10 
Indian Forest Records. 
[Yol. VIII 
time as the main crop. In the hills maize and millet followed by potatoes 
is the commonest crop but a great variety including barley and occasion¬ 
ally oats and a sort of wheat is grown. Recent experiments carried out 
by the Cinchona Department have proved the forest soil at 6-7000 feet 
and even higher to be suitable for growing Digitalis and Belladonna 
and a chemical firm have just applied for permission to grow medicinal 
herbs in our hill taungyas. This may make cultivation at high elevations 
more popular. At one place in the plains which will be referred to 
later an experiment in growing the field-crops departmentally is being 
tried; here the Agricultural Department has assisted us with advice 
and supplied us with the best varieties of seed. 
6. The trees grown include a large number of species, the rule at 
present being to try any useful tree which appears to do well in the 
locality. As there seems to be no insurmountable difficulty in grow¬ 
ing any desired species, the question of what to grow on a given site 
resolves itself into one of relative rates of growth combined with the 
probable market values which the silviculturist and economist can even¬ 
tually answer. Sal and Cryptomeria japonica are grown pure and Tun 
is grown in mixture on account of the twig-borer but, for the rest, the 
question of pure crops or mixtures remains undecided. The general 
practice in the Forest Department is to grow pure crops or to mix the 
species in fairly large patches whereas the Cinchona Department favour 
mixtures by single trees and sometimes mix quite a number of species 
together. The species most commonly grown at the different elevations 
are given in the following paragraphs. 
7. In the plains sal is the most valuable species and, incidentally, the 
one most difficult to grow as it requires good cultivation round it to 
make up for its comparatively slow growth. The question has some¬ 
times been raised as to whether it might not be more profitable to replace 
sal by some faster-growing valuable species, especially as sal being 
purely a heavy construction timber, is more likely to be superseded 
by steel than lighter, more elastic or handsomer woods. As a counter 
to this it is pointed out that it is not likely to be superseded for sleepers 
and that there is probably no part of India where it grows faster or is of 
better quality. Whatever may be the truth in this matter, the present 
policy is to sow sal wherever it seems likely to do well. In places in 
the plains unsuitable for sal the species most frequently grown at present 
are Gomari (Gmelina arborea), Kainjal (Bischofia javanica), Tun (Cedrela 
Toona and microcarpa), Chikrassi ( Chickrassia tabular is), and Simal 
(Bombax malabaricum) but several others which, for various reasons 
have been grown only on a comparatively small scale, appear likely 
to be at least as profitable ; among these are Champ (Michelia Cliampaca ), 
[ 343 ] 
