December 1,1891.] THE TRDPtCAL AGRICULTURIST. 
393 
FOREST COHrSERVANCY. 
This is Mr. Broun's first report as head of the 
Forest Dupnrtmerit, that is to say he has written 
it as Acting Conservator of Forests, his appoint- 
ment requiring of cours? the ronflrmation of the 
SeoretP.ry of State, which may be taken for granted. 
But th« report refers to a year when Mr. Broun 
was stilt only Deputy Conservator, for, when Colonel 
Clarke was comnelled fo gi on eick leave, Mr. 
Broun was absent in India, and ^apt. Walker as 
Senior Assistant Conservator, acted as Conservator 
fOr just the last week of 18f»0. Mr. Broun returning 
on .31st December. As a fraine'l profes^iioni^! man, 
Mr. Broun writes a very detailed a-^d elabf>rate 
report, which is largely occupied with imperfections 
of departmental organization, procedure, departmen 
tal rules and forest laws. The amendment of the 
latter, it seems, is delayed until the pppear 
ance of a new edition of the Indian Forest 
Act. ■rohinh will, n{ course, embody the results 
of the latest and most extnnded expevienoe 
nf the muUi'nf'in^ns dptoils of forestry and their 
bfar'ns on the ir.teres's of agriculturists speoially, 
and the onmmuiity in penersil. At thi onmmence- 
mont Mr. Broun vsry pronnrly esprpseos his regret 
that tbq Oo^ornment. rul's as regards halt-nay 
for acting anrointment^ could not b« rela-!ced in 
the ease of '^ol. Ciarke. who certainly oontvaoted 
the fever which has affpct»d him so seriously 
when engaged in duties connpcte' with the Forest 
Dppartment L'ke every othorhea-l of a department 
Mr. Brr^un wnnts more monov than Government 
is willing or aMe to cant; and with much reason, 
a plea is nut in for the forest officers, 
that, subjpoted as they are to special ex- 
posure, they should not only reoiive better 
pay, but, as repards pensions, be put on 
an equal footins? with the members of the P._ W._D. 
A protPKt is entprpd against tho humiliating; 
rule that a forept oflRoer cannot rut a stick of 
wood without the permission of the Government 
Agent. We can understand due powers being 
reserved to adm-nistrativo officers, but surely this 
is compp.tible with vestinc f.irest officers with 
desorpt.ion such as native headmen exercise. 
Mr. Huddleston was employed during a portion of 
tho pBst year in reporling on the forest resources 
of the Trincomalee di=itrict, and his initiatory 
report gives a striking impression o! the devas 
tating results of tho system, or rather utter 
absence of system, which prevailed about 
forty years ago, when, without any adequate 
return to Government, there w?.s a continuous 
export from Trincomalee, for years in succession, 
of v.iluable eliony, salinwood, balmilla and other 
timbers of which the Government forests were 
denuded for the advantage cf individual traders. 
In regard to a Urge portion of those eastern 
forest';, the attention of the forest officers 
mupt for many years be devoted to the not im- 
mediately profitable but absolutely necessary work 
of encouraging by every possible means the process 
of nniuial reproduction; lotting the light have 
acoers to the seeds whioh are plentifully diatri- 
batpl in the soil and preventing the access of 
destructive animals and fires, as well as destruc- 
tivo natives who never hesitate to out 
down saplings of tiie finest spceifK of timber 
trees for fence stioka and similar •. To m'l 
part of tho report i( ia eUted tbal Taliin>blt) 
50 
saplings are recklessly cut by the natives, not onlv 
for their own use but for sale to Indian dealers '■ 
The remedy of course is to demarcate and set 
apart village forests for supplies of timber and 
ehena cultivation. That once done, trespassers on 
Government forests and forest r<?serves ought to be 
rigorously prosecuted. Mr. Broun complains of 
the slowness of the processes of survey and de- 
marcation of boundaries, and protests against 
forest surveys being complicated, as in Sahara- 
gamuwft, with the settlement of village claims. 
Mr. Broun also very properly insists on the 
forest officers qualifying themselves to execute 
surveys of a nature from slight sketches to more ela- 
borate plans. A fully qualified forest officer, indeed, 
must be a man of great and varied accomplish- 
ments ; a botanist with a keen eye for peculiarities 
of soil and climate, a judge of the qualities of 
growing timber and an adept in its treatment 
when growing and after felling, a competent surveyor 
and well acquainted with native languages and 
cufltoms, — especially the communal laws. How 
valuable the knowledge acquired by experience can 
be is illustrated by the history of palu timber for 
railway sleeper purposes. This timber has been 
rejected because of cracks, the result of felling 
when green, but an experiment in ringing the trees 
and leaving them standing for a year subsequently 
has obviated this difficulty. We are glad to notice 
that teak at Puttalam and mahogany at Jaffna have 
been fully successful ; and it is quite clear that 
the latter, the most valuable perhaps of cabinet 
and structural timbers, should be extensively oul- 
tivated in the dry and arid regions of Ceylon. If 
in 1843 a hundred thousand mahogany trees, 
instead of four, had been successfully planted at 
Jaffna, the timber would now or a few years 
hence realize large wealth for the colony. From 
measurements given of trees planted at different 
periods between 1843 and 1885, we learn that the 
mean girth at breast height of 4 trees planted in 
184.3 is 8 feet 7 inches, or 103 inches— which means a 
diameter of over 34 inches, — the mean annual girth 
increment having been 219 inches. It is quite 
evident that special attention should be devoted 
to teak and mahogany, amongst exotic timbers in 
the lowcountry as well as to the Australian euca- 
h/pti and acacias and to the Himalayan cedars and 
pines, in the higher and wetter regions. There is 
another valuable timber tree, which has made 
itself at home in Ceylon from Colombo up to 
Peradeniya. This is the padoul- of Burma and 
the Andamans, which, as a paragraph we recently 
quoted proved, has excited much attention in Britain, 
from the strength and beauty of a epacimen sent 
from the Andamans. So long ago as 1843, the late 
Mr. William Ferguson attracted attention to the 
magnificent specimens of this tree, — botanically 
Pterocarpus indicus, — growing near what was then 
the Ceylon Rifles mess-house, and which is now 
the property of the Ceylon Commercial Company. 
The handsome umbrageous foliage of this 
tree is occasionally contrasted with a wealth of 
golden blossom rich with delicious perfume. The 
cultivation of this valuable and beautiful tree 
ought certainly to be extended, and sandalwood 
ought to be tried in the Puttalam district and 
other portions of the island. But why has the 
Forest Department neglected that near relativj of 
the mahogany, but which unlike that tree flour- 
ishes at 6,000 feet and over, the timber of which 
is by many deemed quite equal to mahogany,— 
the cedar of Australia, the red toon : Qedi-cla Toona 
var. scrrata. The grove of those trees near the 
Lake bund at Nuwara Bliya is conclusive as to, 
tH^ir ruUability for cultivation at high attitudes 
j ovoa it experience at Darjiling and other Himi- 
