[VOL. IV 
Indian Forest Records. 
afforest open areas; ( d ) any method of cultivation which 
may have been proved to give good results and best 
season for sowing and planting; ( e ) whether in nature 
they usually occur pure or in admixture with other 
species. If the latter, with what species do they usually 
grow best. 
( VII) The experimental cultivation of those exotics which seem 
most likely to succeed should be at first on a small scale 
only. This work must, however, be carried out strictly as 
an economic forest operation, and the expenditure per acre 
should be kept within such limits as shall insure a financial 
profit even if but moderate success is attained. So far as 
possible, in all cases, the mo$t suitable indigenous species 
should be cultivated with the exotics under precisely 
similar conditions to give an idea of their comparative 
values. 
9. It is not of course assumed that all 
the important factors of a plant's environment have been included under 
heads (Y) and (YI) of the last paragraph, but it is maintained that those 
factors which are, as a rule, the limiting factors in India and on which, 
in the majority of cases, success or the reverse depends, have been con¬ 
sidered, more especially those of the temperature and available water- 
supply, which latter again chiefly depends on the soil, rainfall, tempera¬ 
ture, humidity of air, and winds. It may be argued that it is quite im¬ 
possible to obtain the detailed information set out above, but the answer 
to this is that efforts ought to be made to obtain information as complete 
as possible seeing that, as a general rule, the more care taken to place 
a plant in a suitable and natural environment, the greater will be the 
chance of economic success. Again, it may be argued that, even if the 
information asked for is supplied, it will be still difficult to select the 
most suitable plants since it is not known how great a variation in any 
particular factor, such as rainfall, or temperature, recorded in the artifi¬ 
cial, as compared with the natural, habitat, will suffice to prevent 
growth in the former. Again, considerable variation in one factor may 
be of little importance provided it is accompanied by a considerable 
difference in some other factor. Thus many plants can withstand ex¬ 
tremes of temperature in some localities which would prove fatal in 
others. A copious water-supply by enabling a plant to transpire 
[142] 
18 
Cultivation to 
be in strict 
accord with 
economic 
principles. 
