conj 
centration of our resources, and at present money is 
frittered away in driblets to little effect. " The an- 
nual expenditure of District Councils on tree-planting 
amounts to about 119,000 per annum, and as this 
money ia distributed with impartiality rather than 
with discretiou, each Local Bonrd gets roughly the 
useless sum of RlOO to spend on twelve months abori- 
cultural operations. As a particularly bad instance 
of this excessive subdivision of allotments, mention 
is made of Hoshangabad district, in which an annual 
sum of R350 is split up to maintain six different 
nurseries. One, or at most two, nurseries should pre- 
sumably suffice for all requirements, and by receiv- 
ing undivided attention and financial support, would 
probably show much better results. On the 
other hand, as an instance of wise concentration 
of resources, Chanda district is cited, in which the 
entire annual allntmeiit of R300 is to bt; devoted for 
the next few years to planting trees on a single trunk 
road: when the avenues on this road are duly esta- 
blished, and not till then, the District Council will 
ooDSider other o'aim?. Complaint is also made that 
the management of nurseries is often conducted in 
what is described as spasmodic fashion. The Nagpor 
Qurseries, for example, contain 1,257 saplings^ all of 
which have attained a growth of over three feet. 
When this defect was brought to light, and an ex- 
planation called for, the naive explanation was offered 
that no new plants were put down because the ex- 
isting number of saplings was deemed sufficient. It 
had apparently not occurred to the apologist that 
many of the existing saplings might grow too old for 
transplantation before funds are available to plant 
them out on roads, and that what is required iaa 
anccession of plants in different stages of growth, 
the number ready for transplantation each year ac- 
cording, as nearly as possible, with the number ac- 
tually required for planting out. It is clear that iu 
the absence of some such arrangement arboricultural 
operations would shortly come to a standstill for want 
of saplings of the prescribed height, or, what is more 
probable, money would be wasted on putting down 
immature seedlings. 
As already stated that the number of trees planted 
hy private agency declined greatly during the few 
years of agricultural depression culminating in the 
famine of 1897. The only districts in which it was 
possible to enlist the co operation of private indivi- 
dnals are Bhandara, Balaghat, and Sambalpur. The 
aasiatuQce rendered in the two former districts was 
on a small scale, but appears to have been fairly 
effective. On this subject of tree-planting by private 
agency, the report for 189e-99 shows that there is 
much ground for dissatisfaction with the attitude of 
Diatrict Councils. In Nagpur the Chairman of 
tba.f Diatrict Council states that " private persons 
show no desire to undertake the trouble of planting 
and rearing trees on the side of public roads." He, 
however, admits that the slackness of Local Board 
members in the matter has a good deal to do with 
the apathy. The Chairman, District Council of War- 
dha, remarks : '' Private agency has again been found 
wanting. The history of the year under report is 
one more illustration of the futility of reliance on 
this source. '' The inference to be drawn from these 
remarks would seem to be that the people of Nagpur 
and Wardha are less fond of tree planting than 
those of more enlightened districts like Bilaspur or 
Bhandara. But as a matter of fact, this is not at 
all the case. The Officiating Commissioner of Settle- 
ments and Agriculture Bays : " I know from personal 
experience that tii^es have been planted in the past 
by private individuals on the sides of public roads, 
and there are no districts in which rights of owner- 
ship in trees are more keenly contested. It the Chair- 
man of the District Council, or the Local Board 
member of the diatrict, have ever stirred a finger 
to encourage private enterprise of this kind, there is 
no e\'ldence to show it in their reports. In other 
words, vrhere there is apathy at the top, there will 
be apathy at the bottom. 
Now that most districts have come up for increased 
arboricultural allotments, it is more than ever ne- 
cessary that the operations should be carried out in 
a methodical manner. To this end nearly all dis- 
tricts have been induced to frame schemes; but this 
alone will bo of little utility unless more interest 
is taken in the subject by those responsible. The 
reports which accompany the statements are annually 
full of promises of what will be done " next 
year, ' but each year come confessions of neglet 
of rules. Money may be wasted on planting out 
immature saplings contrary to rule, but nobody ia 
ever brought to book. Responsibility for failures 
must be fixed before much improvement can be mani- 
fested, and the conduct of arboricultural operations 
of any road should be as much the duty of the 
overseer or other official in charge of it, as the 
maintenance of the road itself. In the report for 
1898-99 the Officiating Commissioner of Land Settle- 
ments says: "The orders of the Administration arc 
contained in a Revenue Book Circular, but have the 
instructions which it lays down been communicated 
to the officials whose duty it is to carry thetn out ? 
P^in instructions should be issued in writing to 
each official, and neglect to carry them out should 
entail his punishmeut. For instance, the gharra 
system of watering is laid down in paraksraph 11 of 
that Circular; where it has been tried it has been 
found successful and economical ; yet it was neces- 
sery to ask for information regarding it in nearly 
every district, and in many cases it is found that 
the sysLem has never been tried, although enjoined 
in the plainest terms." Again, in the matter of en- 
listing private agency, the Circular prescribes the 
issue of a preliminary certificate when a tree ia 
planted and of a sanad when it ia established. But 
this procedure is hardly anywhere followed: it _ is 
flagrantly ignored. Every body acquainted with 
the lethargic character of petty landownara re- 
alises that it is almo.st useless to issue a sort 
of impersonal encyclical urging malguzars to plant 
trees in their own and the public interests. In- 
dividual officers must go to individual malguzars 
whose fields adjoin publie roads, and use persuasive 
eloquence to stimulate them to plant trees. As long 
as people are assured that they will receive the 
fruit of trees which they may plant, and their titles 
are confirmed by the issue to them of the prescribed 
certificates and sanads. many will be glad to come 
forward. The Officiating Commissioner of Land 
Settlement and Agriculture writes : " I remember 
cases a few years ago when such persons were denied 
the ownership of the trees they had planted. This 
is, I hope, a thing of the past, but uuless cerificatea 
are issued in such cases, it is not unlikely that some 
ignorant road overseer may commit the same mistake, 
thereby effectually discouraging all private planting." 
This same critic says : " Some of the writers of the re- 
ports merely contend themselves year after year with 
lamenting the absence of private energy in the matter 
of tree-planting, but they never state what measures 
were adopted to enlist such efforts, or whether they 
themselves ever thought about it until the day that 
a draft report is put up for their signature." No 
doubt the present time is unfavourable for pressing 
the sulDjtJct of road-side arboriculture. With famine 
imminent in many districts and a failing water-anp- 
plv, arboricultural operations must necessarily be 
restrii ted. But there is no reason why, in such 
operations as are conducted, rules should be neglected, 
and neglect go unpunished, and the first essential 
ia that every official in charge shocdd know the 
rules and appreciate the oonaequecoea of neglecting 
ihQm,— Indian Agrkulturiat. 
