Part III. ] R. S. Hole : Useful Exotics in Indian Forests. 
13 
this question of cultivating exotics is one in which Forest officer4 in 
all Provinces take considerable interest. When it is considered, how¬ 
ever, that this work on a more or less extensive scale has been 
persistently carried on for the last 30—40 years, the further fact stands 
out clearly, viz., that the economic results of value obtained from 
these operations have been very small. The expenditure on the ex¬ 
perimental cultivation of various exotics in a single Division of one 
Province during the period 1903—10 is reported to have been Rs. 4,108. 
This gives some idea of the amount of money, time, and trouble which 
have been given to this work during the last 40 years, and it is difficult 
to resist the conclusion that better results would probably have been 
obtained had these been devoted to a study of indigenous species. 
A certain amount of success has, it is true, been obtained from the 
introduction of the Hevea rubber and it is probable that good results 
will be obtained from the cultivation of Camphor. The cultivation 
of such trees, however, with the object of establishing industries in 
such products as rubber and camphor falls rather within the sphere 
of the planter than of the forester. The duties of the Forest Depart¬ 
ment with reference to them are usually limited to the establishment 
of small experimental plantations, where such are required, in order 
to encourage private enterprise. With the exception of this kind of 
work in one or two limited areas, however, it is believed that the only 
plantations of exotics which can be regarded as successful from the 
point of view of economic forestry, and which have resulted from 
all the work done hitherto in this connection, are to be found in 
the Eucalyptus plantations of the Nilgiris. Mr. Gamble with his 
great knowledge and experience of our indigenous species and in the 
light of a personal knowledge of the successful Eucalyptus plantations 
in Southern India records his opinion clearly and decidedly on the relative 
merits of indigenous and exotic species in the following words :— “ A 
great deal has been written, urging the more extended cultivation of 
Eucalypts in India ; but until some species is found which, with a mini¬ 
mum of trouble, can be grown and will thrive on poor barren soils where 
indigenous trees are wanting, there seems no object in spending money 
on their further growth. On the Nilgiris, the growth of the l< Simla” 
trees was found to be so slow that there was danger of the indigenous 
growth being exhausted, and so the introduction of the quick-growing 
Eucalypts and wattles was an important measure. * * On the whole, how- 
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