416 THE TIMBER TREES AND USEFUL PLANTS 
will it henceforth be so ? And this includes two subjects cf very con- 
siderable importance — viz. 1st. does clearing imply that cultivation will 
follow 1 And 2nd, apart altogether from the larger and more valuable 
timber trees, is not the demand for firewood within a few years likely 
to be such as would warraut some conservancy ? I do not think there is 
any doubt that within the last few years a great deal of land has under 
the present system been more or less cleared, but it by no means follows 
that the ploughman treads on the heels of the " lumberer." I am sorry I 
cannot give figures applying to the whole forest in this regard but the 
following may suffice. In the Nujeebabad forest proper, i. e. roughly 
speaking from the Khop and the head-waters of the Ganghun to the 
Peelee Rao and the Ganges, containing about 100,000 acres, there were 
at the time of the mutiny 4,990 acres cultivated, this year the amount 
of cultivation is 5,461 acres, and this is five years' progress in this direc- 
tion. But still further, what increase of cultivation may have recently 
taken place within the forest bounds has in almost no case been effected 
within the the forest proper, when on the contrary within but a few 
years many villages have become waste. The fact appears to be that 
any considerable increase of cultivation within the forest bounds takes 
place in ordinary circumstances along its edges, and as has been before 
indicated, reasons connected with the physical structure of the tract and 
the scarcity of water render it almost impossible that it should be other- 
wise, and for similar reasons the cultivation from the inner edge must 
always be very limited, here much more so than opposite Kumaon where 
streams of some size are much more frequent. 
With these views I cannot but consider any estimate, such as that 
given regarding the Chandee and Nujeebabad Forests, of 75 p. c. of 
cultivable land, as extremely fallacious, though doubtless something like 
that proportion may be arable in the literal sense of the term. 
The very Boksas whom it has been the habit to suppose " to the 
manner born" seem only to have been originally driven to settle within 
the forest belt by external pressure, and now that pressure has been for 
many years removed even they tend to leave the intra-forest clearings. 
Several of these last have within the memory of man been deserted, and 
almost the only village which has increased in size by immigration is 
Bergnalla, which is de facto in the Tarai belt outside the forest proper. 
For many years at least and until every acre of available land outside 
of the dry forest has been brought under the plough, it seems very un- 
likely that men will voluntarily betake themselves to agriculture on the 
large scale in this tract where so many difficulties have to be faced. 
Any large increase of the demand for firewood to be supplied from 
the Bijnour forest depends on the advance of railways, and in particular 
on the not improbable contingeney of a lateral, longitudinal railway 
line with transverse branches, permeating Rohilkhund within a few 
years. As illustration of what will take place in such a case, I may 
