Indian Forest Records. 
S54. 
inevitable^ oecause there is but a limited consumption of cutch, and any 
production exceeding this amount is followed^ as a matter of course, by a 
decline in price. The permanent decline observed for years past is a more 
serious matter. 
Money sunk in cutch plantations and reserves. — Any tendency 
towards a permanent decline in the cutch trade is a matter which closely 
concerns Government interests. Up to 1907 cutch plantations aggregat- 
ing 8,656 acres have been created and maintained at a total cost, to date, 
of HI, 46,044, in addition to which 6,696 acres of mixed teak and cutch 
plantations have been formed and maintained at a total cost, to date, of 
HI, 00,43 7 : charging half of the latter sum to cutch, it will be seen that 
about 2 lakhs of rupees have already been spent on cutch plantations. 
Besides this, considerable sums have been spent in forming and main- 
taining natural reserves of cutch forests, so that any permanent decline in 
or total cessation of the cutch trade will be a matter of orave concern. 
Factors which may account for the decline in the cutch trade. — Several 
reasons have been suggested to account for the decline in the cutch trade. 
Some of these are of little value, but there are three factors which are 
worth examining in some detail, and as will be seen below, the true 
reasons for the decline in the trade are to be found in a combination of 
three factors, which are — (1) the limited uses and demand for cutch, 
(2) substitutes for cutch, (3) adulteration and faulty manufacture. 
(7) lAmited uses and, demand for cutch. — Owing to the introduction 
of cheaper substitutes, the quantity of Burma cutch now consumed is 
considerably less than it was some years ago. The workBs annual con- 
sumption of Burma cutch probably does not now exceed 4,50() tons per 
annum, and when this demand is satisfied there is no other outlet for 
cutch. Moreover, the price must be a low one to tempt importers to pur- 
chase in anticipation of future I’equirements, as the cost of keeping cutch 
in store in Great Britain, and the loss in weight during about six months, 
adds some 1 0 per cent, to importing prices. As the speculative value of 
cutch is thus a low one, and as the quantity of cutch manufactured 
fluctuates a good deal year by year, the market prices of the product 
must, in view of the restricted demand, also fluctuate proportionally, and 
this fact explains to a great extent the ups and downs of the cutch market 
at comparatively short intervals, though it does not entirely explain the 
drop which has taken place for a long series of years ; the latter drop is 
