October i, 1890.I 
THE TROPICAL AQRIGVLTUmST. 
261 
FOEESTRY IN CEYLON: 
REPORT OF THE CONSERVATOR OP 
FORESTS FOR 1889. 
Col. Clarke’s report is on this occasion very 
elaborate, dealing with the many subjects to which 
attention has been directed so as to conserve the 
Forest rights of the Crown, without injury to the 
prescriptive and equitable rights of the people ; to 
render the existing timber resources of the forests 
available and to provide supplies for the future 
wants of the country. Col. Clarke, with the assis- 
tance of an experienced Forest officer, whose 
services have been courteously lent to the colony 
by the Indian Government, has at length been able 
to organize the Forestry Establishment on a footing 
somewhat adequate to the largeness and the im- 
portance of the interests at stake. Col. Clarke, as 
Acting Conservator of Forests, is assisted as Deputy 
by Mr. F. A. Broun of the Indian Forest De- 
partment and commands the services of 8 Assis- 
tant Conservators and 5 Foresters, of whom one is 
specially devoted to the conservancy and provision 
of fuel ; while 3 Probationers are going through a 
course of instruction in the Forest School at 
Dehra Dun. There are 8 Forest Rangers and 
11 Forest Guards. Col. Clarke’s report of the 
services of the officers during the past year is that 
The officers of the Department have with few ex- 
ceptions worked well. The prospects of the Department 
have been much improved by making its members 
eligible for pensions, and it is hoped that the scale of 
pay, which is quite inadequate to secure good men, 
will next be put on a proper footing. During the past 
year the work in every Province was more or less 
minutely inspected either by myself or by Mr. Broun, 
the Deputy Conservator. Clerical Staff. — Early in the 
year it was found necessary to increase the clerical 
staff at headquarters by carrying out reductions else- 
where. Even now it is as much as the present staff 
can do to keep pace with the work. 
Of course good pay is necessary, as a rule, to secure 
zealous and efficient service, but regard must be had 
in this as in other oases to the means available, and 
as the Department becomes increasingly useful 
and profitable, its officers may rely on their just 
claims being recognized. Even more, perhaps, than 
Surveyors and Public Works Officers are they ex- 
posed to danger from malaria in their exploration 
of the often distant and. as regards population, 
desolate jungles. There is a vast amount of work 
to be done in the survey and demarcation of the 
forests. As yet only 102,000 acres have been 
surveyed at a cost of E50.000, or at the rate of 50 
cents per acre. Of the areas surveyed 68,000 acres are 
in the new Province of Sabaragamuwa which is 
rich in forest resources, 15,000 acres in the North- 
Western, Province, 11,000 in the Central, 6,500 in the 
Western and only 500 in Uva. Readers will be 
BUiq)rised to learn that 
The area of forests reserved since the coming into 
operation of the Forest Ordinsnce (No. 10 of 1885) is 
very small, the total area, exclusive of the Walapane 
forest, of which no survey has been made, being only 
809 acres. 
Besides the forests actually proclaimed, however, 
32 have “ been taken in hand,” and it is added ; 
I would urge that an officer of some revenue and judicial 
experience bo .appointed settlement officer, to pro eed 
from one I'orost to another until all tliearrear- a^e w( rked 
off. Some of the sottlcun ids hitherto nia"o are not 
worth tho paper thev are written on. The Aes’stnnt Con- 
servator ol li’orcs'-s, Kastern Province, reports that the 
forests ahultiug on liatticaloa lake slionid bo reserved 
at an early dato before they disappear. The Assistant 
Conservator, North-Coiitral Province, reports that as a 
rule Uipvo is no nrgenov lor ro'Orving forests, but that 
tho forust.s near Kitigala should betaken in hand. The 
Assistant Couservator, Northorn Provinco, asks that the 
forests near the sea in the Mullaittivu, Punarin, and 
Mannar districts and those in Ir.anamadu should be 
surveyed as reserved forests as .soon as eircurastances 
permit. The Assistant Conservator, Sabaragamuwa, 
goes exhaustively into the question of reserves, and 
gives a man showing the noaition of the reserves he 
de.sires to have. The Assistant Conservator, North- 
Western Province, also gives a list of the most im- 
portant forests for reservations, and deprecates any 
forest sales in Wenda Hatpattu. The constitution of 
reserved forests in the Southern Province is urgently 
needed. 
Recently in discussing the fuel question we adverted 
to the principles on which existing forests, reserved 
by the Crown, were dealt with so as to reconcile 
the supply of present requirements of timber and 
fuel with conserving and specially providing for 
the interests and wants of the future. The princi- 
ples we adverted to are illustrated in a very in- 
teresting manner in the following extract: — 
Working Pians. — Nanuoya Fore.sts. — No complete 
working plan was drawn up dnrinff the year, but a 
preliminary plan of oper.ations was made for the 
forests beWeen Nuwar.a Eliya and N.annovrr,. These 
forests, as mentioned in mv '■eport for 1888, are of 
paramount importance for the fuel supply of the Rail- 
way, and at the same time being of indifferent growth, 
at high elevation, much exposed to wind, and aituated 
on steep ground, are somewhat difficult of treatment. 
In altering the growth from ill-growing and stunted 
indigenous stock to exotics yielding a, m.aximnm of 
timber in the minimum of time, care has to be exercised 
during the work in protecting the forest against the 
effect of wind, in minimising the action of rain on the 
newly planted steep ground, and in preserving the 
natural beauty of a forest which forms so marked a 
feature on the road to Nnwara Eliya, onr most 
frequented hill station. To attain these objects it. was 
decided to adopt the following plan : — The forest was 
blocked ont in parallel strips, two cbahis in breadth, 
and at right angles to the prevailing winds, broad belts 
being also left untouched on the windward aide. The 
strips were again divided into rectangles ten chains in 
length, and the rule followed of leaving a rectangle 
nntonched lengthwise, and two rectangles crosswise 
between every two exploited rectangles. In the rect- 
angles or “ coupes ” thus marked out for felling, only 
such trees as were badly grown, crooked, hollow, sup- 
pressed, or of inferior species were taken out, while the 
finer specimens were spared. Thus the leaf canopy was 
by no means entirely removed, and between the 
standards thus left plants of Eucalyptus ylrjlndus and 
Acacia d,ecurrens were put in at intervals of 
6 ft. by 6 ft. Bv this arrangement of having 
narrow rectangles of exploited land alternating with 
untouched bands of forest, and ha’vin,g the rect- 
angle BO short that the rush of rain water cannot 
get up much impetus, while the mixture of exotics with 
indigenous species is not likely to be inharmonious, the 
object we have in view will in all prohahilitv he attained. 
It is proposed to work over the whole forest in 25 years. 
This year only a commencement was made, and the 
plantations were uofortuoately taken up at the wrong 
moment, with the result that a large number of plants 
died. 
Railway Supply Forfsts. — The first steps werea'so 
taken in the year under review for elaboiMtiinr a methn- 
dical treatment of the forests set apart for radwav fuel 
■=upply in the section Polgahawehi-Oolombo. Tliese 
forests stretch on both sides of the line between Mirigama 
and Poleabawelx. end He within the Western, Sabara- 
gimnwa, and North. Western Provinces The D»nnty 
Con'ervator, accompanied by the Superintendent of Fuel 
Supply, visited the fore.sts about Mirigama and Amho- 
])\iaaa, made a few rough enumeration snrvovs, and sub- 
mitted a report pi oposiug to set apart 10,000 acre' of 
forest for the section Pnlgahawela-Colomho. Tho 
report contains a proposal for working tho forests on a 
25 years rotation, utilising, as far as possible, a .system 
already tried with considerable snceess in the AYestern 
Province, viz., that of giving out indiffei’ont forest to tho 
villagers to cultivate in dry grain and other food crops 
for throe or four years and plant at tho same time 
