DECEBIBER f, 1891.] THE TROPICAL AGRiCULTURIST, 
395 
useful timbrr, halmDla, (valued in India for 
guu carriages and similar purpoaos) 1,651 
logs were exported. Piecea of leak to ihe 
" number " of 8,300 are inolu(]ed in the 
exports. Of coconut laths and rafters 100 pacls 
ages and 2,267 " number " were entered for ex- 
port, with laths and rafters of timbeis not 
described 7,158 packages and 1,593 " number." 
Finally we bava the " ridiculus mus " of 9 kitul 
laths and rafters. As our forests are demarcated, 
reserved and scientifically treated, being permeated 
by roads and paths to facilitate not only inspec- 
tion but the easy transit of timber divided into logs, 
deals and scantlings by means of steam saws, th(3ie 
will be supplies of good timber and fuel, suffi- 
cient for all local wants and export demands, 
which are certain to expand. Mr. Broun, by 
the way, anticipates the early abiiity of his de- 
partment to meet all the demands of the railway 
for fuel, leaving private forests available for 
private demands. This will be good news for 
householders in our cities and for the owners 
and workers of plantations and taa faotoues. 
And this r -minds us of an apparent omis=ion 
from Mr. Broun's report of any reference to the 
large and urgent fuel demands of the tea planters 
and the best means of supplying them. This must 
be due to inadvertence, equally with the diSerent 
modes of spelling the name of one of our must 
valuable forest trees,— paZit and palai. Which is 
it to be ? There are the Tamil names of places, 
Patchelaipallai (the green homa of the pilai tree?) 
and Palai, derived, no doubt, from the tree. Yet 
the general fom la books and reports, of spelling 
the name of this valuable tree is as certainly imlu, 
the Sinhalese form. But as the tree is chiefly prevalent 
in the Tamil districts, the Tamil name oughtto pre- 
vail. Mr. Broun, like all his predecessors, protests 
against the careless and to the tree, as a source 
of timber, most injurioua practice of the natives 
of breaking the branones of this valuable tree 
in order to obtain the fruits. 
Now that Mr. Broun has become (Jonservator of 
Fotests, we suppose the office of Deputy Conser- 
vator disappears from the list. The establishment 
then, oousiBted at the beginning of 1891 of 
1 Conservator. 
9 Assistant Oonservators. 
1 Superiutendeat railway fuel. 
4 Foresters. 
4 Probationers at Debra Dun. 
The latter have all, wo believe, returned to the 
island; and we suppose there will be a reorganization 
of the department, in accordance with Mr. Broun's 
views, which seem to be that an Assistant Con- 
servator for each of the nine Provinces is not re- 
quired, and that the superior staff can well be reduced 
and the money savea applied to the provision of 
better remuneration for the subordinate offioers. 
although large help from the burveyor-General's 
Department is gratefully acknowledged, Mr. Broun, 
like every one else, feels the want of a cadastral 
survey of the island. If we are to have a land 
tax in lieu of the grain rent and duties, such a 
survey will become an urgent necessity ; but unless 
the Survey staff is increased at least four-fold, 
tho work will not have been much moro than 
begun at tho end of this century, and will require 
the next lor its completion. The report states: — 
Of tho surveys undertaken by the Survey Do- 
partnieut tho most important arc those of the pro- 
posed railway f uul rosorvcs, near Mirigama and Anibe- 
pusBii, which aro now approaching completion; those 
of rallckcle in the North- Weslom Provmco, Palle- 
watta and Yagirala in the Kalutara District, and 
the oxtoiision of siu-voys in Gilimale and the siu-vey 
pf the lielaui Valley iu tho Pgrgyiuce of Sabara- 
gamiiwa, 
The area of completed surveys amounts this year 
to 72,153 acres, or nearly 113 square miles, including 
villages in the Peak wilderness and iu Pallekele. 
This brings the grand total of completed forest surveys 
to 194,478 acres, or nearly 303,87 miles. 
The addition of nearly 113 square miles to the 183 
square miles already surveyed is very satisfactory, 
but still, considering that there are several thousand 
acres to survey and settle, it does appear as if more 
extended operations should be taken in hand, other- 
wise the Forest Department will for long years not 
be on a settled basis. 
Area reserved since 1885. — Forest Settlement Officers 
have been somewhat more busy during the year 
under report than before, and a few final Proclama- 
tions have been made, chiefly in the Province of 
Sabaragamuwa, where Bambarabotuwa, Wellankanda, 
KadLiwalakauatta, Talawitiya, Hunuwala and Hup- 
pitiya forests, covering in the aggregate an area of 
over 22,000 acres, have been tinaJly proclaimed as 
reserved forests. But much remains to be done, and 
the Survey Department complains that unless the 
work of reservation is carried on somewhat quicker 
the survey lines will soon become obliterated, and 
much expense will be incurred in making fresh ones. 
At present the area of reserved forests is as follows :— 
Up to 1890. During 1890, Total. 
Acres. Acres. Acres. 
Central Province . . 852*^ . . — 862 
North-Western Pro- 
182 892 1,024 
Province of Uva . . 710 
Province of Sabara- 
gamuwa .. 715 
Total 2,409 
710 
.22,497t 23,212 
23,389 25,798 
Surveys of forests and the reserve of such forests 
are two very different things, as the report in- 
dicates : — 
The names of two forests in the Central Province, 
the preliminary notifioaiions of which appeared iu 1890, 
had already appeared in the Oloveritnent Gazette in 
1888, but ttio torest settlement made by the then 
Forest Settlement Officer was so little in accordaQCe 
with inatruclions laid down in the Forest Ordiuanoe 
that it was set aside by Govorument. Thay aro tne 
forests of Kandai^olla, Sita Eliya, and Pedruautuadu- 
oya, near Nuwara EUya. 
The fore.-ts in the Province of Sabaragamuwa, the 
completion of the reseivatioa of nhich is still being 
awaited, include certain forests in the Kegalla District 
and also the Gillimale torest, a block of forest of 
over 17,000 acres. In the Southern Province the 
forests ot the Matara District urgently require reser- 
vation, bat although a few preliraiuury uotificationa 
have been issued no further steps have been taken. 
The proposed reserves in the North- Western Province 
are in the Ohilaw and Puttalam Districts. 
In Uva the Government Agent ha« granted a site 
in the Haputale reserved forest to the Hapatale Rail- 
way Extension Department for the purpose ot building 
houses for subordinates. Acoording to the Forest 
Ordinance a proclamation should first have been pub- 
lished in the Qoveriiment Gazette declaring that por- 
tion of tho forest to be no longer reserved. However, 
nothing has as yet been done. 
The Conservator complains that while the zealous 
Government Agent of the Province of iSabara- 
gumuwa is obtaining village settlements out of money 
voted for the Forest Department, the reserve of such 
valuable blocks of forest as that of Pallekele in the 
North- Western Province should be delayed. Pre- 
liminary notihcatioua of tho reserve of 23 forests 
had been published, without tho reserves being 
finally proclaimed. To quote the report :— 
No working plan has as yet been made, but the 
Nanuoya forests were worked on the Byatem meutioued 
in paragraphs 21 md 22 of th» iHst auuuitl report. 
* Includes Campbell's laud, reserved under the 
" Land Kesumption Ordinance," but docs not in- 
clude Walapano which is not yot siu-veyod. 
t EsqluBive of Hunuwala forest, not yot aiuvoyed, 
