Oct. 1, 1898.] 
Supplement to the "Tropical Agrindtnrist. 
301 
-appertaining to the Home Department. Yet, in 
.opite of tills, tl'.e Indian forest officers do splendid 
•work over the vast area committed to their 
charge, in every extrtme of climate, from the 
moist, impenetrable forests of Assam covering 
three-fourthf? of the province, to the arid hillsides 
of Beliichistnn 
Eiiumeiation of the timber veflllh of India 
nculd give no idea of the variety of factors 
■with which forest c fficers have to deal. In Sind, 
for instar.ce, it so no unii.'iial detail of a year's 
forest work that an officer in charge of a district 
should report, as in 1894, the acquisition of ten 
thousand acres of treeless waste, and the loss 
of six thousand acies of forest, through the 
vagaries of the river Indus, which annually 
shifts i'> bed to right or lett, ofttn wiping out 
villages s.ud threattning cities in i's course. It 
all comes in the day's work of the forest officer 
in the Punjab, also, that he should ride for miles 
over the coarse pasturage of treeless rukh land 
(coarse pasturage classified as " forest "), and 
personally impound the herds of half-wild buffa- 
loes of neighboring villagers trespassing thereon. 
If he should have to encounter villagers sallying 
out with iron-shod bamboo staves, and offering 
forcible resistcrce — why, that ccmes into the 
day's work, too. 
The task of the forest officer naturally divides 
itself under the-^e heads: Settlement, by the 
adjustment of legal lights to the ground; de- 
marcation, by the definition of boundaries to the 
land appropriated as " forest " by the State ; survey, 
to determine the suitability of the land for the pro- 
duce of timber, fuel, fodder, pasturage, etc, for the 
neighbouring population or for export ; preparation 
of wovking-])lans, whereby the resources of the land 
in these several retpecfs may be best developed ; 
provision of communications whereby the produce 
of the foie.^ts may be brought within reach of the 
people, and of buildings for the accommodation of 
the staff and establishment ; of protection of the 
forfrsts from fire, trespass, encroachment, and 
injury, and improvement by means of felling, 
reproduction, and other operations of forestry; 
working, whereby the largest annual output of 
forest produce compatible with the preservation of 
the undiminished fertility of the forest area may be 
secured ; finance, whereby the working of the 
department in each of its subsections, whether 
divided latitudinally as regards operations ; or 
longitudinally as regards locality, may be shown 
to possess a satisfiictory balance sheet ; main- 
tanance of establishment, to secure efficiency in 
every detail of the work ; conduct of experiments 
in the utilization of indigenous resources, and the 
acclimatization of exotic methods or material ; 
regulation of the export of forest produce to other 
provinces or foreign lands; technical education 
and recruitment of men and subordinate officers 
suitable for forest work; and lastly, record of 
work done. From this brief and imperfect sum- 
rcary it will be seen that the work of the Forest 
Department demands legal ability, geometric skill, 
botanical knowledge, administrative talent, engi- 
neering faculty, scientific experience, police ability, 
and economic science, besides all the qualities 
re(iuired for success in the financial, educational, 
commercial, organizing, and record work. 
In spite of its limitations and its difficulties, the 
agvegate work of the Forest Department of India 
has prcdLiced a result which has been rightly 
described by Sir Richard Temple as one of the 
greatest achievements of the Victorian era ; and it 
has been a work, too, which, as another authority, 
Sir <jreorge Birdwood, has shown, was begun onJy 
in the nick of time. "A few more years' delay," 
he says, " would hfive resulted in the total loss of 
half the forest of India," of which now the 
"reserved" portions alone, where the State 
declares and maintains its right to the entire 
produce, cover more than seventy thousand square 
miles, a total to which large additions have yet to 
be made in Madras and Burma. These reserves, 
however, increase annually in value. Land which 
was once denuded of trees by the unrestricted 
gl azing of cattle, especially of goats, which browse 
by choice upon the topmost-growing shoots of 
young saplings, is covered once more with forests 
which annually yield a richer output of timber 
and fuel. Valuable trees have replaced more 
worthless kinds. Carefully guarded, the rubber- 
tree grows more numerous and more productive, 
and in a country like India, where the mortality 
from fever largely exceeds that from all other 
causes combined, the cheap supplj- of quinine, 
dispensed in pice packets throughout the villages 
by Government agency, would alone more than 
repay the labors of the Forest Department. Yet 
its most striking and important acliievement has 
been the acclimatization of valuable foreign tree?. 
Already many Indian landscapes have been 
completely altered by the Cnsuiu ina and Eucalyp- 
tus (beef-wood and blue-gum) of Australia, while 
the introduction of the apple and chestnut in the 
Himalayas has brought new and important food- 
supplies within leacli of the people. The Buddhist.^, 
the Arabs, and the Portuguese each added somewhat 
to the flora of India, partly from religious motive.?, 
and partly f < r luxury. To the Bvifish has been 
reserved the honor of surpas-'^ing their combined 
efforts by the exercise of a statesmanlike philan- 
thropy which pre.^erves and enriches the vegetable 
wealth of the lana for the good of its population, 
^ 
CATTLE AND THEIR MANAGEMENT 
IN THE INTERIOR. 
Want of proper management is responsible to a 
great extent for the poor condition of cattle and 
the great loss by rinderpest and other diseases. 
Sufficient fodder is not raised or preserved, and 
they suffer severely during prolonged drought as 
they art doing now in most parts of the Northern, 
North-Central and North-We-tern Provinces. Some 
die of sheer starvation, while others are rendered 
more predisposed to disease. Tlvese become too 
weak to resist infection ami mostly succumb to 
disease when attacked. 
Many villagers keep more cattle then they can 
properly feed and take care of. The poor animals 
are allowed to shift for themselves and to feed as 
best as they can. No man ought to keep more 
cattle than he can look after, if he wants to be free 
from the charge of cruelty to animals. A few may 
be slaughtered for meat, if the owner has no 
prejudice against beef-eating, and the other 
