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LIBRARY
FACULTY OF FORESTRY
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
FORESTRY IN SOUTHERN INDIA,
BY
MAJOR-GENERAL H. R. MORGAN,
LATE DEPUTY CONSERVATOR OF FORESTS, MADRAS.
EDITED BY
JOHN S H R T T, M.D., M.B.C.P. & s., F.L.S., &c.,
RETIRED DEPUTY SURGEON-GENERAL, MADRAS ARMY.
MADRAS:
HIGGINBOTHAM AND CO.
Appointment in Entfia to Q]is iSoflal fljicjfjncss tfjc prince of
anti Ipublisfjcrs to tljc
1884.
MADRAS:
PRINTED BY HIGOINBOTHAM & CO.,
164 & 165, MOUNT ROAD.
60
PREFACE.
HAVING for nearly twenty years been employed
either in working or inspecting the working of
forests for Government, I may claim to have had
some experience in forest matters. I am aware
that there is yet much to be learnt in the work-
ing of our forests and in the conservancy of the
same. Hitherto there has been no manual on these
subjects to guide the young Forest Officer. Hints
lie scattered here and there in the various Forest
Reports. I have, therefore, put together the
result of my twenty years' experience, in the hope
that they may be useful, though imperfect. I have
selected the forests of Nellumboor, Wynaad and
Anamullies, as they are, the forests principally
worked for Teak, and are at the same time those
with which I am most familiar. The remaining
forests in this Presidency have hitherto been
worked on the License and Voucher system, and do
not afford scope for remark. I have cited no autho-
rities to support my statement as there are none.
A short time ago the acquirements expected of
an officer in the Salt Department were enumerated,
PREFACE.
so multifarious were they that they even transcended
the knowledge demanded from a Forest Officer if
possible, and these are not trifling when I mention
that a Forest Officer to be really useful should know
first and foremost the language of the people, without
this he is useless, or at best, at the mercy of
intriguing interpreters in addition to the language,
the habits and customs of the people, then Arbori-
culture in all its branches, next Engineering and
Surveying how to build houses and bridges, survey
roads, and blocks of forest, &c., run boundaries by
a pickaxe trench, and mounds of earth, stones are
useless. Physic his people when ill, treat them
with tact, attend to the health of his bullocks and
elephants, and last but not least, keep his own health,
answer endless letters, and understand accounts.
The life of a Forest Officer is not cast on a bed of
roses, but rather a bed of thorns, an iron constitution
and a good conscience may enable him to surmount
all his difficulties, and wishing him the possession of
all these priceless gifts, I subscribe myself,
AN OLD FOEEST OFFICER.
INTRODUCTION.
THE Teak tree scientifically known as the Tectona grandis
belongs to the natural order of Yerbenaceae or Vervain
order, a genus of dicotyledonous plants deriving its name
from the Indian one of tekJca or theJca used to designate the
principal species. The most important, if not the only
species, is the Tectona grandis, a large tree, a native of
India, the wood of which is well known by the name of Teak
or Sagwan. It is hard, and durable, and of great use in
building ships as well as for many other useful purposes, as
it is very hard and of longer duration than the oak. Ifc
is often called the Indian Oak, having ashy-coloured and
scaly bark with the young shoots, four-sided and grooved
without stipules, large deciduous leaves measuring from
twelve to twenty-four inches long, and from eight to sixteen
inches broad, rough and covered with short stiff hairs above,
whitish and downy beneath, panicles terminal, large cross-
armed divided in twos with a stemless fertile flower in each
cleft or division covered with a brown mealy powder, and
the stalks are deeply grooved with four prominent angles,
and flowers numerous small white, the outer and inner
envelopes, five to six cleft, stamens, six, ovary round hairy,
four-celled cells, one seeded nut very hard. It flowers in
June and July, and the seeds ripen in September and
October.
Dye. From the tender leaves a purple colour is extracted
which is used as a dye for silk and cotton cloths.
INTRODUCTION.
Medicinal The young leaves are eaten boiled with sugar
in sore mouth, and the flowers prepared much in the same
way in dropsy. The green fruits are compounded into an
ointment and used for various skin eruptions.
Wood. The timber which is hard but light is easily
worked, and is soon seasoned from being oily, it does not
shrink nor injure iron, and resists the attacks of white
ants and other insects on land, and the Laminora terelrans
or other Crustacea* when exposed to the action of the sea-
water. It weighs when seasoned about forty-seven pounds
the cubic foot. Of the different localities in which it grows,
Malabar Teak is considered the best and most valuable,
whilst the greatest quantity is obtained from Pegu, the
price varies from three to five rupees the cubic foot, and it
is the most useful, strong and valuable timber met with in
India ; occasionally specimens may be seen beautifully veined
and mottled. In about twenty-five years the stem attains a
diameter of two feet, but to attain maturity, it takes from
fifty to one hundred years, attaining an enormous size.
The Teak is found growing in the Southern and Western
parts of the peninsular of India, in Malabar, Cauara, Wy-
naad, Auamallies, Burmah, Sumatra, Java, Cutchea and
Sumatra, Upper Godavery and Central Provinces.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
TEAK FORESTS. Page,
Ripe Trees-Why scattered-Nature of Teak Seed
Brown of Arniston could not sow Acorns Rats^and Squirrels
Form of Teak Seed Shutting up a Forest Sal Seeds
germinate at once Yield of Forest Scattering Seed broad-
cast in use Sowing germinated seed in crowbar pits Fire
Path Carriage FacilitiesPlantations, for further inform-
ation, see Prize Essay on Fuel Plantations Sites- Growth
^-^ a k S^ilf Locality for Sites Teak Plantation-
Balance Sheet of Teak Plantations Forest establishment-
No Forest Law No Forest Policy Forest Staff Nellum-
boor Teak Plantations Management Thinning Chatoo
Menon-Mr. Ferguson, 1845 Trees-Size of trees on River
Banks^-Subsoils Fast g^o^inga^ber^ColoT[eTBe^cTo^e ? s
Report on Plantations, and my Report Felling Pitting
Seed-beds Treatment of seeds Forest Report, 1871-1872
C ^_ se ^ D J^l se - A S e of neural Teak trees on the land
Su^ablejClimate andAu^Oimate- Thinning out Plant-
ing Teak by rows 15 to 18 -feet not suitable for straight
Timber Waste in Forests by curved Teak-planting the
rule inSguthern Indian-Officers to study at Nellumboor-
uropean Forestry not suited to India Pruning not to be
delayed Never cut into the stem in large branches Dress-
ingwounds-Working the Forests-Fences no use against
elephants-Enemies of young trees Time for felling
Dep6ts -Burning of Teak Dep6t on Anamallies-Distance
>f Dep6ts from each other How to put out fire Main Roads
Dragging Bridges Carting Mode of dragging Ele-
phants' food-Elephants' Mahouts Nature of Elephants-
Wounds to treat Food Saw-mills ,_
CHAPTER II.
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
Wellington Barracks.-Timber-Supply-Cost of Anna-
Timber Four lacs saved by working a Leased Forest
20
CONTENTS.
Page.
Reorganization of Establishment and new mode of working
-Plantation-Stump Fee, Improving Leased Forest by ge,
minated seed sowing-Public buildings "W*^
mallies-Houses for Forest Establishment-Float ng to
Wynaad-Timber, Nellumboor-Raftmg-Steamer a
Boats-Shoots-Slips-SeasoningofTeak-G.rdhng- ^_^
ing Steamers versus Rafting
CHAPTER III.
SANDALWOOD.
Sites with Nurseries-Pits-Fences-Pruning-Cause of
Heartshake-Shade-Trees 8 feet apart-Sandal roo
Parasitical-Nurscs-Mulli Vambo-Cutting-Fell.ng--B
to treat-Natural Sandal-Increasing the same-Size
Trc >s_Fences Establishment Yield for 100 Acres-25 tc
40 years old-Balance sheet for 40 years-Returns-Pi
of Sandalwood-Sites planting-Reserve blocks for Sane
wood-Sandal in Wynaad-Minerals for trees-Lim
Teak Ceara for Nurses
CHAPTER IV.
DRY FOREST.
Salem-South Arcot, Kurnool, &c.-Shutting up portions
of Forests-Increase of Dry Forests-Best kmds of trees-
3> jy
Red Cedar
CHAPTER V.
GENERAL REMARKS.
Forest Fires-Cattle, &c.-Damage done by them- Re-
ma rks on Plantations-Ryots confined to the.rv.Uage
Tungles-Hedgerow Timber-Grazing Rjghts-Burnmg
J Catf.e manure-Damage caused thereby-tducat.on of the
Ryot-Cultivation of Palmyra-Plant.ng of Sappa, .
Malabar
CHAPTER VI.
NOTES ON "ACCACIA MEIANOXYLON"
Introduced by Colonel Dunn-Its uses-Eucalyptus Glo-
bulous-Sizes of Eucalyptus-Of the wood as r.mber-
Varietiesof Eucalyptus-E. Gigantea-So.ls-Coldand He-
valion-Rain-li.il and Temperature-Mode of Plantmg-
Uses of the Wood-Balance Sheets
C O N T E N T S.
CHAPTER VII.
- 43,44
CHAPTER VIII.
FOREST LABOR ^
CHAPTER IX.
IIKALTH 01' ESTABLISHMENT 44~ 47
CHAPTER X.
GENERAL TREATMENT OF SEEDS.
Cuttings Glass Houses Introduction of Cinchona, Scien-
tific Treatment of Plants Isothernal Lines 47 50
CHAPTER XL
LIST OF TREES.
Suitable and necessary for introduction into our wet and
dry Forests, and Hill Stations - o g o
CHAPTER XII.
FUEL PLANTATION.
Prize Essay by Major-General Morgan, Ootacamund 61 US
CHAPTER XIII.
HUMUS AND THE DEFERT1LI ZATION OF FOREST SOILS,
&c., IN INDIA, by Rhodes Morgan, Esq., F.Z.S., District
Forest Officer, Malabar g ,
CHAPTER XIV.
FOREST PRODUCTS, by Rhodes Morgan, Esq., F.Z.S., Dis-
trict Forest Officer, Malabar
CHAPTER XV.
FUEL PLANTATIONS.
Prize Essay by Rhodes Morgan, Esq., F.Z.S,, District
Forest Officer, Malabar
130140
ERRATA.
PAGE.
30 line 19 for Malabar read Mysore.
42 ,, 19 cutch read Dye wood.
54 (margin) for fradinifolia read fraxinifolia.
54 nmnricata read muricata.
55 ,, Camphora officinarum read Dryabalanops
Camphora.
56 Sterculia foetida read Callopbyllum angus-
tifolium.
60 line 15 after Queensland strike out Hill.
73 ,, 26 for Jannesabit read Jamboolana.
81 last para, from After the whole, &c., to with new species,
on page 98 belongs to Fuel Plantations by Rhodes
Morgan, and should be added on to page 140.
FORESTRY IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
ON first taking over a Teak forest it is well to ascertain
the probable amount of ripe trees contained in the square Ripe trees.
mile, an acre is no criterion at all, even a square mile will
only be a very approximate estimate, for Teak being grega-
rious, one square mile may contain a thousand trees or more,
and then for five square miles, you may hardly find a single
tree. The reason is this. The seed is a heavy one, and
eaten by no birds ; squirrels occasionally carry a seed a few-
yards to a neighbouring tree to devour it, and the Teak is
spread for a small area around the parent tree. Rains too
wash the seed down into hollows where it may germinate,
but as a rule the Teak trees in a forest increase very slowly,
and to trust to nature alone is a fallacy. Though no birds Nature of Teak
eat the Teak seed, there are hundreds of rats and squirrels s<
in the forest, quite enough to eat up every Teak seed that
falls.* I have examined thousands of Teak seeds in the
forest, and as a rule have found the mark of the squirrels or
rats' teeth. The Teak seed is peculiar it has two to four
cells encased in a hard shell, each cell has a little trap-door,
which, on lifting with a penknife, discloses the kernel.
Though every seed may have four cells, they are not always
full, for sometimes only one germinates, but often two,
rarely three, and scarcely ever four. Sometimes the squir-
rel or rat eats the contents of one or two cells, and leaves
one intact, this may or may not germinate. But it is clear Rats and
from the havoc committed by these four-footed vermin that
* Brown of Arniston could not sow acorns on account of mice and rat
867.
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
forest.
Sal seeds germi
Date at once.
yield.
the seed has a small chance, and very little is gained by
Shutting of Teak shutting up teak forests so far as the germination of seed is
concerned and the increase of young plants. It is not so
with other trees, for instance, the Sal seed germinates in the
air sometimes, and its vitality is small this is why Sal
trees are gregarious, and when fires are kept out, they
spring up in thousands, whereas in walking through a Teak
forest for a whole day, you will hardly see hundreds of
Teak saplings.
Amount of annual Having ascertained what amount of ripe timber your
forest is likely to yield and the market demand, you must
cut accordingly. Let us assume that your demand is fifty
thousand cubic feet annually, and that your forest is capable
of supplying that amount for thirty years. It becomes
evident that you must plant to supply the deficiency. It is
but of little use scattering seed here and there in the hopes
of its growing, the cost, it is true, is not much, but then
the returns are almost nil. There is one way in which seed
may be made use of, (though even that is doubtful, as rats
have a very keen scent, and are apt to dig up the seed ;)
when it is impossible, on account of the area or unhealthi-
ness of the locality to form a regular plantation, then the
following system can be tried. The seeds in May may be
soaked for twenty-four hours in warm water, then buried in
sand in a heap, and left to germinate.
When the shoot appears, the men proceed to the selected
spot, having previously made holes with crow-bars at six
feet intervals the holes to be six inches deep, and enlarged
at the top by working the crow-bar about, one man fills in
the holes to within an inch of the top, the next man places
a germinated seed in the hole, the third man covers it up.
In this manner a small party of men may, in a season be-
tween June and August, plant up an area of some ninety
acres. Four men should hole an acre with one thousand holes
and four men plant it. It is probable that on account of the
number of trees already occupying the ground, that not
more than five hundred seeds could be put in, should there be
Scattering seed
no use.
Sowing seed.
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
any Teak trees on the ground, it will be useless planting near
them, indeed a radius of thirty feet should be kept clear. In
selecting a piece of ground for planting up with Teak, it
will be advisable not to have too many Teak trees on it.
It will also be well to clear it of bushes, and to make the
holes when the ground is free from grass, before putting in
the crow-bar, it will be best if there is grass, to cut out a
sod a foot square, to prevent the grass from strangling the
young plants. A square block is best to select as more
easily watched. A fire-path should be cut round it at least Fire-path,
six feet wide and fire rigidly kept out, for, should the young
plant survive an attack of fire, the disease of heartshake is
established, and it is the constant forest fires that cause
heartshake by damaging the young saplings.
As most of our Teak forests consist of one to two hundred Carriage facilities,
square miles, it is obvious that the area to be supervised
being so enormous, the planting requires to be concentrated
as much as possible, and in selecting blocks for planting up,
it is best to have a regard to facilities of carriage by water
or by land.
Assuming that we do not rely altogether on germinated Sites.
seed, but resolve to form a regular plantation, to replace
the annual demand, for timber, we select a block of land
that is accessible by road or water and the soil and climata
suitable for it often, happens that the eastern end of a
forest may be dry and the soil indifferent, and the western
though, only ten miles distant, possesses a different climate
and soil, in fact both suitable for Teak growing, the only
drawback being the extra cost of carriage. It is far better
to pay the extra cost rather than have an indifferent planta-
tion. As shown above, the demands are fifty thousand cubic
feet annually. We must, therefore, plant a sufficient area to
produce something more than that amount annually at the
end of thirty years. The annual increase of Teak may be
taken in a favorable situation at one cubic foot a year. At Growth of Teak.
Nellumbore it is over two cubic feet annually. That is a
tree forty years old will have forty cubic feet of marketable
4 MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
timber if properly trained. Teak trees, if well planted and
pruned, can be drawn up to sixty and seventy feet without
a branch. This is done first by close planting, second by
pruning, if you plant six by six and thin out at the twelfth
year always presuming that your treeshave grown fast, then
you will secure a good straight growtnX
There is but little demand in 'India for curved timber,
consequently to prevent loss and waste it is essential to
g il s . secure straight growth, (fhe best soil for a Teak plantation
is a sandy clay on the banks of a stream, the ground should
slope gently towards the stream, if too steep, the soil on the
top of the hill is apt to be indifferent. There are other soils
such as a brown surface soil with a rather retentive sub-soil
of yellow clay, in such a place Teak grows well.
From Mudumalli in the south to the end of the Wynaad
Forests in the north there are thousands of acres suitable
for planting. In Wynaad there is water carriage from the
Cubbany river to near Mysore. In Mudumalli at a distance
of some ten miles is the high road to Mysore. In the Ana-
mullies the soil and climate are well suited for the growth
of Teak, and numerous sites could be chosen ; at Nellumbore
there are stilL^pme five thousand acres suitable for Teak
> plantations. Hj^Jftct if Teak planting was pursued with
| J\ energy at the rate of one thousand acres a year, there is
sufficient land to occupy the-J^prest Department in planting
for the next century and more\ There is but little Teak in
Madura or Tinnevelly, and there must be some suitable sites
Locality for sites, in those localities. Teak, it will be observed, grows at the
sea-level, the foot of the Carcoor Ghat near Nellumbore is
only five hundred feet above the sea, and it grows well on
some of the hills in Wynaad over three thousand feet in
elevation, given a fair soil and plenty of moisture, Teak
grows well, but does not stand drying easterly winds. When
inexperienced people see Teak that has luvn cut over, and
throwing up large shoots with large leaves, tin -y imagine at
once that the soil and climate are suitable !'>r Teak and that,
some primeval forest of Teak once existed :iul had been
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
utterly destroyed ; the truth being that both soil and climate
were incapable of producing good Teak, and at the best
stunted specimens grew there which never contained five
cubic feet of marketable timber, a notable example maybe
found in the Hills near Cuddapah, and Mr. E. C. Thomas,
c. s., in his work " Famine" alludes to the Teak trees there
as once a fine forest and cites the size of the leaves on the
shoots as a criterion of the magnitude of the trees. There
is another example, near Musnacoil at the foot of the Segoor
Ghat, hundreds of Teak trees are seen bordering the road
with leaves as large as the finest trees have in a good forest,
and yet those trees have never produced, and never will
produce five cubic feet of good timber. Yet ten miles west
as the crow flies, fine Teak will be found, so great, an altera-
tion of climate does ten miles produce in this locality
whereas ten miles further west in the Cuddapah jungles
would produce no change whatsoever. We will suppose Teak plantation,
that in your forest of one to two hundred square miles, you
have plenty of blank spaces to fill in, some you devote to
the planting of germinated seed, but in more favorable
localities such as when there is good soil, easy carriage by
road or water, a scarcity of Teak, you determine upon a
regular plantation of at least five hundred acres to be
planted at the rate of twenty acres a year ; this will meet
the loss of the fifty thousand cubic feet taken out annually,
by this process, in a few years, you have provided for a
demand in future years much in excess of present require-
ments. As a Teak tree in fair localities may be supposed to
make a cubic foot a year, at the end of thirty years your
acre will represent two hundred trees containing at least
six thousand cubic feet of good timber, half of these are cut
out representing three thousand cubic feet. The remaining
hundred may be left to stand for another thirty years, by
which time they will average sixty cubic feet each or six
thousand cubic feet in all. These nine thousand cubic feet
should represent at least 9,000 rupees. In addition to this,
I allow nothing for the trees taken out between twelve and
thirty years of age though as poles it would be found that
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
they brought a remunerative price. The account would
stand thus :
RS. A. P.
To felling and clearing 20 acres at 15 Rs.... 300
1,200 pits 18" at 10 Rs. per 1,000 240
Planting per acre at 6 Rs 120
Cost of plants per acre at 6 Rs. ... ... 120
Weeding first year, 5 Rs. per acre ... ... 100
880
Supervision ten per cent. ... ... ... 88
Rs. 968
1st year
Felling and clearing 20 acres at 15 Rs. ... 300
1,200 plants per acre at 6 Rs 120
1,200 pits at 12 Rs 240
Planting per acre 6 Rs 120
Weeding 1st year at 5 Rs 100
Rs. 880
Supervision 10 per cent ... ... ... 88
968
Tools 200
1,168
Weeding 12 years at 100 Rs. a year ...1,200
2,368
Interest 5 per cent. 12 years... ... ...1,416
3,784
Cutting 10,000 trees at 25 Rs. per 1,000 ... 384
Supervision 12 years at 40 Rs. a year ... 480
Rs. 4,648
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
For this year 1882, Teak is selling in Madras for 2-8-0 to
3-8-0 the cubic foot, and to carry Teak from Wynaad to
Madras costs as follows :
RS. A. P.
Floating to Nuugengode per toil of fifty
cubic feet ... ... ... ... ... 600
Carting to Railway Mysore ... ... ... 200
Kail, Mysore to Madras 280 miles, 8 pie a
toil a mile 12
Carting to Depot 200
If we add 3 Rs. for agency charges en route
aiid at Madras 300
Rs. 25
We have a total charge of 8 annas a cubic foot added to
total value in Forest one rupee makes the wood delivered
in Madras 1-8-0 per cubic foot.
From Nellumbore and the Anamallies, the cost would be
about the same. Let us take Nellumbore :
Floating or carriage by steamer per ton to
Beypore 600
Rail to Madras 8 pie per ton per mile 400
miles 16 10
Carting to Depot 200
Cost of agency per ton ... ... ... 300
Rs. 27
This is a little over 1-8-0 per cubic foot.
From the Anamallies the cost would be
Carting to Coimbatore per ton say ... ... 600
Railfare to Madras 300 miles 12
Carting to Depdfc 200
Agency, &c. ... ... ... ... ... 300
Rs. 23
8
Forest establish
inent.
Forest law.
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
This shows a little wider 1-8-0 per cubic foot. It has
always appeared to me that if the Forest officer had an
efficient establishment, his duty was to carry h.s timber
the best market, for merchants dislike going into fever
forests, the risk is too great, consequently when they c
the revenue suffers. It is always easier for the ]
Department to undertake work in the forest than outs
always assuming that the establishment is a strong
I have no hesitation in saying that the revenue .
forests, viz., Wynaad, Anamallies, and Nellumbore migb
have been doubled if efficient establishments both 6
conservation and working of the forests had been kept
from the formation of the department. Uufortun
revenue was demanded at once, and the result was
conservancy had to be abandoned. In addition t
there was no Forest law, damage by cattle and fires
a bar to all improvements ; convictions could not be obta
some Collectors were in favor of conserving the f
strictly, others the reverse. A Forest officer had no soom
No Forest policy, established an understanding with the Collector and
things to work amicably than there came another Colic
who had quite different views and ideas, and evarytt
went to ruin. One Member of Council was in favo.
shutting up the Anamallies, another was not, and
matter went on until what ought to have been an admit
department storing up the sources of a large revenue
future years, became like a certain other department, n<
saving department but a spending one.
As every forest is now to have a strong staff backed
up by a Forest law, there will be some chance of fore
in Madras, being placed in a safe position for the fut,
but five and twenty years have been lost, am
take very l,-avy efforts to recover only a port,
ground.
It is satisfactory to know that one part of tlu- 1-Wst
,,, , 1!ls ,,,,i beea.uffereatolangui8h,andtbati 8
plantingof Nellumbore. With over 3,000 acres plant*
Forest staff.
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
and some 5,000 acres still to plant up, there is work cut
out here for many a day.
I had since I860 been more or less connected with these Nellumbore Teak
splendid plantations until I retired from the service in 1874,
when working the Mudumalli Forest for the Wellington
Barracks which I was engaged in building, I had occasion
in 1857 to visit the Rajah of Nellumbore about forest
matters, and first saw the Teak plantations then about
thirteen years old in 1860,1 visited them officially and
found that the 1845 plantation had never been thinned, and Management,
required to be operated upon at once. The 1843 and 44?
plantations had been thinned more by failures than by the
hand of man they were poor and of no extent; but the 1845
was a very fine one, and the old Overseer Chatoo Menon
could not bring himself to cut out the trees. I had to Thiuniug.
mark the trees myself and followed by half a dozen axe-
men, in a week we had made a considerable gap, and the
ice once broken, the old man went on thinning out under
the auspices of Overseer Hall whom I sent down to assist
him. This 1845 block should have been thinned three
years before, the trees were crowding each other and
making no progress.
In 1860 I was enabled to appoint Mr. Ferguson to the
charge of these important plantations, and Chatoo Menon Chatoo Menon.
retired on a pension which he had well earned. Here I
must record how faithfully and how well this native had
served the Government ; connected with the Nellumbore
Rajah's family, he had position, and being immediately
under the orders of the Collector, he, of course, derived con-
siderable support from the Revenue authorities. From
1843 to 1860 Chatoo Menon had been incessantly engaged
in planting, and had put out about a million of Teak plants
on 1,200 acres. Mr. Ferguson, a practical Forester, soon Mr. Ferguson,
mastered the details of planting and pruning, and when I 1845 trees.
saw the 1845 plantation in 1872, the trees were about seventy
feet high and fifty feet without a branch, they were then
nearly thirty years old, and had then over fifty cubic feet of
10
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
Size of trees on
River banks.
Soils, sub-soils.
Fastgrowing
timber.
timber in them. They have now over one hundred cubic
feet in 1883.
At Nellumbore it was remarkable to see how enor-
mous was the growth of the trees on the river banks,
and how the size gradually receded to one-third on the
tops of the low Hills especially where laterite cropped out
on the surface showing of what vital importance is good soil
to a Teak plantation. It may here be remarked that on
the banks of rivers in this locality, the soil is of a rather
sandy clay, easily penetrated by the roots and fully drained,
inland the sub-soil is often composed of soft laterite, but
where it comes to the surface and is hardened by the action
of the air, the trees almost refused to grow. The usual soil
in Wynaad is a very dark brown surface soil with rather a
dark yellow sub-soil, in this Teak grows well, for, like the
oak, it has no objection to a clay sub-soil.
Lindley has laid down that fast growing timber is the
best, and so far as my experience enables me to judge I
agree with him. About the year 1872 Colonel Beddome
reported to Government that he did not think the Nellum-
bore plantations would last, several fine trees had died in
an unaccountable manner, and some appeared stag-headed.
He thought the climate too forcing, and was doubtful about
the success of the experiment. Shortly after this he was
obliged to proceed to Australia for his health, and I took
up his duties. At the same time Government requested
mo to report upon the state of the Nellumbore plantations.
I accordingly visited them, and in company with Mr.
Kerguson, who was in charge, examined the dead trees. I
could iind no trace of nnsoundness in the timber, but I did
< It-tout mycelium at the roots which fully accounted for the
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
trees dying. The cause as explained by Mr. Ferguson I
ao-reed in, t-/z., the trees were situated on a flat close to
hank Of a, l;n-e stream which had overflowed, and the trees
remained under water for some months. This caused dis-
ease at the roots, they died, and of course the trees died.
With regard to the stag-headed appearance of some of
the trees, I could only account for it by supposing ,t
Colonel Beddome had seen them early in the year when
perhaps some of the ends of the top-most branches had not
developed their leaves, or from being struck by lighten-
ing for I could not find a single stag-headed tree.
going over the ground, I saw a number of fine Teak logs on
the ground, and on enquiry was shown the stumps trom My^epoHon th*
which they had been cut, on examination of the *, J
counted seventy rings, and the stumps showed plainly that this
was a second growth, and the conclusion I arrived at was
that the stump was not less than one hundred and fifty years
old, and might, from its healthy appearance, produce another Caixse of diaease.
shoot equal to what it had already done as this was natural
Teak growing close to a plantation, it became evident that
the soil and climate was quite capable of producing very large
trees, and that they would be healthy certainly up to one Age of Teak tree*
hundred and fifty years of age, and probably to two hundred '
and fifty years; and I have not the slightest hesitation in SuiteWe climate
saying that I consider the Nellumbore Teak plantations ai
capable of enduring for centuries.
In forming a Teak plantation in forest land, of course, Forming a plan-
every jungle tree is cut over, and then burnt, or if any of
the timber is valuable, it is first cut out and dragged to a
convenient distance away from fire. If felling is com- Felling, pitting,
menced in October, the wood will burn well in March, iii
April, the ground should be lined out and pitted, the holes
to be IS" cubic, and six feet by six feet. In collecting seed
in November and December, great care should be used to
prevent seed being taken from stunted weakly trees, as it is Treatment of seed,
so much easier to gather from such than from tall trees, no
seed should be picked up from the ground, as the chances are
12
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
Seed-beds.
Treatment of seed.
See Forest Keport,
1871-72, page 9.
Climate, Wynaad
and Neilumbore.
that squirrels and rats have already attacked them. When
the seed is gathered, it is tied up in bundles of grass,
and kept in a dry place free from rats. In April your seed-
beds having been made close to water, and slightly raised
some four inches with raised edges to retain water. The seed
is soaked for twenty-four hours in warm water, it may then
be kept for ten days in a heap mixed with damp sand, it is
then planted in beds in lines six inches apart in the rows.
The beds are then covered over with grass to keep in the
moisture, and are saturated with water of an evening daily,
directly one or two seeds show above ground, it is time to
remove the grass. In Nellumbore by June the plants are
six inches high, they are then carefully lifted out of the
bed line by line, their tap roots cut back to four inches,
and then they are put out in the pits. In Wynaad where
the climate is much colder, the seeds sometimes do not
show above ground for six weeks, and are not fit to be put
out before August, hence it is necessary to germinate them
in heaps. The difference of elevation some three thousand feet
makes the weather 10 degrees colder than Neilumbore, at
Growth of trees, this place the growth of young plants is very rapid, the
leaves are soon so large, that they shade the ground, and
keep the roots cool in the hot weather. I may say that in
the first year the trees at Neilumbore grow twice as fast as
those in the Wyuaad. It is a good plan to dip the roots
of the young plants in a mixture of clay and cow-dung
made into a thin paste. When the young plants are estab-
lished, little remains to be done, beyond keeping them
fairly clean and reducing two stems to one. Pruning is
never required until the first thinning of the plantation, so
to save this expensive business, the trees have purposely
been planted six by six. Thus they cover the ground, pre-
vent weeds, and do not throw out lateral branches. In tlio
twelfth year, if the trees require room, as a rule, about one-
halE are taken <>ut, ^i-c.-tt care being used to select the weakest,
trees of course, if in one place, you find three or four strong
trees together, some must COHIM out, but thinning really
requires some knowledge, and it is not to be left to unskil-
Tninning out.
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS. 13
ful hands. I have heard of all the strong trees being taken
out to let the weakly ones come on, it need scarcely be
observed that such a course of action is sufficient to ruin
anv timber plantation. In a Forest Report, of the Pegu e Planting Teak
J , , . , . m , . rows not suitable.
Forests, 1856, it is recommended to plant Teak in rows irom
eight to fifteen feet apart, and two to three feet in the rows.
The reasons given are that the rows being fifteen feet apart The Nellumbore
-,,.,., -, ,1 plantation gives
plants have ample room to extend their foliage, also any other the Denial to this,
system does not permit trees of a naturally stronger consti-
tution than the rest to develop themselves freely on account
of their being surrounded on all sides by other trees.
Now, I most certainly cannot agree in this opinion, for to
draw up trees and escape pruning is the end and aim of
our planting, to obtain marketable timber, planting close
must be the rule. It is not argued that if crooked timber Wastes in forests
is required that plants fifteen feet apart in the rows would be
a mistake, certainly not, for it may safely be assumed that
more than half the timber grown in this fashion would be
curved. The waste in the forests from the curved state of
the stems of natural grown Teak is enormous, and this
waste we wish to avoid. The writer also falls into another
mistake he writes, page 52, "The general opinion in India
is against planted Teak." Now this was written in 1856
when the Conelly Teak Plantations at Nellumbore had been Planting the rule
in existence since 1843 or thirteen years. The fact is that "
in later years Forest officers could not obtain money for
planting. In 1860 I recommended to Government that
every Forest officer should be passed through Nellumbore Officers to study
that he might learn practical planting on a large scale, and
I believe three or four Forest officers were sent to Nellum-
bore. With regard to planting and forestry in India, it
may here be remarked that the European Forester has European
much to unlearn. Mr. Ferguson found a system already suitedtolndia.
adopted and succeeding admirably, so he had nothing to
do, but follow in the footsteps of his predecessor so far as
planting went.
The pruning, of course, was his own idea, and he found
14
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
Never cut into
Pruning not to be that by pruning early, he not only saved himself much trouble
but the trees never felt it. Ifc is a fatal thing to delay
pruning, it cannot be taken in hand too soon after the first
thinning. A fine straight stem of forty feet having been
secured, but little pruning after that is required.
It is understood that in pruning to cut back a large
branch into the stem of the tree is fatal, as rot surely takes
place, and a severe wound in the stem is the consequence,
should a large branch, say, over three inches in diameter,
require amputating, it is better to shorten it at a distance of
two or three feet from the stem rather than cut it off close
to the tree. It is sometimes necessary to cut a branch clean
off, in such a case assuming the tree to be a valuable one,
Dressing wounds, it is advisable to dress the surface of the wound with a
mixture of clay and cow-dung, but such a plan could not be
adopted in large plantations, and is only brought forward
here as an extreme case.
It may sometimes happen that the leader is losfc early,
in which case two leaders appear, one must be shortened to
two feet. We must now assume that the planting of the
forest, both by germinated seed and by young plants, is
progressing favorably, that fire-paths have been cut and
cattle carefully kept out, a fence is of but little use against
elephants and bison, as a rule, they do not do much damage,
but sambur and spotted deer are in the habit, when the trees
Enemies of young are young, of barking them severely, shooting them is the
only cure. All these matters having been arranged, we now
Time for felling, proceed to the felling operations. These must only be car-
ried on during the wane of the moon for seven days in the
last quarter, and in the months of November, December,
January :uid February, as in those months the sap is down,
and if the timber is cut at the wane of the moon, it seasons
readily; the timber can be squared during the rest of the
month. As fast as the timber is squared, it should be dr:ig-
.L r cil to :i Depot, close to the nmin road and stacked. Tho
Depot to be carefully fire- traced, even this will not always
avail, for on one occasion over 20,000 Rupees of timber
Working the
Fences no use
Dep&ts.
MANAGEMENT OF TKAK FORESTS.
was burnt on the Ana.nallies in the following manner : It
appeared that a very large quantity o! Teak leaves was
drive,, by wind against the stack of timber and lodged
there; when the forest was on fire, sparks caught the infla.n-
nmble Teak leaves, and these being set a light, communicate
fire to the stuck. No one found it out for two or three days
when the alarm was given, the Forest officer wa 3 miles away,
water was not available.and the huge stack oE timber burnt on.
It was specially fine timber, having been selected for the bnil<
in- of a frigate, and the loss was great. At last the Pores!
officer arrived, and by means of his elephants, put out the fire
by buryiu<r the ends of the logs in the ground. 1 he expe,
ence obtained by the fire was, always burn the grass for two
hundred yards round your Depot, never leave more than o
hundred logs in one place. The Depots may be two hundred
yards apart. Teak on fire never flares up, it simply smoul- other .
ders slowly, so if it catches fire, by burying the end m earth
and excluding the air, the fire is soon put out. I have often seen H to put out
sparks carried two and three hundred yards in a fierce wind.
In constructing a main road through a forest, it is adv.sable Main Bead.
to have it on easy gradients, with many feeders, it must
alwaysbeborneiumiud that dragging costs more than carting,
in fact your dragging should never cost more than one anna Dragging.
a cubic foot, for instance, if yon cut fifty thousand cub.c feet
in a year, the cost of your elephants should not exceed 3,12
Rupees per annum, and as every elephant costs at least 6
Rupees a month, five elephants should suffice, but i
drag where you should cart, two annas a cub 1C foot will not
be enough. In making your bridges, it is advisable to have Bridges.
the abutments of rough stone and kura murra* beams
across, and over them a bamboo mat.
Elephants should not be allowed over bridges, nor should
they be allowed on the main roads in wet weather, as a full
grown elephant weighs five tons, and they cut up the roads
dreadfully. Wild elephants frequently destroy forest bridges.
If they (Forest elephants,) must go on the main road, the
banks of the stream should be sloped down on both sides to
* Terminalia coriacca.
16
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
Main Roads
Carting.
avoid passing over the bridges. lu the hot weather, your
bridges must be protected from fire. In fact what with
floods floating away your bridge beams, wild elephants
pulling them down, and fire getting in, bridges perpetually
require repair; fortunately, in most of all the forests, kura
murra is plentiful and makes splendid bridges up to twenty-
five feet span. If the stone abutments are fairly well built,
they should last a long time.
Forest roads are only meant for carting over in the dry
weather, so the carting should all be done in about six mouths.
It will be advisable to have your own carts for work iu
the forest. The wheels and axles should be extra strong,
capable of carrying three tons, as the jars to which the axles
are subjected in rough forest roads is very considerable. It
is a good plan to have the wheels and axles made up in a
large town. The poles can be got in the forest, they are
made of kura murra. The beams are slung under the pole,
and axle beam by means of chains, the weight being very
low down within two feet of the ground, upsets are not
common, four bullocks will take a ton of timber over rough
forest roads with ease. It is always advisable to keep
your roads in as good order as possible ; a few hundreds of
rupees carefully laid out in repair is a good investment.
Mode of dragging. In dragging timber, I am entirely in favor of harness. It
is true that sometimes, from the Mahout, not looking to the
stuffing of the collar, a swelling is caused in the point of
the shoulder which requires to be opened, and the animal
may be laid up for a month or more, but it is invariably the
fault of the Mahout. The swelling chiefly occurs in ele-
phants new to the work.
On the Anamallies the elephant drags by the teeth, so
they do in many parts of Malabar. It is a most pernicious
practice, because it loosens the teeth, and an elephant's
grinders once out of order, he has to be laid up for a long
time before he recovers. I am jiwa.ro that the elephants do
not entirely depend on their teeth, but assist themselves by
means of their trunks, still they cannot always avoid heavy
jars.
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS. 17
The Mahouts are very fond of giving raw rice or paddy Elephants' food.
to elephants, the result is that much is stolen, and much
passes through the animal undigested. To obviate this,
there are two courses one is the Burmah custom of giving
baked cakes of rice, the other, the one I always pursued in
the forest, WHS to damp the paddy for three days till it
germinated exactly as barley is malted for beer. I found
my elephants kept in better condition on thirty pounds
of dry paddy, treated in this way than on forty pounds given
unmalted. Mahouts are very fon^i of asking for massala for
elephants and of doctoring them, some of them are skilful
in curing wounds of the feet, or sores on the back and
shoulders. Elephants are subject to worms, and frequently
eat mud as the Mahouts phrase is < ' MutteekMia hei"i\}Q Medicinal as well
fact is the elephant delights in a salt lick, quite as much as forworm3 -
a deer, and should have salt in his food frequently, the
Mahouts never give it if they can help it. They prefer that
their elephants should be laid up for two or three days after This is natural
eating mud. In wet weather elephants should have massala, wh ^ a they eat
and if possible be kept under cover at night.
Male elephants should be worked regularly, or when old, Must in elephants,
they are certain to get Must, and every succeeding fit, is treatmenb of
worse than the last, until they become quite useless ; to pre-
vent this, regular work, with a diminution of food, has a
good effect. In dragging timber, rollers are rarely used,
but in some places, they are of immense use saving the
elephant and rendering the transport of huge beams pos-
sible. I have seen three elephants harnessed to a log, and
unable to move it, simply because rollers were not used. A Rollers for
powerful elephant will drag fifty cubic feet of timber over dra *sing-
level ground, but when it comes to dragging over hills and
swamps, he cannot manage more than thirty feet, and even
that with difficulty. In fact Mahouts should be cautioned
not to strain their charges up steep hills or down them.
A Commissariat male, I was once working, in going down a
hill, the beam took a suddeu slide between his legs, after
that he became frightened and refused to do a stroke of
work. I never could make out if it was not a trick of the
3
18
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
Nature of
elephants.
Mahouts. Mahouts as Commissariat Mahouts, as a rule, are quite
worthless in the jungles, they infinitely prefer the distrac-
tions of the bazaar. Extra batta was not a sufficient bait to
keep them straight, indeed forest Mahouts are, as a rule,
an inferior set of men, given to bhang and other abomina-
tions.
Elephants differ as much as horses in shape, muscular
power, temper, and constitution. The Burmah ones are very
good, those caught in Southern India generally fairly good ;
but Ceylon elephants are undersized, ill-made, and weakly
animals. A fair sized female, of Southern India, will be
about seven to eight feet in height, and a male, eight and a
half to nine feet.
"Wounds of feet. The diseases of elephants fairly fed and worked are not
many. They are very apt to get wounded in the sole of the
foot when dragging timber by sharp splinters of bamboo,
but they are very docile, and submit to be doctored by their
Mahouts readily.
Wounds or sores are readily cured by carbolic acid ; to
prevent worms, give salt; in wet weather, give massala, or a
mixture of pepper and ginger sprinkled over the food, or
if a stimulating food is required, then give five pounds daily
of the following cattle food :
Ks. cwt. qrs. Ibs.
Oilcake, such as cocoanut, gingelly
or ground nut
Carob beans ...
21
40
7
8
Indian corn, cholum, raggy or gram
Powdered turmeric ...
Ginger
10
6
1
4
1 ...
1 ...
... 3
Fenuygreek seed or vendium gen-
tian
2
... 10
Cream of tartar
Sulphur
Common salt...
1
5
1/8
...
... 10
... 10
... 20
... 7
Rs. 88-6-0 one Ton.
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS. 19
This condimental food only costs 4-8-0 a cwt., and in wet
weather would be found most excellent for elephants and
bullocks. When the grasses are young also, and very full of
sap, cattle are apt to purge from there being no salts in the
grasses; at such times coudimerital food is essential to
keep the animals in health. Three or four pounds daily or
more for elephants have a great result. As bullocks must
be kept in the forest, it is of importance to keep them in
health, the gram for them should always be pounded, or in
wet weather, they pass it whole, whether you give boiled
gram or soaked gram, pound it. I prefer soaked gram treated
as the barley, viz., germinated, then pounded. It is of the
utmost importance to keep your animals in good condition,
unless closely supervised ; the Mahout and bullock-drivers
starve their animals, and the work of the forest conies to a
dead lock. On the subject of saw-mills, I can only refer the Saw-mills,
reader to Major Campbell Walker's work, " Reports on
Forest management in Europe." I have no faith in ela-
borate arrangements within the forests. The fever and
other drawbacks soon render any machinery useless. In
North Canara where elaborate arrangements were made for
the introduction of the sawing machinery, the Engineer, soon
after arrival, died, what has happened to the scheme, I have
not been able to learn, but so long ago as 1860 I was con-
sulted about machinery driven by water-power, and I was
against it for the following reasons :
list. Any skilled labor would be very liable to be lost
through fever.
2nd. That sawing Teak, and sawing deal were two very
different matters, that it was very easy for an American to
go into forests with a saw on his shoulder, set up his mill Saw-mills.
in the forest, and saw away any amount of wood, having no
fear of fever before his eyes, but with Teak it was different,
the wood was not only very much harder than deal, but
was full of oil, the hardness of the wood caused the saw to
buckle, the oil clogged the saw. Mr. Groves, who had a
circular saw driven by water-power in the Segoor forest, was
20 MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
obliged to drive his saw very slowly, or he got no work
done ; again, on account of fever, his men were perpetually
laid up, and he had to sharpen his saws himself, a very
fatiguing operation, his saws buckled if he did not closely
superintend the work, and to straighten a circular saw, re-
quires some skill. It was always my opinion that the Forest
officer and his establishment had quite enough to do to work
the forest in the roughest manner. Even if establishments
were doubled, they will be sufficiently occupied with plant-
Fever and other ing, supplying the market demands, and conservancy ge-
nerally. Allowing for fever and its concomitant evils, there
will never be more than one-half the establishment at work
all the year round.
At one time I was very anxious to obtain a small portable
saw-mill that could be set up in any part of the forests, and
simply cut a beam in half longitudinally, as sometimes, I
have had over thirty beams in one spot, each over sixty cubic
feet that required to be reduced before they could be got out
of the forest, and was obliged to employ sawyers, as it was
not possible to obtain a portable Sawiug Machine. The
sawyers, what with fever and advances, gave endless trouble
as they worked in a set of three, if one man was ill, the other
two were idle, and, of course, got into debt, and all work was
at a dead lock. There are many trees in Wynaad and the
Anamallies which measure over sixty cubic feet, and to cut
them in half (say they are thirty feet long) is to ruin them
for large spans so much required in engineering works, but
this was found to be the common custom in Wynaad under
the Assistants ; in spite of orders to the contrary which were
to keep logs up to forty cubic feet intact. A fifteen-foot
log represented a cart-load, and so they cut them to thai
length, thus reducing the value of the timber to one-half.
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS. 21
CHAPTER II.
MANAGEMENT OP TEAK FORESTS - (continued.)
WHEN I was sent up specially to build the Wellington Wellington
Barracks, in 1856, I found they had no timber on hand, and a
could only obtain a small supply from the Anamallies with
difficulty at an immense cost, for it was carted up the old
Coonoor Ghat, some of the gradients of which were one in six.
The estimate for the timber was six lacs or three rupees a
cubic foot delivered. The Anamallies at that time were
delivering all their best timber at Poonani for the Bombay
Dockyard, and for which they received Rupees 3-8 the cubic
foot, so it was not worthwhile to sell under that sum to the
Barracks delivered at Coimbatore; the cost of the carriage
from Coimbatore to Wellington never was fairly known, as
dozens of bullocks died in bringing up the timber, and were
not charged to it. However, the case stood thus : the estimate
for the timber was three rupees, and it was costing over
Rupees 4-8 the cubic foot, and even at that price only a little
was to be obtained. On arrival, I found the Ootacamund
Timber Market had not a log over fifteen feet, and we required
a very large number over twenty-four feet for girders. Fortu-
nately, I was able to secure a rented forest, adjoining the
Wynaad Teak Belt, and by 1860 or in less than four years, de-
livered two-hundred thousand cubic feet of timber to the
Barracks at a cost of only one rupee the cubic foot, after all
charges had been paid. In working this forest, I at once Saving by working
introduced elephants, the Coorumbers had to be trained arentedforest
to fell only the largest and best trees, as they were
in the habit of felling a tree that would just measure about
twelve cubic feet, as they were paid by the log. I introduced Reorganisation of
the system of payment by the cubic foot, and they soon ^w mod^of ^ "
learnt the value of it ; at oue time they gave much trouble, workiu g-
every large tree was " Swami Tree" and could not be
cut ; even this difficulty was surmounted. Of course, on
taking over a forest, worked by a native, it was necessary
to re-organize the establishment, make roads, build carts,
and in fact, provide for an extensive establishment, At
22
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
Plantations.
Stump fee.
Improve leased
forest by seed
sowing.
Public buildings
supplied.
Anamallics.
ooe time ten elephants and thirty carts were at work, as
time compelled us to use our utmost exertions to get out as
much wood as possible, not only to expedite the building of the
Barracks, but to take advantage of the lease which expired
in a certain time. Afterwards it was renewed for ninety-
nine years, and some planting was begun ; but I did not per-
severe in it as the lessee demanded a stump fee, and the
land and climate being better further west in the Govern-
ment Forest of Wynaad, I planted sixty acres there. The
cost of carriage, some eight miles, was a charge, but then
there was no stump fee, and the Teak grew straighter and
faster further west. It would be still advisable in the west of
Mudumalli Forest to put in germinated seed, as this would
not be a plantation, and no stump fee would be payable.
Amongst the public buildings supplied from these forests
in addition to the Wellington Barracks were the Lawrence
Asylum, all the bridges on the new Coonoor Ghat, Court-
house of Ootacamund, Bangalore Barracks, numerous
bridges in Wynaad. The surplus timber was sold by
auction in Mysore and Ootacamund. I may here observe
that in addition to all this emergent work, I was constantly
at the Barracks superintending the work, and pushing it
on. To expedite matters, I had twelve sets of sawyers, and
thirty carpenters at work, at Gundulpett just outside the
forest, they made up doors, windows and flooring, for two
years they were employed, this in addition to a numerous
staff at Wellington. I merely mention this to show the
amount of work that had to be got through between 1856
and 1860, though I was not in the Forest Department at
this time. I was obliged to do all the work of a Forest
officer in addition to my engineering duties which were
heavy. In 1860 having, by orders of Government, taken
charge of the Forest Department, I had an opportunity of
inspecting the various forests, and representing to Govern-
ment their requirements.
After a visit to the Anamallies, in 1860, it struck mo that
sufficient attention had not been paid to the housing of the
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS. 23
officers and their e stab li slim ents. The situation of the
buildings was in a hollow, and most depressing and un-
healthy, the site was chosen because it was near the water ! !
and a better spot for catching fever could not well have
been chosen. I selected a site on a ridge, a few miles off, Houses for forest
close to the forest work, and where, by sinking wells, good
water could be obtained. I further recommended that all
the houses should be upstair ones; the sleeping rooms raised
at least ten feet from the ground, as malaria rarely rises
above that height. Several officers and overseers had lost
their health mainly due to the position of the bungalows.
Colonels Michael, Hamilton and Beddome, Messrs. Gosling
and Douglas and many overseers. At Nellumbore it was
the same, the bungalow was in a low place, though there
was a hill some three hundred feet high a short distance off.
I strongly recommended a good bungalow on the top. The
difference of temperature alone in that sweltering climate
must have been at least six or seven degrees, to say nothing of
a healthy breeze. Too much importance cannot be attached
to the situation of the forest residence, it should always
have a sleeping apartment, at least ten feet aboveground.
At Mudumalli, the hut was built on the rising ground, but it
had no upper storey. It would be well if a proper bungalow,
with substantial cooly lines, were built, as there is much
planting to be done in this part of the forest. The Moplas
in Malabar, as a rule, have upper stories to their houses, and
no doubt they have a good reason for this style of building.
All our forest houses should have upstair rooms, and we
shall then have less of fever. With regard to the health of
the establishment, I shall have something to say farther on.
Major Campbell Walker has shown how floating is accom- Floating Wynaad
plished in his work, " Report on Forest management/' tuuber -
possibly with some expenditure, for there is much blasting
to be done, many of our hill streams could be utilised. At
Goondry Wynaad, timber from the northern part of
Wyuaad is floated to Nuugengode near Mysore. There
are so many rocks in the Cubbauy River that boats could
24 MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
not work there. There are streams near Gooloor Hill in
Beni, on the Survey Map, which lead into the "Nogo"
river, from thence into the Cubbany River to Nungengode ;
these streams might be utilized for floating, especially if a
large plantation of a thousand acres was made there. I
planted sixty acres at Beni, and the growth of the trees was
good. It is a fine site for a large plantation, the soil ia
good, the slopes are easy, the hills carry fine timber.
Blackwood also grows well on them. As mostly all our
timber had to be carted up to the Neilgherries for public
works, it was not thought advisable to open up the floating
capabilities of these streams, but as Madras offers such a
good market for Teak, and the Mysore Railway is open, it is
time to look to that city for a market. The same may be
Floating Nellum- said of the Auamallies and Nellumbore. The floating on
the Nellumbore river should be put a stop to. I wrote some
eight years ago, recommending that a steamer, towing some
four or five flat twenty-ton boats similar to those in use on the
Buckingham Canal, should be used. The voyage from the fur-
thest parts of the plantation to the Railway Station at Beypore
would not take more than ten hours, and the boats could
be towed back in the same time. The cost would certainly
be less than the present charge which is about two annas a
cubic foot. The present system is a most pernicious one.
First bamboos which are scarce have to be cut and stored
at a great expense of time, money and labor, and where
labor is required for other work, the diverting of it, is at
the expense of the plantations. Having collected the
bamboos, they are made into a raft, on this the teak logs
are placed, and a half flood chosen for floating for if you
float iu a full flood, and your raft goes ashore, it must be
taken to pieces as no power of elephants can push it off.
Then the river, a narrow one, is blocked by numerous rafts,
thefts of timber are common, the lashings are cut loose, the
marks erased, and the owner vainly seeks the aid of the
Police. Thci rafts frequently take three weeks to go to
Beypore, sometimes they are left high and dry for months,
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS. 25
in fact the coufusion is endless. A steamer and a dozen
twenty-ton boats would put a stop to all thefts.
The timber would be carried cheaply and expeditioilsly,
the river would be always clear. If the steamer only worked Steamer and
for three months, carrying two hundred tons at a time or
four thousand tons a month, the whole of the timber of
those forests could be carried to Beypore with the greatest
ease in two months. Moreover, there is, at times, a great
scarcity of bamboos for floating timber. Teak, green,
weighs over 60 Ibs. the cubic foot and averages when dry 47
Ibs. To leave it to dry in the forest, renders it liable to be
stolen, as there are many private forests, and timber-stealing
is very common. In 1874, when inspecting some new land,
I had just bought for Government from the Amrapollium
Rajah, I caught three elephants in the act of dragging some
Teak across the river in open day. It is true, they did not
expect me to appear in that particular part of the forest.
The Rajah of Nellumbore complained that the Moplahs dived
under his rafts, moored in front of his house, cut the lashings
at nights, and floated the timber away. He was advised to
use chains, and he did so, and lost no more timber at his
depot ; but on the voyage down to Beypore, he had to pay
Black Mail. So long as the Anamallies supplied timber to
the Bombay Dockyard, it was floated to Ponani by river, but
to send it to Beypore now, would be to compete with Nel-
lumbore timber. For this reason it is preferable to send it
to Madras where the consumption of Burma timber is very
great, and the price high.
I am not aware that any of our forests require shoots or shoots, slips,
slips, the plan of a slip is laid down in " Reports on Forest
management in Europe, by Colonel Campbell Walker." On
visiting the Anamallies, in 1860, I was very much surprised
to see what was called " a slip/' it consisted of an inclined
road about one in two, worn into large hollows. Elephants
slipped the timber, when it lodged in the holes worn by
rain they had to lift it out again, thus the work instead of
being simple and easy, was very laborious and expensive.
4
26
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
The slip is no longer used, as a road at an easy gradient has
been made, and the carting is done at one-half the cost of
the slipping.
I observe that in rny Forest Report for 1872, at page 62,
I calculate the cost of slipping at 1-3 the cubic foot. I am
certaiu the carting can be done for about one-half. Some
Seasoning Teak, years ago a number of trees on the Anamallies were girdled
with the view of seasoning them standing, as was done in
the Burma Forests, it was not found to answer for when
felled, the wood was found to be brittle, to have lost all its
oil, and the axemen could not get a plank oul of a log, of
course, the system of girdling was abandoned. In 1862
the Admiralty sent out to India to enquire why Burma
timber was so dry and brittle, whilst Malabar timber was
full of oil and very tough. The papers were sent to me
asking if the trees had not been tapped for oil, and I
answered them to the following effect: " That Malabar
timber was always left on the ground to season, lying in a
horizontal position, so that all the sap and moisture was
evaporated out of the log, whilst the oil remained, that the
Burma timber was girdled and left standing for two years,
that in consequence of this vertical position of the log, not
only was all the sap drained away, but through the tubes
all the oil was also drained away. That there was no reason
why Burma Teak should not have as much oil as Malabar
Teak if treated in a similar manner."
The advocates of girdling in Burma stated, " That as the
timber had to be floated, it was necessary to leave it girdled
for two years to reduce its weight. That if the timber were
felled and left lying on the ground, it would infallibly be
burnt as the area of the forest are so great that they could not
afford watchmen to look after the felled timber." They did
not seem to be aware that their system reduced the value of
the timber by 50 per cent. I am of opinion that it would
have been better to have formed large depots and watched
them, or to have put the timber on board flats and have
towed them to the port.
Girdling.
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS. 27
As for rafting, it may do in some places like the Rhine Floating.
where there is only a down traffic and a very broad river;
but in many rivers, rafts interfere with the traffic, and it is
a question, if there is not a saving in putting the timber on
board flats and tugging them to their destination. One
thing is certain that Burma timber is dry and brittle, and
by no means so strong as Malabar, and the cause is the loss
of oil.
In condemning rafting on certain rivers such as Nellum-
bore, I do not for a moment deny its utility on small streams,
and on the Cubbany, and possibly other rivers where
steamers cannot ply, in fact Wynaad timber cannot be got
out to Mysore without floating, except by very expensive
carting. In rafting it is advisable not to square the timber
but to leave it round.
Habits of the Teak Tree. It has been stated that "per-
fect drainage and a dry sub-soil" are absolutely necessary
for the health of the Teak tree, page 356, Brandis' and
Stewart's " Forest Flora;'' now I have found that the Teak
delights in a moist clayey sub-soil. All over Wynaad,
Anamallies, Nellumbore, it will be found that the Teak
grows best in a brown surface soil, having yellow clay as a
sub-soil, the powerful roots of the Teak soon procure drainage
for itself. If by perfect drainage is meant that Teak will
not grow well in swampy situations, then the remark is
correct ; but I cannot agree, as to the preference of Teak for
granite soils, in fact, nearly the whole of our sub-soils con-
sist of decomposed felspar which are decidedly clayey in
their nature. It is true, that at Nellumbore, the largest
trees are seen on the banks of streams whose sub-soil is
very free, but even then the clay predominates over sand,
and the tree rejoices in a loose soil with plenty of mois-
ture in it. Here we never find the Teak associated with
bamboo, in fact, ifc is well known that Teak will not grow
under bamboo. Wherever Teak is found in bamboo, ifc
will at once be apparent that the Teak is older than the
bamboo ; Teak is found at the sea-level like Nellumbore, ou
28 MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS.
the Anamallies 2,500 W., and in Wynaad up to three thou-
sand feet growing well. Teak may be found on light and
sandy soils, certainly not in Southern India. Teak does not
live on humus, but on clayey sub-soils. I have shown that
it is not " tire and early rains" that prevent seed from
germinating, but rats and squirrels. A clean cut does not
injure the tap root, page 358, Brandis' and Stewart's Flora.
A forest cannot be called " small" that produces Teak trees
of fifty to seventy cubic feet of timber, such as forty square
miles in Wynaad, and over eighty square miles on the
Anamallies. The question of " annual rings" was settled
long ago. I have explained that the pith is not the cause
of heartshake, but that the first made heartwood being not
only softer than that made afterwards, but being older is
the first to decay, for instance, when the rings are counted,
it is found that the first rings are much further apart than
the last the first twelve rings will occupy a space of over
an inch, the next perhaps only three-quarters, and so on^
until the rings, at one hundred years, almost run into each
other. Another curious fact is that the rings on one side
of a tree will be wider than those on the other; this is due, I
believe to the prevailing wind, ^^^HH^^^ ^ e ex P se( ^
i side show-
ing slow
growth.
Article, Teak. Again, it is stated that " quick grown
Teak" is not the best, I agree with Liudley that fast grown
timber is best. In a tree, thirty years old, there is no pith,
it runs out at six feet from the ground.
P^. I have examined trees seventy years old, and found no
pith and no heartshake. I attribute the freedom from
heartshake to the trees having escaped fire when young and
being in their prime.
White ants. Much has been said about Teak resisting white ants, it
does so as long as the oil remains in it, but should lime
have extracted the oil when built in, it is no longer free
from attack.
MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS. 29
The Carpenter Bee or " Xylocopa" attacks Burma Teak
which has no oil. 1 never knew it attack Malabar Teak
though it bores through the hardest woods, such as Sal,
Hardwickia, biuata, Jamboolauum, &c., &c. To prove if
Teak has oil iu it, the carpenter simply inserts his chisel,
and by the faint appearance of oiliness on the tool, ascer-
tains the fact.
Ship-buiiders complain of the quality of the timber they Girdling Teak,
get from Pegu. Whether the trees stand an extra year
after killing, or whether they remain seasoning in a ship-
building yard after being squared, for a year or two, the
result will probably be much the same.
We must look beyond this to find out the real cause of Losa of oil.
the loss of certain valuable qualities in Teak complained of.
When this circular came to me, iu 1866, I pointed out that
girdling was the real cause of Teak, being brittle and devoid
of oil, for if the sap descends by the capillary tribes, so does
the oil. That if a tree is felled and lies horizontally for
years, the oil does not escape, but the sap is evaporated out.
That girdling trees was tried on the Anamallies in 1858 and
proved a failure as the tree would not split, and the axemen
could make nothing of it. I am aware that in Burma, they
girdle Teak, because if felled and left on the ground for two
years, it would be liable to catch fire, and Teak does not float
until it has been seasoned at least two years hence the rea-
son of girdling but nevertheless it ruins the timber.
It has been a well known fact for fifty years and more
that Malabar Teak is superior to Burma, the chief reason
being that Malabar Teak had retained its oil, whereas Burma
Teak had lost it. It was supposed at one time that Burma
Teak trees were tapped for oil. That Malabar Teak is not
better than Burmese in other respects, for probably Atterau
Teak grown in Burma is equal to any Teak if uugirdled.
SANDALWOOD.
CHAPTER III.
SANDALWOOD.
THE Sandalwood tree is scientifically recognized as the
Santalum Album or white Sandalwood belonging to the
natural order Santalaceoe or Sandalwood family, a dicoty-
ledonous plant composed of trees, shrubs and herbs,
the genus Santalum is the type, a small tree twenty or
thirty feet with numerous branches forming more or less
spherical heads, leaves opposite, on short stalks, oblong,
smooth, entire, with a fine bloom below, panicles with
their principal breadth in the middle axillary flower
stalks opposite, usually three-flowered, with numerous,
small, straw-colored flowers, changing to a deep purple,
inodourous, the outer floral envelope or calyx four cleft,
there being no inner envelope or corolla. Berry, round,
smooth, and black, when ripe, succulent with a persistent
calyx the fruit is a celled nut solitary. The species are
natives of Asia, the tropical parts of Australia, and the
Pacific Ocean. The white Sandalwood is a native of Malabar
on the hills of which it grows as a large tree. It is also
found in Coimbatore, Mysore, Canara, Salem, Madras, &c.
Mysore produces the best Sandalwood, two kinds of the
wood are procurable in the market both being the produce
of the same tree. The white Sandalwood comprises the
outer layers of wood, is hard, heavy and susceptible of a
good polish. The yellow or brownish wood is obtained from
the heart of the tree, and is the most valuable and best
esteemed. The heart or heavier wood comes chiefly from
the lower parts of the stem, is strongly scented, hard, takes
a good polish, and is well adapted for carving, turniug, &c.,
and is easily cleft. The odour is strong and enduring due to
the presence of an essential oil. The scent is dependent
chiefly on the soil, and the elevation at which it grows a
third kind of Sandalwood or Saunder's wood, or red
Sandalwood as it is called, is met with in the market,
the produce of the Pterocarpus Santalinus belonging to
the natural order Leguminosce, and produces a valuable
dye, and takes a fine polish. Sandalwood is in greafc
demand by cabinet-makers and other artizaus more espe-
cially from China and India, it is largely used for carving
SANDALWOOD. 31
ornaments, toys, fans, walking-sticks and for other orna-
mental purposes, also for burning the dead. A perfume
obtained from the wood is iu universal use in India and
China. Its medicinal virtues are trifling, it has a bitterish,
aromatic taste, and a degree of pungency which is not
unpleasant. Its powder is believed to possess sedative
and refrigerant properties, a mixture formed of cocoanut
water is used to allay thirst, and is prescribed iu fevers,
headache and bilious affections; externally it is used as
a cure for prickly heat by Europeans and to cool the
system, as an incense, it is in general use especially by
Mahomedans, and is burnt to perfume temples and dwell-
ing houses both in China and India. The "joss sticks,"
BO generally used more especially by Mahomedans, and
designated by them as the te Ood buttee," consists of the
raspings worked into a paste with water and spread on
slender bamboo slips, are in every day use as a perfume and
to keep away noxious insects. The wood rasped on a rough
sandstone with water, and the resulting paste is used for
marking the forehead, it is greatly appreciated as a cosmetic
by all creeds and castes of people. The wood is in greafc
request for cremation purposes among high caste Hindoos
on account of its fragrance, a valuable oil is distilled from
the refuse chips and roots which is always in demand, and
generally used as a perfume and to adulterate the attar of
roses. The fragrance of the wood increases with the age o
the plant. The wood is usually cut into billets of fifteen,
twenty, or thirty inches in length, and is sold by weight;
the chips, cuttings, and roots form an article of commerce.
The Sandalwood tree is subject to heartshake, it is not fit
to cut under twenty years of age, the older it grows the more
valuable it becomes till maturity is obtained in about fifty-
years. The low caste natives are fond of chewing the bark
with their betel, in consequence of its pungency and do not
hesitate to strip the trees when they can, much to their
injury and eventual destruction, so much so that active
steps are necessary to put a stop to this pernicious prac-
tice.
The price varies much, all depends on the China demand,
it varies from three to six annas a pound.
32 SANDALWOOD PLANTATIONS.
Sites. Sandalwood Plantations. Before forming a plantation,
it is absolutely necessary to ascertain if Sandalwood grows
in the vicinity, if it makes good heartwood, and its general
rate of growth. Sandalwood grows at an elevation of two
thousand to four thousand feet, three thousand being the
mean. Mysore undoubtedly produces the best wood. In
selecting a site, the ground should not be too rich, or you
may have rapid growth, and but little heartwood as some-
times may be seen on the banks of streams where the stem
may be a foot iu diameter and yet all "white wood. A fair
brown soil is the best for producing good growth, and heart-
wood full of oil. If water be obtainable close at hand, so
much the better, as a watering the first year, gives the plants
a good start, and enables them to stand the hot weather. We
will suppose you intend to make a plantation of at least one
hundred acres. Small plantations do not pay. You will
Nurseries. make your nursery beds near water, they should be composed
of sand and vegetable mould and ashes to keep off ants,
&c. The seeds may first be germinated in a heap and
then planted in lines, four inches apart, and three inches
p itg ^ in the lines. The beds may have light pandals of brush-
wood to break the force of the sun. When the plants are six
inches high, they should be lifted, the tap roots cut back to
four inches, and then replaced in the beds six inches apart.
When nine inches to a foot in height, put them out with a
transplanter into eighteen-iuch cube pits, shade and water
Fences. f r the ^ rs ^ J ear If possible, the plantation should be fenced
with a ditch, and thorns planted thus, """\/"""" as spotted
deer are very destructive to the young plants, so are village
goats. As the value of the Sandalwood tree depends upon
the number of sound and straight billets you can get out of
a tree, you must be very careful to draw your trees up as
Pruning straight as possible, cutting off all unnecessary side branches,
when not more than one inch thick close to the stem, if
the branches are thicker, they must be shortened to a foot
SANDALWOOD PLANTATIONS.
from the stem, for if you cut them close into the stem, the
chances are that you have introduced rot into the stem,
and thus reduced the value of your wood by one-half, for
the Sandal tree is very subject to heartshake. The causes Causing heart-
are, the Sholagurs have a habit of cutting into the stem of
the tree to see how much heartwood it shows, deer rubbing
the bark and injuring the cambium, natives barking the
trees for the sake of its hot flavour, using it for chewing
with betel instead of lime.
If yonr trees have been well planted without the roots Shade.
having been disturbed, the chances are they will not require
watering the second year, frequently it will be found advis-
able to use nurses to shade your young Sandal trees, and 1 jJJj^ ih .^|^
draw them up, for the first year or two, peppers are good at apa rt shaded by
first, then for four or five years, acacias, or ceara, after which n
the nurses may be coppiced. Any fast growing tree serves.
There is another reason why sandal thrives with nurses, it is
semi-parasitical being next in natural order to Lorauths in its
habit, and the roots seem to grow best on other roots. Like Sandal roots para-
si tic til
the Orobanche the seeds of which will not grow unless their
roots can be attached to the roots of another plant. It is
not altogether shade that the sandal delights in of course,
annuals are of no use, fast growing acacias, &c., are best. The
tree is fit to cut from twenty-five to forty years of age. It is
not well to let it grow too old, or you may only have a hollow
centre, and but little heartwood. In some stony soils, like
Segoor, the sandal attains a thickness of no more than four
inches, and yet ten miles off on the slopes of the Neilgher-
ries, very large trees are found. The small trees generally
contain more oil, and are harder and denser than the large
ones. The heartwood of the smaller trees is very dark in
colour, sometimes approaching red, whilst that of the large
trees is from a deep to a light yellow.
In felling Sandalwood it is usual to take up the trees by Cutting and fell-
the roots, as though Saudalwood does spring up from the lr
stumps, the second growth is inferior and it is cheaper to
replant, care must be taken to keep the billets in sheds,
5
34 SANDALWOOD PLANTATIONS.
or they split up in the 'dry winds, and much damage is
caused.
Natural Sandal. The tree is generally found in clumps of evergreen bushes
and hedges at an elevation of from two to four thousand feet
above the sea. The climate is what may be called rather
dry, rainfall from thirty to fifty inches. Birds are very
fond of the fruit which is something like a small purple
grape, with a hard seed about the size of a pea. The birds
carry the seed to hedges and trees and having eaten the
pulp, drop the kernel which readily springs up under the
shade of bushes or hedges this has given rise to the native
idea that to gernminate seed, it required to be passed
through a bird !
Fires are very destructive to young Sandal trees, indeed
they rarely survive them. There is a strip of dry forest from
Guzulhutti in the south, to near Hasinoor in the north, ele-
vated about one thousand feet above the Mysore plain, mea-
suring nearly one hundred square miles where hardly a San-
dal tree is to be found. The cause is the want of clumps of
evergreen bushes and perpetual fires. In this strip Sholigurs
fire the jungle to find deers' horns, to pick up myrobolans,
and for pasture, though this jungle is surrounded by jungles
bearing Sandalwood, I have never seen but one clump of
evergreen bushes in which were Sandal trees. The cattle
also were insufficient to keep down the grass, so that fires
were a certainty.
Extension of na- The best plan of extending natural sandal jungles is first
tural Sandal by re-
serves, and crow- to fence them to keep on cattle and deer, a ditch three feet
wide at top, six inches at bottom, the loose earth thrown up
on the inside, on the top of this the Mysore thorn should be
j (hinted. A piece not less than four square miles should be
enclosed, and a regular establishment kept up. Lu the first
showers crow-bar holes should bo made in the clumps ut
evergreen bushes, and from the nursery, germinated seeds
SANDALWOOD PLANTATIONS. 35
should be taken and put out in the first showers in June.
This mode being the best for increasing a natural forest of
Sandalwood trees. The process of filling and closing the
holes should be the same as for Teak. Within the area of four
square miles it will be probably found that two or three
hundred acres are suitable for a plantation, if so, advantage
should be taken of the establishment to secure their services
for a regular plantation. In forming the Vyloor plantation, Sandal planta-
I was careful to ascertain the capabilities of the soil for
producing Sandalwood of a good quality. I felled a tree
near a ravine, it weighed 84Ibs. when clean, stem and roots,
the rings showed it to be twenty-five years old, and the
heartwood was of first-rate quality. This set at rest the
quality of the soil. This tree would probably have reached
the age of forty years before it began to decline. The pro-
fits of an acre of Sandalwood are so great, that it is well
worth a large outlay. Creepers are very destructive to
Sandal trees, they should always be cleared away as they
bend the heads of the trees, distort the stems, and fre-
quently strangle the trees. I give an approximate balance
sheet of a plantation of one hundred acres. The only data
I have to go upon is the cost of the Yyloor plantations from
their commencement. The average price of Sandalwood
for many years, and the average yield over twenty-five
up to forty years. If we plant 8 x 8, we shall have about
seven hundred trees to the acre. We quincunx with nurses
which are cut out when the trees begin to approach each
other. There are two reasons for planting 8 x 8 one is
that it saves watering, a very heavy expense ; the other
is that nurses draw up the trees and cause a good
straight stem to be the rule it also saves pruning a most
important matter. Cassia florida is a fast grower, and
makes a good nurse. If rubber trees are used as nurses,
then from the fifth to the twentieth year, we should have
36
SANDALWOOD PLANTATIONS.
some return from them, probably five hundred rupees an
acre.
First year planted.
20 acres clearing ground ... 20
1,500 pits 15
1,500 plants 9
Half Sandal, Half Nurnes.
Planting 10
Shading 6
Watering 20
Supervision ... ... ... 5
Rs. 85
Then 85X20= 1,700
2nd year watering Rs. 10 . . . 200
Supplying failures Rs. 5 ... 100
Weeding, Rs. 5 100
Supervision, Rs. 5 100
Cost of 20 acres, 2 years ... 2,200
3rd year weeding ... ... 100
Supervision... ... ... 100
4th year weeding ... ... 100
Supervision... ... ... 100
21 years' Supervision ... 2,100
Pruning and weeding .. 2,100
6,800
Interest, 5 per cent, for
12 years on Rs. 6,800 ... 4,080
Rs. 10,880
Felling and cleaning 1,500
maunds at As. 2 ...
Do. at 40 years 2,000 As. 2.
Supervision and Weeding, 15
years at Rs. 200
Interest, 15 years at on
14,500 ...
RS.
Sale of 500 trees, at 3
maunds, each at 5 Rs. per
raaund
200 trees at 41 years, 5
maunds per tree, 1,000
mannds X 20 acres =
at Rs, 5 .
7,500
20
1,50,000
Deduct>harges
On one acre = 11,337 or
11,337 X 100 =
1,133,700 or 282 Rs. an
acre a year for 40 years.
Tree's cost 1-4-0 each.
1,00,000
2,50,000
23,255
2,26,745
3,680
2,400
3,000
3,375 10,880
12,455
Rs. 12,455
23,335 Charge.
Price of Sandal. The above estimate is, I think, well within the mark.
The actual cost at Vyloor, for each tree at the end of eight
years was 4? annas each. My balance-sheet shows the
cost at twelve years, to be about 12 annas each, and at
forty years, 1-8-0 each. Three maunds at twenty-five years
ia not in excessive yield according to this estimate, tho
acre for forty years yields 282 rupees a year, and Teak
gives 250 rupees a year over sixty years. The price of
SANDALWOOD PLANTATIONS. 37
sandal depends much upon the China market ; at one time
it is as high as 9 rupees the maund of 25 Ibs. for first
class wood. Roots are bought for Sandalwood oil distil-
leries in South Canara where firewood is cheap. Roots at
one time were only 2-8-0 the maund, but afterwards
they rose to 4-8 the maund so that 3 rupees the
mauud over all may be considered a fair average price.
I have, many years ago shown, that if we had twenty years Planting opera-
ago taken to planting Sandalwood largely, we should now
be on the eve of reaping a very large crop, as it is, the
department has to wait another ten years at least before
any results can be arrived at.
I may here remark that at Tulli Mulli where the Sandal Keserve blocks
plantations are, it would be easy to select, a good block of
forest, four square miles at Vyloor the same. At Denkini-
cotta, in Salem, the same and various other places but the
Mysore plateau, ranging from two to four thousand feet, is
undoubtedly the very best site for Sandalwood, and any
departure from the conditions, as above laid down, would
probably result in failure, for instance, to attempt to
grow the tree in Malabar might be a success so far as
the growth of the tree is concerned, but the scented
oil would be deficient still it should be tried, and as the Sandal in
Conservator in Malabar has an experimental garden, it
would be well if a few trees were tried there, but judging
from what I have seen of Sandal trees growing near Vyloor
on deep rich soil on the banks of streams, being nearly a
foot in diameter and having no heartwood, though fully
twenty years old, I fear it would be a failure, but here we
require the chemist to tell us what forms the oil and heart-
wood, as the sap wood has no oil ; the same may be said of
Cinchona, what forms the alkaloids especially Quinine. A
chemist for the departments is more urgently required than
a botanist. One thing is almost certain, that trees require
minerals to develop their special qualities more than humus Minerals for
or nitrogen ; possibly lime, potash, and phosphoric acid are t3
the three main ingredients. It is a curious fact that in
Wynaad, though there is no free lime in the soil, yet both
38 DRY FORESTS.
Teak and Blackwood, if wounded near the ground, contrive
Free Lime. to absorb large quantities of lime, it may be seen encrusting
the tree on the surface as far as four feet in height and six
inches wide so hard is the lime that it destroys circular
saws, and the Curumburs use it for chewing with betel.
Here we have an iustance of a tree eliminating from the soil,
a mineral that is not visible, and one that only exists incor-
porated, with another substance, such as Hornblend. The
laboratory of nature is a very subtle process. It is probable
that the Ceara Rubber Manihot Glaziovii will be found an
excellent nurse for Sandalwood trees. I have found Sandal-
wood grow well near trees of the Ficus tribe, elastica espe-
cially, and the experiment is well worth trying. It would, of
course, be necessary to train the rubber tree, so that it did
not overshadow the sandal, as there are few trees that grow
under the shadow of others ; in fact, forty-nine out of fifty
kinds of trees require shelter not absolute shade only partial.
There is a further advantage in using the ficus tribe as they
readily grow from cuttings. Ficus elastica could easily be
procured ; probably at the end of twenty years, it would be
found advisable to cut out the rubber trees after having
taken rubber from them for ten years.
There is another point, in using the Ficus or Euphorbia-
ceous tribe such as Siphonia elastica for nurses, they take
and require but little moisture from the earth, nearly all
they require is absorbed from the air.
CHAPTER IV.
ON DRY FORESTS.
Shutting up por. Fo RESTS of this nature such as those on the Nullamullies in
Kurnool, Salem, South Arcot, &c., should be treated as
I recommended some years ago, viz., a portion to be rigor-
ously shut up for a period of at least ten years. No man or
head of cattle allowed within the enclosed area which may
be one hundred or a thousand acres. In dry forests it will
be found that banks of streams are best for enclosures, there
GENERAL REMARKS. .'39
the soil is best and local moisture the greatest. To increase
reproduction, the same plan should be followed as laid down Increase of dry
for Teak, viz., crow-bar pits and germinated seed wherever,
practicable. I have impressed upon the Forester the absolute
necessity of germinated seed, the sowing broadcast except
under very favorable conditions is nine times out of ten a
failure. Ifc will, of course, be advisable to select the most
valuable kinds for reproduction, such as certain Terminalias,
viz., Glabra, Coriaria, Hardwickia, binata, Soymida's febri- Best kind of trees.
fuga, Acacias there is a long list to choose from, and only
those should be selected that appear to thrive in semi-dry
forests. It would be useless to plant Teak in the Cuddapah
Hills, because trees found there are stunted; very frequently,
it will be found in a semi-dry forest that whilst Teak is
stunted, Vengay and Kura Hurra thrive. In some of the
Salem Hills, red cedar flourishes in the ravines at some
elevation.
In the north Sal is found in enormous quantities, on the Red cedar, &c.
Ballyrungums, the Michellia grows to great dimensions,
Mesua and Hopea in our Canarese forests, also in Tinne-
velly, see Beddome's Keport, 18th August 1867, Appendix,
Forest Report, 1867-68, No. 105, 20th April 1878, Beddome
on Nellumbore.
CHAPTER V.
GENERAL REMARKS.
IN the Forest Report (mine), 1871-72, Board of Revenue Fore8fc fires> cat .
Remark, 5th August 1871, No. 3284, that " fires do not harm fcle ^mage done
quite the contrary," on this I wrote, " of course, fires have
their advantages, they render the jungle less pestiferous,
and the young grass comes up earlier, but fires ruin saplings
and should never be allowed in a reserved forest, but the
difficulty is to prevent them. Formerly before the Forest
Department was organized, there were three special causes
which threatened to ruin all forests, viz., the pernicious
practice indulged in by the people of cutting saplings instead
40 GENERAL REMARKS.
of full grown trees which, though stopped ; fires and cattle,
remain to desolate the forests."
Plantations. Forest Report, 1871-72, page 7, 1 wrote, para. 34 : " These
" consist of fine railway fuel plantations and one of the
" valuable wood, red sanders. The fuel plantations gene-
" rally are doing fairly. In the first three or four years the
" work of establishing plants in so dry a district, is very
" difficult and expensive ; but though the plantation may
" never pay by the sale of its fuel, still the surrounding
" country will benefit as trees surely beget moisture."
(( The Forest Department will thus indirectly benefit the
" ryot. The formation of plantations has become a very
<( heavy item in forest expenditure, but were the whole
" forest revenue expended in plantations and conservation,
" Government would, in the course of years, be a large gainer.
" What has already happened in Algeria threatens to occur
" here, unless speedy measures are taken to secure reserves,
<e and save what yet remains of existing forests. Fires and
" cattle are worse even than ryots, and should be excluded,
" perhaps when Collectors are Conservators, they will be able
<l to use their authority to more effect than the Forest De-
" partment has been able to do. I quite agree with the
" Revenue Department that there is enough for all, if it is pro-
" perly conserved, but that is the difficulty. In vain does the
" Forest Department try to save the ryots from themselves,
"their improvident habits too surely destroy the jungles
" which ought to last them for centuries. " On the subject of
indiscriminate felling, the Collector of Coimbatore remarked
Ryots confined to that ryots should be restricted to felling in their own village
gles. boundaries. I fully endorsed this view, and brought to the
notice of Government that in Mysore wherever villages were
Hedge row tim- distant from the forest, they cultivated hedge row timber in
the shape of Neem Melia, Azedarach, Babool, A. Arabica,
&c., &c. It surely is no hardship that if u village has
destroyed its own small forest, it should be made to renew
it and not indent upon forest that belongs to the country,
and to which they can have no possible claim. It is the
GENERAL REMARKS.
same with grazing rights, tho reckless system pursued by Grazing rights,
ryots of depending chiefly on Government forests for their
grazing instead of on their own exertions, and economizing
their grass aud fodder of various kinds. What was the case
in England two hundred years ago ? where cattle were
slaughtered and salted, because they would not feed them
through the winter, so the ryot in the dry season seuds his
half-starved cattle into the public forests to destroy them
at his own sweet will, totally regardless of the mischief he
is doing not only to himself, but to the public at large,
in creating a decreased rainfall and scarcity of timber and
fuel. Surely, as I wrote before, the ryot should be saved from
his own destructive habits and taught that to destroy
forests is not the way to benefit himself, and that by a little
timely forethought, he might procure forage for his cattle
without having recourse to the reckless system pursued by
him for ages. The reckless destruction of his village jungle
deprives him of firewood, this leads to his burning cattle Burning cattle
manure for fuel. The field deteriorates in consequence, the damage caused,
crops are scanty, aud the ryot impoverished. By taking
some trouble, he could easily grow hedge row timber this
would supply building material and fuel, and thus lease the
manure for the fields. Alas, the ryot, ground down for
years by the Revenue officers, cares not to improve his
opportunities, and prefers a life of careless ease ? to one of
forethought and labour. All these circumstances combined
act and react one on the other, until it culminates in an
impoverished peasantry, ever ready to succumb on the first
season of scarcity. If we would improve the condition of the
ryot, it is absolutely necessary to commence from the very
foundation. It is not of the slightest use attempting to raise
the status of the ryot, so long as we leave the main points of Education of
his position untouched ; and until he is educated up to a cer- ryot>
tain point, he is quite incapable of appreciating any efforts
made in his favour. It may be urged that this has nothing
to do with forestry. I maintain it has, for we have to con-
sider communal rights and to teach the ryot not to encroach
6
ACACIA MELANOXYLON.
on reserved Government forests, and unless we can persuade
him to adopt a new system of feeding his cattle, and sup-
plying his fuel and building requirements, he will ever look
fondly to those forests for supplying his wants without
trouble or expense. It is to be borne in mind that the ryot
has been for ages brought up under a reckless system of
mismanagement, and new habits are not learnt in a day
especially by a people who are the most conservative that
the world has seen. From sire to sou for ages, the same
habits, trades, occupations have been the hard and fast rule.
Cultivation of It would be well if the ryot, in some of the drier and
poorer districts, were to cultivate the Palmyra more care-
fully the leaves would do for thatching buildings, the
stems for rafters, and the tree for sugar. Millions of trees
might be grown in places which at present produce next to
nothing. But the eternal laziness of the ryot prevents him
from ever attempting to work for his descendants. There is
an exception to this rule in Malabar where, on the birth of a
Planting of Sap. daughter, a small plantation of cutch (Caesalpinia Sappan)
pan in Malabar. , , ^ /. , ,
is planted for her marriage portion.
CHAPTER VI.
ACACIA MEL1NOXYLON.
Introducad by THIS tree was, I believe, introduced by Colonel Dun to these
Colonel Dun. j^ about the same time as A. Dealbata, there were a few
in 1845 iu his compounds and some in the club grounds.
They were still so rare in 1851, that I remember some just
planted were stolen from General Watson's ground and
were traced to a private gardener where they had been
brought as a peace-offering, and up to 1857 the Government
charged four annas for a plant. Last year I cut down a tree
in my ground that had been planted before 1845 or about
thirty-eight years of age. Though it had a large hole in it
from which a hive of bees had been cut out, it gave suflicient
planks to board a large room 24x15 of excellent wood,
indeed BO much is this wood esteemed in Australia that
OUR DEPOTS. 43
furniture is largely made from it. Here, I regret to say it
is mostly used for firewood, it does not burn green like A. Its uses.
Dealbata nor does it produce so much tar, but is yet an
excellent firewood. As far as I have observed the tree
seems to flower and seed all the year round. The flowers
are inconspicuous, but the seed pods seem at times to cover
the tree. It is a very valuable tree, and should be cul-
tivated more largely. It does not grow as fast as the
Eucalyptus nor is it so tall, but some trees that are forty
years old contain at least fifty cubic feet of good timber, as
a rule, it makes black heartwood in a similar manner to
our Dalbergia Latifolia.
CHAPTER VII.
OUR DEPOTS.
MANY years ago I advocated great central Depots of Teak
and other wood. First at Madras where the consumption
of Teak is very great. There should be an officer in charge ;
he could indent upon the various forests for a supply for
his timber yard. It seems a great farce that Government
should be compelled to go into the market to purchase
timber of merchants at a considerably enhanced rate, when
it could be supplied at a fair rate from the Government
forests at every head-quarters there should be a Depot;
at Trichinopoly the officer should indent upon the Anamal-
lies or Beypore for his timber. By having Depots, Public
Work officers, instead of employing contractors, would
simply have to draw their timber from the Depots selecting
such scantlings as suited them. The Gun Carriage some-
times sent an Agent to the Anamallies for Teak and Black-
wood, this gave rise to endless complaints, logs were
changed en route to Madras, and the blame could never
be fairly laid on the right party. When Veugay was selling
in Madura at 1-8-0 the cubic foot, Teak was bringing but
one rupee at Calicut. At Palghat, merchants ask now 2-12-0
the cubic foot while at Calicut, timber (Teak) is sold by
Government for 1-8-0, and at Ootacamund for two rupees
44 LABOR HEALTH OF ESTABLISHMENT.
the cubic foot. The officers of divisions should have full
control over their timber yards, and indent when necessary
upon other timber yards for a supply of any particular tim-
ber for which there was a demand.
CHAPTER VIII.
LABOR.
IN Wynaad the axemen are Corurnbers, and very good
workmen. They also are very useful for Teak plantations,
many are intelligent, and the great advantage of employing
them is that they live in the forest all the year round, they
fell and square timber with great precision, they can also be
trusted in planting out operations ; for cart men, road labor,
&c., Canarese are employed. Sawyers are obtained from
Mysore and other parts. On the Anamallies, men from Pal-
ghaut are employed as axemen, they were very expert in
dividing by means of wedges very large trees into planks
suitable for dockyard purposes. The Kadirs, a jungle tribe,
are useful for building huts, the Mahouts there and in Wy-
naad are generally Musselmen, whereas at Nellumbore and
those parts, they are almost invariably Punniars, and as the
Nellumbore elephants are used without harness, dragging
by their teeth, the equipment of a Punniar and his elephant
may be said to amount to nil. These Punniars obtain an
extraordinary influence over their elephants, and especially
the males by a peculiar process. The local labor at Nellum-
bore is made up of Malayalums and some Moplahs, there
are many trained men amongst them who understand plant-
ing and pruning.
CHAPTER IX.
HEALTH OP ESTABLISHMENT.
'Tins most important point deserves careful consideration,
for on it depends whether your forest can be worked or not to
and profit. Where there is a fixed shitY employed
IIKAI/I'II OF ESTABLISHMENT. 45
permanently, they should all be compelled to sleep in rooms
at least ten feet above the ground, the lower rooms might be
converted into stores, offices, cattle sheds, &c. The water
should be drawn from a well, if possible, and should be tested
occasionally with per maganate of potash to ascertain if it is
free from impurities, one grain is sufficient for this purpose
if pure, the water shows a lovely pink deepening to violet
with a larger dose, but turning to brown if the water is
unfit for use for drinking and cooking purposes. Jungle-fever
invariably breaks out on the thirteenth day counting from the
first night of sleeping in the jungle, and if precautions are
taken within the thirteenth day, such as an aperient dose fol-
lowed up by five grains of quinine a.day or two previous to the
thirteenth day, the fever, if not averted, will be very much
modified. Sleeping in rnusquito curtains will be found an ex-
cellent safe-guard. Natives invariably cover their faces with
their cloths when sleeping which acts in the same manner,
viz.) by preventing the entrance of malarious gases on the
same principle as the safety lamp of Sir Humphrey Davy.
The Italian Doctors have lately discovered that in the blood of
the fever patient, there are numbers of infusorisQ which were
destroyed by the taking of quinine. It is of little use
taking quinine until the bowels have been cleared out, nor
should it be administered on an empty stomach. The mixture
for fever in Ceylon was a table-spoonful of salts, a tea-spoon-
ful of jalap and half a tea-spoonful of quinine, all mixed to-
gether in a wine-glassful of water. Natives delight in eme-
tics, and no doubt in the early stages of fever they are very
useful, five grains of Ipecacuanha, with one-and-half grains of
tartar emetic in a pint of water taken, in three or more doses
according to the action, within an hour (as no two people bear
the same dose) followed by lots of hot water when vomiting
has begun. I have sometimes had as many as twenty bandy-
men in a row taking emetics, and all my work stopped. Some-
times a wave of fever passes over a forest and prostrates
nearly every man even Cornmbers, sometimes not escaping.
A large stock of Cinchona Alkaloids should always be kept
in the forests ; for dysentery, ten to fifteen drops of laudanum
46 HEALTH OF ESTABLISHMENT.
in a table-spoonful of castor oil, and constant doses of three
to four grains of Ipecacuanha will, in some cases, give great
relief. Chlorodyue also is much liked by natives, a gall-
nut called by the natives " Mashikkay," Quercus infectoria
or Galls, and common in the bazaars, one nut ground
down, will afford three doses. Phenyle for cuts and bruises
and ulcers that follow auy hurt after fever, will be found very
valuable, mixed either with water as a wash or cocoanut
oil in the proportion of one part to 50-r as an ointment laid
on a rag is excellent for man and beast, a small portion
of bees wax should be melted with cocoanut oil to give it
consistency. Phenyle is also useful for the bites of ticks,
leeches, musquitoes, scorpions, and used pure would be
useful instead of caustic in dog or snake bites when
nothing else is available. I have been thus diffuse on this
subject, as medical advice is not to be had in forests, and I
have always had to depend on my own resources. On one
occasion I arrived in the forests to find my people on the eve
of a stampede, two or three people just come from Mysore
had been seized with cholera and died. By a judicious
admixture of cholera pills and advice, I restored confidence,
and work was resumed ; had I not opportunely come to the
rescue, work, at a most important time, would have come to
a stand still for a month. In camping out, natives are very
fond of banks of streams because water is handy, totally
ignoring the fact that these are the most deadly spots,
especially if bamboos are growing there ; always choose a
ridge if possible over which the wind blows freely, live well,
never get up before sun-rise or stay out of doors after sun-
set, keeping all doors closed. Never drink jungle water,
weak tea with lime juice without milk or sugar, will be found
excellent for working upon. My diet in the forests, during
the middle of the day when I have frequently walked up-
wards of thirty miles, was a couple of hard boiled eggs, a
large chupatti, made of coarse flour, and for drink, a bottle
of weak tea, which lasted me from sun-rise to sun-set. I
never drank jungle water, if very thirsty, in the pursuit of
elephants in the hot weather, I chewed the fruit of the
TREATMENT OF SEEDS. 47
Nellekai" (Bmblica Officinalis), a fruit which looks like a
large green gooseberry in clusters on the trees. Astringent
at first, it causes a flow of saliva and sweetish taste. One
hot morning, in April, I was informed that a large herd of
elephants had beset the cartmen and interrupted their
work; everything was at a dead lock, so to stop this state
of affairs, I sallied forth at sun- rise, and an hour or two
walking, brought me into the centre of the herd, numbering
some sixty or seventy ; by one o'clock I had run the herd
to a standstill, and had slain three tuskers, the ground
underfoot consisted of ashes, as the grass had been just
burnt, the swallowing of these fine ashes, added to the heat
of the weather, and the exertions requisite to follow the
herd, were such as to create a thirst of no common kind,
and yet on a bottle of tea, and two or three " Nellekais/'
I walked back to camp, feeling none the worse for my exer-
tions. I have often, on the hills, in a blazing sun, in
January, tried the effects of cold water from a purling
stream, the more I drank, the more I desired to drink, and
no amount seemed capable of quenching one's thirst; indeed
I may say that weak tea, with lime juice (if it is warm so
much the better), is the only drink capable of assuaging a
raging thirst.
CHAPTER X.
TREATMENT OF SEEDS.
SEEDS require very various treatment. Casuarina and Cin-
chona being very light, hardly require to be covered at all ;
others, such as Teak and Sandalwood may be buried to the
depth of at least half an inch with advantage ; in sending
seeds to a distance especially those which quickly lose
their vitality, such as mahogany, it is advisable to pack
them in damp earth, so that they may go on germinating
in transit. Tea seeds from China were brought over in this
way in a Wardian case by Captain Mann, and on arrival, were
found to be germinating by thousands. The late failure of
mahogany seed sent to the Agricultural Gardens at Madras
48 TREATMENT OF SEEDS.
where 90 per cent, of the seed failed, would not have occurred
had they been treated in the aboveinentioned manner, it
may be safely said 90 per cent, would have germinated,
and a most valuable tree introduced by thousands into
this country. The small expense of a Wardian case would
have been as nothing in comparison with the importance
of the success of the experiment, even in sending valuable
seeds from one part of India to another, it is well to ensure
success by putting them into damp earth ; seeds should
never be packed in tin because the extra moisture cannot
escape, and may rot the seeds if they are very many
days in transit. This is found especially the case when
seeds are packed damp in hermetically sealed tins. On
one occasion, a gentleman sent me (what I learnt after-
wards had been some favorite bulbs from his garden) in a
tightly soldered tin case, but which appeared to be on open-
ing a dish of cooked onions. Seedsmen at Home appear to
be exceedingly ignorant as to the packing of seeds, and pack
them imperfectly dried in this pernicious manner, and then
are surprised to find they had turned out a failure. There
are many ways of sending cuttings of valuable plants. I
give the palm again to the Wardian case, more especially so,
for the packing of succulent plants ; but for cuttings of all
but soft wooded plants, the ends may be tied up in damp moss,
or dipped in bees-wax (melted) and rolled up in wax-cloth
and sent by Parcel Post or Baughy. Glass houses are chiefly
useful by enabling you to regulate the temperature either in
hot or cold climates in the former, glass and shutters would
be necessary. One principal rule must always be kept ill
mind, and that is, that for all cuttings the bottom heat must
be greater than that above, say 90 below, 80 above; another
is perfect ventilation; the 3rd to have alternate strips of blue
and white glass, the blue color exercising a most important
effect on vegetation, the growth being twice as fast under
that color. In 1860 when I was entrusted with the direc-
tion of the Cinchona experiment with Mr. Mclvor as my
Executive, it was of the very greatest importance to ascer-
TREATMENT OF SEEDS. 49
tain how Cinchona could be best propagated ? Numerous
experiments were instituted in the treatment of both seeds
and cuttings, and it was found that a glass house was indis-
pensable, and I may say that the success of the experiment
would have been jeopardized had the advice of certain
incompetent persons been adopted. See Cinchona Blue
Book.
Fortunately better counsels prevailed, and I had the satis-
faction of seeing my ideas carried out. It was also found
that after a few experiments, the propagation of the plant
by seeds and cuttings was by no means difficult, where first
principles were carried out, and correct appliances used.
Between 1861 and 1865 Mrs. Morgan alone turned out
upwards of half a million of plants from cuttings. From
fifty seeds of Cinchona Condeminea no less than twenty-five
thousand cuttings were made from the fifty plants, the seed
produced within two years.
Just now, 1883, it is very important to raise plants from
cuttings of the more valuable kinds of India rubber pro-
ducing trees. If a certain strain of plant is to be kept up,
cuttings must be resorted to ; seed is never safe especially
Cinchona seed. I am not aware if cuttings of mahogany
have been tried as it is a leguminous tree, they would pro-
bably succeed. It is very necessary to have some idea of
the soil you are going to plant, for instance, Teak will not
grow in pure sand nor will Casuarina grow in clayey ground.
The Larch prefers a sandy soil, the Oak, a clayey soil. In a
country like India, it is essential to study Isothermal lines
and not make the blunder of planting Piuus Maritima in
the low country, as was done some years ago. It is true,
that some trees have a wide range of habitat, but these are
exceptional, and only prove the rule. It was considered that
the higher Cinchona Succirubra was planted the greater
would be the yield of Quinine ; but there was a limit, for it
was found that the west of Ootacamund the tree would not
grow over six thousand feet, but east it grew well at that
elevation. The same with Cinchona Calisaya, this would not
7
50 LIST OF USEFUL TREES WITH REMARKS.
grow well at even five thousand feet west of Ootacamund,
but at Coonoor, it grew well up to six thousand feet. The
fact being, the west of Ootacamund in consequence of the
hot air of the Wynaad plateau being tempered by an eleva-
tion of three thousand feet, and much forest, whereas at
Coouoor, the hot air came up direct from a bare country,
only one thousand feet above sea-level, thus six thousand
feet at Coonoor was nearly as warm for vegetation as four
thousand five hundred feet west of Ootacamund. So that
in calculating heat due to elevation, some other matters
have to be taken into consideration, viz., rainfall, prevail-
ing winds, height of low country above the sea, nature of
the country, forest or otherwise, gorges, ravines, &c.,
through which the hot air ascends, and the cold air
descends, thus equalising the temperature whilst on the
subject of the scientific treatment of plants, seeds, &c.,
it is much to be regretted that the services and knowledge
of the Superintendent of the Ootacamund Gardens are
not utilised for the teaching of Overseers, Foresters, and
others. The Forest officer has not time to train men in
this department, nor has he any appliances, whereas they
may all be found in the Ootacamund gardens. The appli-
cation of the Overseers' training may be practically carried
out at Nellumbore and our other important forests. The
great drawback in our forests is their unhealthiuess, a trained
man being frequently lost through fever which is no respecter
of persons.
CHAPTER XI.
LIST OP USKFUL TREES WITH REMARKS.
IN this list besides timber trees, there, is si great variety
of trees that might bo cultivated with advantage i'r their
economic products.
No. 1 'JV,,k, /.Yj/mr/.-N. ( I rows at the sea-level and up to three thoii-
Tectoria grandis. san j j- (H >t, elevation, cannot bo well grown o\<vM in nu-ist
situations; like the Oak, prefers a rather retentive BUb-SOll,
though it <rrows well at Nellumbore in " sandy elav, but just
LIST 01 I -MFC I. TKKEb WITH REMAi
as often in soft luterito, which lias all the appearance of a
stiff clay. Though in Wynaad there is no visible lime to be
found in the soil; this tree has tho singular property of
Absorbing liiuo from the soil which forms iu the shape of
long strips, encrusting the outside of the tree iu lengths of
three and four feet, and in width from three inches up to a
foot, and two aud three inches in thickness. The Curumbers
use it instead of lime for betel chewing. Teak cannot be
grown amongst bamboos, nor indeed can any other forest
tree. It is a fallacy to suppose otherwise, and wherever the
contrary has been observed, it is due to the fact that the
trees were established there before the bamboos appeared,
for though bamboos may grow amougst trees, young plants
of trees are poisoned by the acid emanations from bamboos,
the same is the case with the Tamarind tree under which
even grass will not grow. The mode of growth of the Teak
tree depends very much on its situation, such as at Nell urn-
bore, for instance, where the climate is exceedingly forcing,
the trees are drawn up to a very great height at forty years
of age, being something like hundred feet high, after which
age, their vertical growth is slow, and the boles begin to fill
out. In Wynaad owing to the difference of climate, the
growth is much slower, probably not quite two-thirds of the
above rate. In the Anamallies the growth is between that
of Nellumbore and Wynaad and at the same time the trees
attain a gigantic height. In testing timber at the Neil-
gherry Barracks, it was found that the long straight grain
of the Anamallie timber deflected more than that of Wynaad,
thus showing that the Wynaad timber of slower growth
was more rigid and better adapted for girders in fact, if
all things are considered ; very probably, Wynaad Teak is
superior for building purposes to any other Teak timber.
The carpenters at the Wellington Barracks always com-
plained that the Wynaad timber was far more difficult to
work up than that from Anamallie.
A great many complaints have been made that " Tukkui" Tukkul
or native clearings in the forest destroys the Teak ; this
52 LIST OF USEFUL TREES WITH REMARKS.
may be true when all the Teak trees have been cut over and
burnt, but I have known instances where Teak trees having
been left in the clearing, the ground, in a few years, after-
wards was covered with Teak seedlings. I also remarked
in one particular instance that in a "Tukkul" clearing, all
the young Teak trees had been ruthlessly cut over by the
Curumbers, but owing to the fire not having been a severe
one, or the clearing having been abandoned before fire came
in, every tree had thrown out a shoot, and when I saw it
in 1860, it looked like a regular plantation, the cut in the
bole could be distinctly traced, every tree was drawn up as
straight as an arrow, and they appeared about thirty years
old. The Teak has some enemies, for instance, I have already
shewn how rats and squirrels destroy the seeds when planted
in beds, sometimes mealy bug attacks the tap roots, and
one year I lost twenty thousand plants from this cause the
cure is, plenty of ashes in the beds. Elephants sometimes
destroy the trees by walking through a plantation. Sambur
also by rubbing their horns against the young trees, do con-
siderable damage, monkeys jumping from tree to tree, break
the tops. Colonel Beddoine, in his Forest Report for 1869-
70, page 4i, mentions a small area of superb Teak, nine feet
in girth and sixty to seventy feet high. He states that the
Teak has not spread, this only exemplifies what I have
stated before that Teak does not spread, that in fact to even
hold its own, it requires peculiar conditions. The Teak
seems to have been found in the Golcondah Taluq of Viza-
gapatam, at an elevation of two thousand feet.
Black wood, This tree attains a vast size on the Anamallies, Wynaad,
Latifdia* an ^ ^he s ^P es ^ tne Neilgherries above Nellumbore, planks
three feet in diameter are not uncommon, it is considered by
the natives to be stronger than Teak, and is generally used
in parts where a considerable strain is to be met, it is of slower
growth than Teak, and has the same peculiarity of drawing
up lime from the soil, especially where the bark has been
injured. The demand for this wood in Bombay is very
considerable, being in great requisition for the carved
LIST OF USEFUL TREES WITH REMARKS. 53
furniture for which that Presidency is famous, and for
furniture of all kinds, it is generally found growing singly
in the forest. I once saw a tree on the Anamallies which
squared to six feet, it is a profitable wood to cultivate, the
price varies from two to three rupees and eight annas a
cubic foot.
This tree is gradually becoming scarce from the increased Sandalwood,
T i- -i /~iv ii j Santalum album,
and enormous consumption or it in China the seeds are
naturally sown in the jungle, being carried about by birds,
and being enveloped in a fruity pulp, it is eagerly eaten by
many birds. It is a very profitable tree to cultivate,
and there are thousands of suitable acres available in the
Suttiamungalum, Collegall, Denkinicotta and a few other
Taluqs.
This tree grown in the Cuddapah jungles is in great Red Sanders,
demand, the straight logs are used for posts, the crooked santaiinus! 8
pieces are exported for dyeing purposes, a profitable tree
to grow, takes a beautiful ruby polish.
This wood is good building timber and makes very hand- Vengay, Pterocar.
some doors. The grain is close and takes a high polish, grows p
in Teak forests and attains a very large size ; it is also found
growing well in dry forests. It is a valuable wood of
fairly fast growth.
This tree is found in Sandalwood jungles, is valuable for Satinwood,
furniture, but it does not arrive at any size in this country. Swietema U
The Ceylon ti'ee produces logs of twenty cubic feet and
makes valuable furniture and panelling wood ; it takes a
high polish, perhaps if grown in moister jungles in this
country, it might attain a greater size.
This tree found growing wild in Wynaad, and attaining a Jack tree, Artocar.
vast size, is valued for its building properties, also for furui- pua
ture, the wood at first of a bright yellow color turns with
age to mahogany. The fruit too is very valuable, and is too
well known to require any description here. The seeds are
not unlike chesnuts when roasted, and very nutritious. The
Artocarpus incisa or Bread fruit should also be largely
planted.
54
LIST OF USEFUL TREES WITH REMARKS.
Achawood,
Hardwickia
bin at a.
Hopea species ?
This tree fouud principally in the Salem dry jungles, is
remarkable for its hardness, turning the edge of the sharpest
steel tools, for certain purposes where hardness, density,
and strength are required, it is very valuable, its properties
are but little known especially in Europe. Bunjarras
destroy the youug trees by thousands for the sake of their
bark from which they spin a coarse rope ;. this tree might be
cultivated with advantage.
A valuable wood for building purposes fouud principally
in South Canara. See Beddome.
Red cedar, White Very valuable timber tree grows to a huge size in Wy-
tabularis, and Ce- naad very light but durable, considerably used for furui-
drela Toona. ture and Building purposes.
White and Black The two Terminalias, white and black Muttee are very
arjuna'and to- much esteemed by the natives for their timber. The white
Terminalia grows on the banks of streams in the Salem,
Coimbatore, and other dry forests. The black Muttee is
found in vast numbers in Wynaad, Anamallies, Nulla Mul-
lies, &c., it has a very straight growth, and is very strong.
This gigantic tree found in Wynaad, is largely used for
building purposes, it cuts up a bright pink, looks like red
cedar.
Acrocarpus fradi
iiifolia.
Erool, Inga
Xylocarpa.
Sal.
Shorea robueta.
Casuarina munri-
cata.
j\I;ilmpany,
S \\intenia Maha-
goui.
Very hard dense wood found useful for railway sleepers.
Very good timber, does not grow large in this Presidency
except in the north.
Said to have been introduced from the Suuderbunds,
hard, heavy, strong wood, useful for building. The above
are our principal forest timbers. There are others, such as
Acacia Speciosa, Oderatissima, Ebony, &c., &c., which are
useful.
Introduced Woods. This most valuable wood for furni-
ture, veneering, &c., grows well at Madras, and probably
would grow even better at Nellumbore, unfortunately the
tree does not seed readily. Those in the Agri-Horticultural
Gardens, Madras, though some forty yours old, have only
LIST OF USEFUL TIIKKS WITH REMARKS.
given some two or three pods in tlicir life. Introduced seed,
by the way it was packed abroad, nearly all failed. It should
have been packed in semi-dry earth, and thus would not have
become dried up. Great efforts should be made to introduce
this tree into our forests near the coast.
The Ceara promises to be a great success, it seems to Rubber trees,
grow from the sea-level up to three thousand feet; as a
nurse for Sandalwood trees, it will probably be found inva-
luable, trees have already been tapped iu Ceylon with
favorable results.
The introduction of this tree into our forests wo uld be a Milk or Cow tree,
great boon. In South America, it is food and drink ; it is
called there the Hya, Hya. Said to have been introduced
into the Bombay Forests.
There are several very valuable kinds, one from Bur- Bamboos, Bam-
mah is said to be very large. Planted along river banks, it J
is invaluable for preventing their erosion. tea<
In our Hill Ranges, these trees grow well and are very Eucalyptus
useful for house building, &c. Varieties from Queensland U9t
may yet be found suitable for growing in the low country.
This grows well from three to six thousand feet elevation ; Grevillia Robusta,
it is said to produce wood suitable for cask staves.
This valuable wood would certainly grow well in a climate Camphor tree
like that of Nellumbore. '
The same remark applies to this tree. Gutta-percha
Isonandra gutta.
In Florida this timber is exported largely to England, it Pinua Rigida,
is also valuable for its pitch producing qualities, would grow P
well on most of our hills.
Grows well at Madras and Bangalore. I have seen some Divi Divi,
trees whose heads were fifty feet in diameter and loaded nia Corriaria
with pods. The tannic acid is valuable.
From Australia, the percentage of tannin in the bark of Acacia Dccur.
this tree is very high, grows from four to seven thousand feet K
elevation.
56
LIST OF USEFUL TREES WITH REMARKS.
A. Melonoxylon. This is the furniture wood of Australia, grows from five
to seven thousand feet elevation,, a valuable tree.
Habitat the same as above ; bark valuable for tanning,
wood good for burning.
This, though only a small tree, might be found useful for
shading ground under Teak trees; does not grow well over
fifteen hundred feet above the sea-level, might be planted
when all but two hundred trees are cut out in the acre.
The same remark applies to this bush. The pods are valu-
able for their dye, and Aruotto for coloring cheese is well
known. The seeds give a fine flavor when ground up with
cocoabeans. Grows up to three thousand feet elevation.
A very useful, hard, heavy wood.
Grows best in the Travancore forests.
A. Dealbata.
Cocoa, Theobro-
ma cacao.
Bixa Orellana,
Arnotto.
Iron wood, Mesua
ferrea.
Ebony, Disospy-
ros Melanoxylon.
Poon. Sterculia
fcetida. ?
Splendid specimens on the Carcoor Ghat, first-rate spars
of this tree are said to be worth one thousand rupees on the
coast.
Notes on Eucalyptus Globulus. This tree was planted at
Ootacamund by General Fred. Cotton, then Captain Cotton,
about the year 1843, there was one in the ornamental sholah
at Gaton then his property, and there were three trees in
his garden at Woodcote.
In 1852 Mrs. Morgan drew my attention to the seeds of
a tree at Colonel Havelock's house, this was a species of
Eucalyptus, we raised about four hundred plants from its
seed, and finding the growth extremely rapid about ten feet
a year, I was induced to obtain a quantity of Eucalyptus
seed from Australia in 1856, and in a short time raised over
one hundred and fifty thousand plants, and distributed them
all over the hills. So rare were the plants that even in
18G7 the Government Gardens priced a plant at twelve annas,
and had the hills trusted to the gardens for the general
cultivation of this wonderful tree, they might never have
been planted to the extent they now are ! ! In 18G2 Sir
William Denison, the then Governor, seeing how success-
LIST OF USEFUL THKKS WITH IlKMAKKS. 57
fully the trees grew, ordered some Government hind to be
planted, and this was the commencement of planting on a
large scale.
The tree at Gaton far outstrips any other on these hills.
At six feet from the ground it girths fourteen feet and has Size of Euca-
four hundred cubic feet of timber. There are trees in my !yP tus -
garden " The Retreat" planted about 1857 averaging one
hundred and forty feet in height and eight feet round, at
three feet from the ground. They are, of course, specially
fine trees grown on a loose bank of earth and much
sheltered. There are twelve that contain one hundred and
fifty cubic feet of timber up to one hundred feet from the
ground leaving forty feet of top.
I had a tree, cut down at Tudor Hall, about the year 1868,
it was an average tree grown in good soil. Mr. Broughton,
the Government Quinologist, and myself had it carefully
weighed, the total weight of tree including top, roots, &c.,
was one thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds, of this
sixty per cent, was moisture. The age of the tree was eight
years. The growth of the Eucalyptus averages eight feet a
year up to a certain age, which may be taken at about fifteen
years. I have measured many trees about one hundred and
forty feet in height at that age, after this age, the trees seem
to increase in bulk, but not in height. The Eucalyptus has
been credited with keeping off malaria in marshy places by
the aromatic scent of its leaves ; this is only partly correct,
for the fact is that the tree having very powerful roots, pierces
through the bed of clay that retains the moisture, and thus
drains marshy lands, for the water descends to a lower level. Eucalyptus
I have, on these hills, seen small ponds and streams dried up Globulus.
where Eucalypti have been planted. In many parts of
Italy where Finns Maritima has been planted, the ground
has been completely drained, and the malaria banished. At
Arcachou, in France, there was a very considerable tract of
land, full of marshes, with stunted Oak, Bech and Elm grow-
ing, the place was the resort of snipe and woodcock. The
trees were cut down, and the whole planted with the turpen-
tine yielding fir, the result was that the ground was com-
8
58
LIST OF USEFUL TREES \VITH REMARKS.
Of the wood
timber.
Encalyptua
varieties.
pletely drained, aud the place become a sanitarium for inva-
lids. In Algiers the planting of the Eucalyptus has, in nu-
merous cases, banished malaria by simply draining the laud.
The tree is of very great use here for ordinary building
purposes, the thinnings at eight years of age makes excel-
lent rafters and wall plates, nor do they easily decay if the
bark is kept on and the wood protected. Planking from
older trees lasts fairly well, if not exposed to damp, but this
is no test as we have no timber so to speak ; the oldest trees
being only twenty-five years old, and nothing being con-
sidered timber under forty years. I may here observe that
by steeping the planks in a tank of water which contains
^i_ part of lime, the durability is much increased. There is
no necessity for putting more than one cubic foot of lime
to six hundred cubic feet of water, as no more lime can be
taken up by the water the theory is that the water forces
out the sap and deposits lime in the capillary tubes.
In the year 1862 I obtained a large variety of Eucalyptus
from Australia, none of the Jarrahs succeeded, it being too
cold for them, but the red gum Eucalyptus rostrata has
done well, it is reckoned a most valuable timber in Australia,
it is nearly allied to Jarrahs ; Eucalyptus Amygdalina also
grows well this tree is reported to exceed even the Welling-
tonia Gigantea in height, trees of nearly five hundred feet
in height having been measured. The grain of Eucalyptus
Globulus is similar to that of the ash.
I may here remark that as a rule plantations 6 X G succeed
best as the trees draw each other up, and fine straight stems
are the result. Thinning out is best at eight years in aver-
age situations, of course, there are plantations in very rich
soil that require thinning even at six years. Some years
ago, Forest Report, 1861-62, I compared the growth of the
Eucalyptus with Teak at Nellutnbore and Oak plantations in
Knglsiml, and found that Teak grows twice as fast as Oak,
and Eucalyptus twice as fast as Teak. I have already iiu-n-
tioned another example, there are some twenty-five trees
planted in front of my present house, I know their age to be
about twenty-five years, they are one hundred and forty
us'] OK I:SKKI:L TRKKS WITH UKMAUKS. 59
feet in height, and average one hundred and twenty cubic
feet each this rate of growth is only half that of the single
tree at Gayton but yet it is enormous, compared with Teak
which, in good situations, does not average more than one
cubic foot a year.
The tree grows best in what are called shola soils, that is Soils,
where natural woods grew before, these are composed of
humus to a depth of two or more feet with a sub-soil of decom-
posed felspar which remains moist throughout the year,
next certain grass lands which have a peaty surface soil
and a retentive sub- soil. So powerful are the roots of the
Eucalyptus that they rapidly bore through a bed of clay, and
thus drain any marshy place as has occurred in Algeria, indeed
on these hills, they are accused of drying up springs. The
fact being that their roots having bored through the substra-
tum of clay that prevented the water descending to a greater
depth, the spring has followed the roots to a lower level.
The tree Eucalyptus Globulus delights in an elevation of Cold and eleva -
* r tion, rain fall
seven thousand feet, and bears ten degrees or frost; a temperature.
rain fall of fifty inches a year suits it well. The mean tem-
perature of Ootacamund is 56. The tree does not, in this
latitude, 12 north, succeed below five thousand feet eleva-
tion it has been tried and failed.
The trees are usually laid out six feet by six feet, or say Mode of planting,
twelve hundred to the acre; at ten years of age, half are
taken out to enable the rest to come on, the balance are
gradually thinned out until only one hundred trees stand on
the acre, as per balance sheet of a Eucalyptus plantation.
The wood when ten years old is good for all kinds of rafters Uses of the wood.
used in building; when twenty years old, it is fit for flooring
planks, rafters, reepers, &c., when forty years old, it may be
considered to be timber and has been used for ships, spars,
&c. it has a fine long grain something like ash. Oil has
been distilled from the leaves, and used for rheumatism, and
cigars have also been made from the leaves and smoked for
bronchitis and asthma. The twigs which are shed being
full of resiuous matter are collected by the poor who have
blessed the introduction of the tree, as with little trouble
60
LIST OF USEFUL TREES WITH REMARKS.
and no expense, they can soon collect a bundle, and to poor
natives coming up from the low country where the thermo-
meter is ninety odd and never under sixty ; cheap fuel is a
great boon, the leaves being full of oil also burn well. There
is another Eucalyptus ; rostrata or red gum, this grows nearly
as large as Eucalyptus Globulus, the wood is quite as good,
and it furnishes a red gum highly astringent called gum kino
and very useful in dysentery. Other varieties of Eucalyptus
have been introduced here by me. Varieties of the Jarrah,
one of the finest timbers in the world, but unfortunately it
thrives in a warmer climate. Eucalyptus Amygdalina has
also been grown, this tree is the wonder of the world. Some
stems measured in Australia were nearly five hundred feet
in length, exceeding the Californian Giants Wellington ia
Gigantea in height. Several species from Queensland Hill
will no doubt be found to suit the climate of Mysore, and
perhaps even the low country, but of this, I am doubtful.
Eucalyptus Globulus would not even grow in Coorg.
Balance Sheet of an acre of Eucalyptus Globulus from 1 year up to 40 years :
Expenditure.
Clearing ground
Cost of plants, 1,200
Pits, 1,200, 18" cube
Planting
Weeding, 10 years
Rent 10 years @ 2 Rs. an acre
Interest of 9 years at 10
per cent, on 64 Rs. say ...
Felling 500 trees
Carting 125 tons, at 2 Rs...
Selling charges
1st 10 years' charges
Balance, Profit 10 years ...
10
6
12
6
10
20
64
54
30
250
60
458
542
Rs... 1,000
Rent, 30 years, at 2 Rs. ...
Watching, &c., at 84 Rs. a
year, for 20 years
Felling 400 trees, at 8 As. ea.
Do. 100 do. at 1 Rupee.
Carting 1,200 tons, at 2 Rs.
Do. 100 do. .-it li Rs.
Selling charges, &c, &c. ...
CO
Ohft]
Balance, i'rii!
1,100
10,942
17,042
Receipts.
Sale of 500 trees = 125 tons,
at 8 Rupees a ton
RS.
1,000
200 trees = 400 tons, at 8 Rs.
a ton
200 trees, at 10,000 cubic
feet, at 8 As. a foot
100 trees, 40 years old, at
100 cubic feet, at 12 As. a
cubic foot.
Tops of 100 trees, at 1 ton
each, 8 Rs.
1,000
3,200
5,000
7,500
800
RE.,, 17.IM3
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 61
CHAPTER XII.
FUEL PLANTATIONS.
Prize Essay.*
Most suitable site for Plantations. ID considering the
subject of sites for fuel plantations, we have to take into
consideration the following points. First, proximity to large
towns. Second, the distance from the coast or port, the
nature of the land available, its proximity to good roads or
water carriage. Assuming that the consumption is large,
the most suitable site for a plantation, supposing such land
is obtainable within five miles of a town, is low ground
with a sandy soil, the water bearing strata being within six
feet of the surface for the greater part of the year. la
ground of this nature, numerous water holes can be sunk for
watering the plants the first year, and in the second year,
the roots will penetrate to the water bearing strata. In
ground of this nature there is but one tree to plant, and
that ist casuarina muricata. Its growth is exceedingly fast,
and as fuel, its calorific powers are unsurpassed by any
ordinary wood. It may be here remarked, that an especial
condition for a fuel plantation is, that the tree should be
fast-growing and one possessing high calorific powers,
otherwise the plantation cannot pay. Having selected the
site, let us plant it : first dig a water hole, make nurseries.
It will save watering, if the seeds are mixed in a basket with
damp sand for ten days, and then sown in lines in the
nursery beds, the lines six inches apart, the seed being a
light one requires but a slight covering of fine sand. The
lines should be one inch deep, but the seed should only be
* By Major-General Morgan, Ootacamund.
t Some twenty years ago it was hotly debated in Madras, if In go, dnlcis
(Corkapilly) was not far superior to Casuavina for a firewood plantation.
The first has no supporters now.
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
covered one quarter of au inch deep; fresh seed germinates
more quickly than old; ripe seed produces better plants
than green. Be very careful to select your seed from
the strongest growing trees; should your lazy gardener
go to a stunted tree loaded with seed and you use it, be
sure your plantation must fail, aa surely as if you had
bred from a diseased and stunted [animal; in nature, like
produces like. Having sown your beds, (cover them with
pandals made of light brushwood to break the heat 'of the
sun, water every evening and lightly, do not deluge your
beds but keep the surface moist, in a few days the plant
should appear above ground, when six inches high, shift
them to another bed, having first carefully cut back the tap-
root to four inches, to enable the plant to throw out bushy
roots and thus take up more soil. A single root like a carrot
takes up no soil, has no lateral roots foi\feeders,"and]once
damaged recovers with difficulty ; further when you plant out,
there is no tap-root to turn up. Place your plants six inches
apart in the beds, when they are one foot to eighteen inches
in height, put them out into the pits. Select showery, cloudy
weather, heavy rains are not good for planting out. The
best time in most places is probably July. The plant then,
has six months before it to make roots before the dry
weather sets in. The pits should be at least eighteen inches
cube. In lifting plants from the beds, use a transplanter,
they are far cheaper and quite as good as baskets. A cooly
will carry a dozen at a time, and the plant is deposited in
its pit without any disturbance of its roots, consequently
there are no failures. On the careful lifting will depend
the amount of watering they will require in the dry weather,
for should'they be safely deposited without any disturbance
of their roots, they will go on growing and elongating their
roots in search of water, and soon reach the desired object ;
whereas, if the roots are damaged, the plant has^to renew
them, and before this can be done, the hot weather arrives,
und to koop it iilivo, heavy watoriugs aro necessary. The
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. G3
plant should be pub out 6 feet x G feet, this distance
will allow of thinning out in the ninth year if the trees have
grown well. In the first year the plants may require a
slight shade of anything obtainable, such as grass, pieces of
palmyra or cocoanut leaves, &c., shading will save watering.
After the first year the young trees should take care of
themselves. In the ninth year it will be necessary to thin
the trees unless coppicing should be resorted to. I confess
the thinning process seems to me to be the most paying
process in the end, for the casuariiia is not only a good
firewood but a fair building timber, and by thinning out
at the end of forty or fifty years, some good building timber
would be available. Wight states "that the timber is
without exception the strongest for bearing cross strains."
In coppicing, it must be observed that all the trees are cut
over at once, and all the stools have an equal start, but in
thinning out, the shoots that come from the stools are poor,
for the standing trees get the start of them and absorb an
undue amount of food to the detriment of the coppiced stools.
It may be mentioned that the ground being pure sand, there
are no weeds. In the ninth year, the trees will have at-
tained an average height of 60 feet with a diameter at the
base of 8 inches tapering off: to 4 inches at the top. In the
Forest Report for 1872 and 1873, page 68 : "The largest
trees seven years old averaged 60 feet high and 30 inches in
circumference at the ground, there are twenty thousand of
them." At this age we proceed to coppice. Allowing for
weakly trees and failures at 10 per cent, the returns may be
taken as follows : Five hundred trees full grown averaging
6 inches x 6 inches, for 50 feet = 12 J cubic feet a tree;
then 500 trees x 12J cubic feet = 6,250 cubic feet x 60 Ibs.
(weight of a cubic foot) = 375,000 Ibs. and if we say half this
weight for the other 500 trees, then we have for the acre
562,500 Ibs., plus the tops which sell well as small wood, ten
feet of tops equal 60 Ibs. x 1,000 trees = 60,000 Ibs. or in
all 622,500 Ibs. = 277 tons at 8 rupees a ton all round
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
= 2,210 rupees, for the acre. Then the account stands
thus :
Dr.
To 1,250 plants at 5 pe
1,000
Lining and 1,200 pits
RS. A. P.
r
640
700
6f\ f\
Or.
Sale of 277 tons
rupees ...
Deduct charges
RS. A. P.
at 8
... 2,216
... 837 14 9
Planting ...
Shading ...
(J U
280
1 ! A f\
Profit
... 1,378 1 3
Watering first year
Fencing ...
Rent
lo U u
400
900
50 12
9 years' interest at 10 per
cent 45 10 9
Cutting and lopping 100
trees 250
Carting 277 tons at 1-8-0 415 8
Expenses selling ... 76
Total... 837 14 9
Then from the total returns in the ninth year we have
a profit of Rs. 1,378. I have not the slightest doubt that
some of the casuarina plantations extending from Madras
to near Pulicat realise the above profit, but not all ; for it is
a curious fact that the further from the surface the water is
found, the more backward are the trees. And, probably, for
trees growing- inland, where the water-bearing stratum is,
perhaps, ten feet from the surface, not more than half the
above profit would be realised; but, after making every
deduction for indifferent sites, and there is no place where
the casuarina will not grow, except in stiff clay, it is, beyond
comparison, the best tree to grow for a firewood plantation.
If we assume that the trees are coppiced over once in ten
years and that they give a return equal to the first cutting,
then at the end of forty years the account will stand thus :
Dr. RS.
Watching and pruning 10
years at Rs. 7 a month ... 840
Rent of land 10
Cutting and lopping 1,000
trees 250
Carting 277 tons at Rs. 1-8-0 416
Selling expenses 60
Total... 1,576
linl ten years... 1,576
4th do. ... 1,576
Grand Total... 4,728
Or.
By balance profit ...
Sale of 277 tons at Rs. 8
Do.
Do.
do.
do.
30 years...
40 do. ...
Total...
Deduct charges...
1,378
2,216
2,216
2,216
8,026
4,728
Balance profit.., 3,298
ESSAY ON FUKL PLANTATIONS.
We will now treat the casuarina partly as a fuel, partly
as a timber plantation. At the ninth year we shall cut out
500 trees equal to 375,000 Ibs., plus tops = 30,000 Ibs., total
405,000 Ibs. = 180 tons at Rs. 8 = Ks. 1,440. From this
we must deduct cost of planting.
Dr. RS.
Cost of planting as above ... 96
Cutting and lopping 500 trees... 125
Carting 180 tons at Ks. 1-8-0 ... 270
Selling charges ... ... ... 48
Total... 539
Or,
Sale of 180 tons at Rs. 8
Deduct charges
RS.
1,440
539
Balance profit... 901
Here we have a profit to the tenth year of Rs. 901 , and
by gradual thinnings up to the thirtieth year, we can realise
a revenue, for to enable the last hundred trees oil the acre
to acquire their full growth, it will be necessary to take out
400 trees. If between the tenth and thirtieth year we take
out an average of 20 trees a year, and assume that the first
20 trees contain an average of 25 cubic feet, and the last 20
trees an average of 50 cubic feet; then the mean of the
400 trees will be 37 cubic feet x 20 trees = 740 cubic
feet, which if sold for building timber at only 6 annas a
cubic foot, would bring every year for 20 years Rs. 278.
Add value of tops for firewood at 300 Ibs. a tree x 20 trees
= 6,000 Ibs. sold for firewood at Rs. 8 a ton = Rs. 2lf
Then the account will stand as follows :
Balance Sheet of 30 years of a Timber and Fuel Casuarina
Plantation
Dr.
Watcher and feller at Rs. 7
a month for 20 years ...
Carting 453 tons at Rs. 1-8-0
Carting last 100 trees with
tops = 180 tons at 1-8-0-
Watcher and feller, 10 years ,
say Ks. 100
Rent of land 30 years
Selling, &c. } say 30 years ...
Total
RS.
1,680
679
270
100
30
],077
3,836
Cr.
Balance profit brought 011 ...
400 trees at 37 cubic feet
each at 6 annas a cubic
foot ...
Tops of 400 trees 531 tons
at Rs. 8
100 trees 40 years old = 60
cubic feet a tree, at As. 10
a cubic foot
Tops of 100 trees at 600 Ibs.
each, 8 Rs. a ton for 27
tons ..
RS.
901
5,550
428
3,750
216
Total
Deduct charges
10,845
3,836
Balance profit ... 7,009
66 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
Here is a profit per acre shown of Rs. 7,009, and the returns
are rather under-estimated, but it must be borne in mind
that these are the returns for a good plantation. The data
given above are founded on a practical basis, and no mere
theory : the cost of planting, the growth of the trees, and
the selling prices realized are all under-estimated, and the
prices given can be realised in all large towns. With the
exception of fuel plantations on the hills, it is simply waste
of time and money to grow any tree but the casuarina for
fuel plantations where the suitable sites are available. In
forming the fuel plantation, I have omitted the description
of the fence. Assuming the site to be sandy, a ditch three
feet wide at top and six inches at bottom will be wide
enough. The sand taken out should be placed on the inside
of the ditch, on the top eighteen inches in width. Aloes,
the croton oil plant or prickly euphorbia may be planted on
the top. The ditch can be cheaply constructed for about 9
pies a running yard three feet deep. Any animal getting
in will find a difficulty in getting out, as the shape of the
bottom of the ditch will hedge him in. Prickly-pear should
never be used, indeed spreading it in any* way should ba
made penal, as they have made thistle-growing in Australia.
It may be argued that the planting of casuarina is well
understood and some other mode of forming fuel plantations
should be pointed out. My reply is : The tree grows nearly
everywhere and it is the best sort to grow. It is found from
Madras on the East Coast to Calicut on the West; in dry
plains, like the town of Bowani, and in moist places similar
to Manantoddy, 2,500 feet above the sea. There are Euca-
lyptus plantations at our hill-stations, and I shall proceed
to show how they are raised. The tree has not hitherto
been found to grow well below 4,500 feet in any part of
Southern India. No doubt there are some species of Euca-
lyptus growing in Queensland that might be found to suc-
ceed in Mysore and at elevations from 2,500 to 4,500 feet.
The various kiuda of Jarrah from West Australia grow
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 67
best at 5,000 feefc elevation;* the Tasmanian blue gum,
E. Globulus, from 5,000 to 8,000 feet. To form a Eucalyp-
tus plantation, first secure sholah-land, if possible, for
the returns from sholah-land in the first ten years will be
double those from grass-land. If sholah-land is not avail-
able, then secure grass-land facing the north with a good
yellow sub-soil to retain the moisture. Make your nursery
beds near water, procure your seeds from the strongest
trees. Sow in March in beds, the lines to be six inches
apart, one inch deep; cover the seed half an inch deep,
no more ; water lightly ; when the plants are six inches high,
take up, cut back tap-roots to four inches, replant in beds
six inches apart; when 12 to 18 inches high, take up with
transplanter, aud put out in pits, these should be 18 inches
cubic. The young trees may be put out between June aud
September, selecting cloudy weather, if showery the better.
Very heavy rain, or high wind, is bad for planting out. In
placing the plant in the pit, press the earth well down, or the
air will get to the roots and dry them up. If the trees are
put out 6 feet x 6 feet, they must be thiuned out in the ninth
year. And as I have already shown that coppicing even for
a fuel plantation does not pay, I shall show a balance sheet
on the fuel and building timber basis. If we take the acre
as holding 1,000 trees 50 feet high, and 12^ cubic feet
each, then we cut out 500 trees in the ninth year at 12 J
cubic feet each and 50 Ibs. the cubic foot = 139^ tons, or to
be within the mark, say 125 tons at Ks. 8 a ton = Rs. 1 ,000.
The balance sheet shows expenses up to tenth year as
Rs. 458; returns Rs. 1,000; profit Rs. 542. To show that
the average weight of 625 Ibs. a tree is not excessive, aii
eight-year old average tree out of a plantation was felled
and weighed, it was found to exceed 1,600 Ibs. A single E.
Globulus tree about 40 years of age is known to contain 400
cubic feet of timber, which at 50 cubic feet the ton = 8 tons.
This tree stands alone. In another place 25 trees of E.
Globulus measure 9 feet in circumference at 6 feet from the
* The Jarrah E. Marginata might be found to grow well in Wynaad and
similar climates.
68 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
ground and 3 feet at 100 feefc in height, the total height
being 140 feet. These 25 trees average 120 cubic feet each
of good timber, and the trees are under 25 years of age.
They occupy a space of one-sixth of an acre. Then 25 x 120
cubic feet = 3,000 cubic feet besides tops and branches. It
is not possible for an acre to carry six times this quantity,
because the roots of these trees occupy an acre of space. It
must be added that, though these trees actually stand on 800
square yards or one-fourth of an acre, their roots may really
occupy an acre, or even more. These examples will show
to what growth E. Globulus may arrive at within 40 years.
E. Amygdalina, the giant of the Australian forests, far ex-
ceeds this; 450 feet having been found to be the height of
more than one tree. If we assume that between ten and
thirty years, 400 trees are taken out and 100 left standing till
40 years old, and we take the mean of 400 trees at 50 cubic
feet, (leaving 100 trees standing till 40 years old) being the
mean of trees 10 to 30 years old, then we have for 400 trees
of 50 cubic feet each, a total of 800 tons. Half of this
amount at Us. 8 a ton gives Us. 3,200, the other half 400 tons
at 8 annas a cubic foot for building purposes gives 400 tons
X 25 cubic feet = 10,000 cubic feet at 8 annas = Rs. 5,000.
If we take the last 100 trees at 40 years old as measuring
100 cubic feet each, we have 100 X 100 = 10,000 cubic
feet at 12 annas = Rs. 7,500; tops and branches 1 ton each
at Rs. 8 = Rs. 800 or in all Rs. 8,300. There is a great
consumption of this wood for rafters, planks, reapers, and
for building purposes. Ordinary woods sell for building
teak, Rs. 2 ; vengay, Rs. 1-8-0; ven teak, Rs. 1-4-0 the cubic
foot. Eucalyptus wood may be thoroughly seasoned in
tanks in which unslaked lime has been placed in the pro-
portion of one cubic foot of lime to six hundred of water ;
three months' soaking is enough for small scantlings, largo
beams require six mouths for the lime to permeate all the
tubes and to be deposited, for the theory is, that the sap is
driven out and the lime water takes its place. Of course,
all timber should be felled at the wane of the moon, and in
December, January and lYbruary. Acacia molisahna makes
ESSAY ON I'TKL PLANTATIONS.
a good firewood, but does not grow so rapidly as the Euca-
lyptus; it has much tar in it and burns green but is not
suited for building timber and it has an objectionable habit
of throwing up suckers from its roots. The Eucalyptus
could be treated as coppice but would not pay so well. I
annex a balance sheet to show the profit of an acre of Euca-
lyptus at the end of 40 years. In grass-land the profit
would be one-half. It is understood that much depends on
judicious thinning, not to take out strong trees to allow
weak ones to come on, as is sometimes done, for it must be
clearly understood that a strong tree is always a strong tree,
but it does not follow that a weak tree will grow into a
strong tree by having room given to it to expand. There
may be other causes than want of root space which retard
its growth, such as inherent constitutional weakness, poor
soil, incipient disease, &c.
Balance Sheet of an Acre of Eucalyptus from 1st to
4:Qth year
Or. RS.
10 Sale of 500 trees, 125 tons at
Rs. 8 a ton 1,000
Deduct charges ... ... 401
Balance profit ... 539
200 trees = 400 tons at Rs. 8 ... 3,200
(200 trees at 50 cubic feet =
10,000 cubic feet at 8 annas
a foot ... ... ... ... 5,000
100 trees at 100 cubic feet at
annas 12* 7,500
Tops of 100 trees 1 ton each at
Rs. 8 800
Total ...17,039
Deduct charges ... 6,140
Dr.
RS.
Clearing ground
10
Plants 1,200 ...
6
Pits 1,200
12
Planting
...
6
Weeding
10
Rent 10 years
. :.:_*o
Interest
9 years
64
Felling 500 trees
( 57
I 30
Carting 125 tons at Rs. 2 ... 250
Selling charges
60
Total... 461
Rent 30 years at Rs. 2 ... 60
Watching at Rs. 84 a year for
20 years 1,680
Felling 400 trees at annas 8... 200
Felling 100 trees at R. 1 ... 100
Carting 1,200 tons at Rs. 2 ... 2,400
Carting 100 tons at Rs. 2 ... 200
Selling charges, &c 1,500
balance profit ... 10,899
Total
6,140
* 100 cubic feet are under the mark, but I have thought it. bettor to kei-p the
ige at this.
70
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
I now proceed to annex a balance sheet of a Teak fuel and
timber plantation. The wood has high calorific properties
from the quantity of oil it contains, and it makes excellent
charcoal. Teak timber near the coast always brings a good
price. We will assume that a good site is chosen on the
banks of a river navigable to the sea on the western coast.
A few miles more or less of water-carriage do not affect the
profits of firewood, nor, indeed, does railway carriage; for
at 8 pies a ton a mile, fuel may be carried 30 miles without
disturbing the profits, as fuel can always afford to pay Rs.
1-8-0 a ton for carriage. Teak can be treated as coppice but,
as shown above, the returns do not equal the fuel and timber
system.
Balance Sheet of a Teak Fuel and Timber Plantation
40 years
Dr.
Clearing grounds per
acre
Pitting 1,200 pits ...
Plants 1,200
Weeding 10 years ...
Ten years' rent at Rs.
2 per acre
Total ...
Nine years' interest at
10 per cent.
Total ...
Felling 500 trees
Floating to Dep6t 33
tons, say ...
Selling
Total...
To care of trees for 20
years at Rs. 84 a
year, felling includ-
ed
Floating or carting
8,000 cwt. at 2 annas
Felling and squaring
100 trees at 1 K. ...
Caiting 4,000 cubic
I'cH ;il '1 ainiiis ...
( .11 1 i;ige 500 tons tire-
wood at Rs. 1 s n
)<! ((Ill
Srlling charges, Ac...
RS.
10
12
6
25
20
A.
p.
Cr.
Sale of 500 poles at
8 annas each
Deduct charges...
Balance profit ...
400 trees 10 to 30
years old averaging
20 cubic feet at 1
R
100 trees at 40 cubic
feet at 1-40 per
cubic foot...
Tops for firewood and
charcoal, 500 trees
at 1 ton each at 8
Us
Total...
Deduct charges ...
Balance...
RS.
250
238
12
8,000
5,000
4,000
A. P.
73
65
138
30
50
20
17,012
5,530
238
1,680
1,000
100
500
750
1,500
11,482
Tot*] .. 5,680 i
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 7 1
It will be seen from the above balance sheet that there
are few more profitable investments than a Teak plantation*
near the coast and a large town ; but then very few suitable
sites are to be found, and where casuarina would flourish,
Teak would languish even on the western coast.
Fuel plantation of a reserved jungle. We have now to
consider a fuel plantation of a reserved jungle, such as
Streehurrycotta, which at one time, before the formation of
casuariua plantations, supplied all Madras with fuel, or we
may take some of the fuel reserves along the line of Rail-
way. Having selected the site, which should be close to a
Railway or possess water-carriage like the Buckingham
Canal, make a ditch with a fence at the top for the casua-
rina plantation ; but instead of aloes it will be necessary
to plant the Mysore thorn, ccesalpinia digyna, (acacia
scandens ?) which will present an impenetrable barrier
to marauding cattle. The block should be nearly a square,
as that shape saves fencing. The area should not be less
than one square mile, because to produce any local effect on
the atmosphere, and to be of any use at all as a fuel planta-
tion, at least 600 acres are required. We will suppose the
area to be partly covered with various trees, such as acacias,
eugenias, &c., most of the young trees considerably damaged
by cattle and the herdsman's bill-hook, and more grass grow-
ing than is good for their health. It is of no use commenc-
ing operations until the ditch and fence are completed, for,
in the dry season, nothing will keep out herdsmen or their
cattle but the thorniest of fences, and there is no thorn like
the Mysore thorn. Aloes can be cut through iu a moment
and only serve as a defence where there is nothing tempting
inside. The fence completed, it is necessary to take stock of
the standing trees. It is found that about half the area is
covered, and that the other half requires artificial aid to ren-
der the area productive. This being a semi-natural planta-
tion, we shall treat it in the simplest manner, spending but
* On the western coast in planting out Teak, the trees are taken straight
from the beds when six inches high, and put into pits after their tap-roots
have been cut back to four inches.
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
little money on it, and assisting nature as much as possible.
Many of these natural scrub jungles appear to be thickly
wooded ; but directly they are cut into, it is surprising to
find how little wood they really contain. Where an artificial
plantation of thirty years of age will contain 4 or 500 tons
of wood per acre, the natural jungle crowded with uinbrella-
shaped trees will scarcely produce 100 tons. What we re-
quire is a tall tree carrying plenty of wood, and occupying
but a small space, or, that the acre shall carry two to three
hundred tons instead of one hundred. It will be necessary
to dig a well in some favorable spot, as it is intended when
the soil is very favorable, and facilities for watering are
available, that nursery plants should be put in ; as these
spots will be rare, we must adopt another style of planting
for the greater part of the fuel plantation. On the square
mile we shall keep a head gardener and two men. It will be
their duty to trim and lop trees, and cut out where the trees
are too thick, (as it is as bad to have the trees too crowded
as to have too few). They will put out plants, keep the hedge
in order, make charcoal, dig holes, and put out seeds in the
proper season. It may appear a very simple matter to drop
a seed into a hole and leave it to grow; but, unless due pre-
cautions are taken, not five per cent, of the seeds will grow,
and we require at least 90 per cent, of the seeds to succeed.
There is one advantage in planting by seeds, that we can
always put out three or four thousand seeds to the acre and
then cut out the surplus plants; but where plants are put out
singly in pits and require to be watered the first year, to plant
close becomes a very expensive process, nor is there anything
gained by it. The best mode of planting seeds in situ is as
follows : On the first heavy rain, when the ground is soft,
let the men go round with the crowbars and make holes six
inches deep and as wide as possible by working the crowbar
backwards and forwards; the holes to be three feet apart.
Prepare your seed by keeping it in damp-sand, exposed to
ahot sun until it grrmiimtes. In the meantime if another
shower hus i'ulk'ii, the holes will be partially filled in by
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 73
earth having been washed in. Then one man proceeds with
a basket of damp-sand in which are the germinated seeds,
and drops a seed in each hole, taking care that the seeds
are not more than one inch from the surface. Should the
holes be still open, two men should scrape a little damp-
earth into the hole, the last man covers the seed. By plant-
ing in damp weather with germinated seed, two objects are
gained; first, the certainty that the seed grows, second, that at
least two months are saved. Thus if the seed is put in with
the first heavy rain of the year, it grows rapidly and has all
the north-east monsoon before it, whereas if not germinated
before planting, it may be two months or more before it
comes up, and the monsoon be lost. Many acacia seeds
refuse to germinate for months, and require to be soaked
24 hours in hot water; but very damp sand is, as a rule,
the best for keeping the seeds in, especially if exposed to a
hot sun. The seed should not be prepared until a short
time before you are ready to plant, say ten to twenty days^
for as soon as the seed germinates, which may be known in
most seeds by a small white radicle appearing at one end
of the seed, it should then be planted or the radicle may
be broken. Having planted our seed, it must be left to
nature to do the rest, we cannot afford any more artificial
treatment. Very small seeds, such as casuarina, should be
planted in beds and treated as in artificial plantations. Trees
good for charcoal and fuel only, should be planted, Janne-
sabit, Acacia Arabica, A. oderatissima, Speciosa, Ferruginea,
Cassia floribunda, Inga dulcis, Eugenia sorts, Neem, Jack,
Casuarina. These will be sufficient for the fuel reserve,
they all give good results and grow fast. If water is near
the surface, it would be of advantage to sink a few chatty
wells. Wudders will sink these, not more than three feet
diameter, for a small sum, and they last a long time.
When not otherwise engaged, the gardeners should be
employed in thinning out, making room for promising
plants to come on, and by no means allowing the trees to
overcrowd each other, and to encourage them to assume a
10
74 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
vertical habit of growth by trimming occasionally. With
care most trees can be drawn up. Something must now be
said of the making of charcoal which is always worth
30 rupees a ton, for that which is really good. This price
gives nearly 6 rupees a ton for the wood without carriage,
the extra labour for making charcoal being met by the
saving in cost of carriage; for instance, 4 tons of wood = 32
rupees, minus carriage of 3 tons = 4-8-0, this goes to pay
for making the charcoal which, made in the native fashion,
is fearfully destructive of jungle.* I shall show the proper
way to make it, by which mode 4 tons of wood produce 1 ton
of charcoal, and it may be here observed that the calorific
powers of various kinds of charcoal differ quite as much
as wood. It may be laid down as a rule, that the heaviest
woods produce the best charcoal, sal weighing 90 Ibs. a cubic
foot makes the best. Charcoal requiring to be made in dif-
ferent places, it is better to have a portable kiln rather than
bring the wood to a permanent structure. The kiln is made
of sheet iron; it is 9 feet high, 10 feet in diameter at bottom
and 5 feet at the top; at the bottom 1 foot from the ground
are a number of circular holes 6 inches in diameter, closed
with sliding doors; there is a circular hole in the top closed
in the same manner. When the fire is well alight below,
the holes are closed one by one, and when the fire has got
to the top, that hole is closed. All chinks are carefully
plastered over, the kiln remains closed four or five days
until all signs of fire have departed. It is then opened out;
first the top is taken off, then the sides are unbolted, and
the whole of the contents on being laid bare are found to
be a mass of charcoal of the best kiud. A stack of wood is
built in another suitable place, the kiln set up and bolted
together. In this way with half-a-dozen kilns going, a
large amount of churcoal may be turned out, with but small
loss. The cost of the iron kilns is heavy, about 150 rupees:
they will last many years. In the balance sheet prepared,
* Colonel Beddome, in a roport to Government, February 1876, No. 302,
writes >f "7 *>r 8 loads of wood to make a ton of charcoal." Probably he
meant 7 or 8 tons of wood.
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
75
no mention is made of charcoal, but the wood cau always
be made into charcoal, and the cost of making it is met by
the saving of the carriage of the wood. Really good char-
coal will always bring 30 rupees a ton, that made in iron
kilns is always superior to that made in holes in the ground
and deluged with water; the one looks bright and glossy
black, the other dull and a grey black. In Salem and in
Kurnool, where native iron is largely made, the saving to
the jungles, by making charcoal in a scientific manner,
would be very great. The native fashion certainly causes
a waste of from 75 to 100 per cent.
Balance Sheet of a Fuel Plantation for 20 years.
Dr.
One head gardener and 2
men at 10 Rs. -f 6 Rs. =
for 1 year 264 X 20 years .
8,000 yards trench at 1 anna
per running yard ...
12 Chatty wells at 20 rupees
Gardener's hat Rs. 50, tools
Rs. 30
6 Charcoal iron kilns at 150 .
Carnage 640 tons at 1-8-0 ...
Carriage 9,600 tons at 1-8-0 .
Selling charges, supervision,
&c
Rent for 20 years at 8 annas
per acre
Interest 10 per cent, for 5
years on Rs. 6,000
RS.
5,280
500
240
80
900
960
14,400
10,000
6,4CO
3,000
Cr. RS.
10th year 640 tons at Rs. 8 5,120
10 to 20 years, average of
fuel per acre, 15 tons on
640 acres at 8 Rs. ... 76,800
Total... 81,920
Deduct charges... 41,760
Profit on 20 years... 40,160
Total charges in 20 years. . 41,760
The profit shown after deducting all charges is about 3
rupees an acre a year. This by superior supervision might
easily be increased, or by inferior supervision be turned
into a loss. I attach the greatest importance to skilled
supervision. I shall now discuss the vexed question of tap-
roots, as so much has been written on the subject and so
great stress laid on the preservation of them, that I feel it is
incumbent on me to show why, in most cases, they must be
cut, and why nature has given to certain plants powerful
tap-roots and to others none. I shall show the uses of the
tap-root and why certain plants can do without them, but to
76 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
others it is a necessity. The soil, the situation, the climate,
the habit of the tree, all go to show, why in one place the
tree requires a tap-root and in another place can dispense
with it. When seeds are planted in situ and cannot be
watered on account of the expense, it is evident they must
depend entirely on their roots for nourishment, and to gain
moisture one or more of their roots must be plunged deep
into the earth beyond the action of the sun's rays. Let us
take the tamarind tree for an example. Nature has furnished
it with a powerful tap-root to enable it to exist in dry places.
Very frequently, the tap-root will be nearly a yard long
when the head of the plant is not six inches high. To expect
to lift a plant with a root so long is simply hopeless, it must
be damaged more or less. If, when the plant is lifted, the
tap-root is shortened by a clean cut, and the plant put back
into a bed and watered, it rapidly makes lateral roots and
is then fit for lifting with the transplanter. When put out
in the pit, it must be watered if the situation is dry and the
rains cannot be depended on for any length of time. It is
otherwise in moist places, where the rains can be depended
on for weeks. In such places cuttings of trees thrust in
the ground root freely. No one thinks of watering tea,
coffee, cinchona, teak, or eucalyptus plants, because they
are put out under favorable circumstances ; but where the
conditions are unfavourable, we must water or trust entirely
to nature by planting the seeds in situ and leaving the tap-
root to do its work. Many seeds, if planted in sandy soil or
fibrous peaty soil, do not throw out a single tap-root at all but
a number of lateral roots, provided the ground is kept moist.
I have known tea plants in one bed full of peat throw out
any amount of lateral roots, and in an adjoining bed where
the clay was near the surface, eq^d down one single tap-root
like a carrot. The roots in the first bed found a soil suit-
able for supplying food to many roots, in the second case
the plant had to send down a single long tap-root to get
food as there was none near at hand. It is a well estab-
lished fact that the tap-root after three or four years ceases
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
to grow, having performed the functions intended for it
by nature, and being no longer required, a number of
lateral roots take its place, and if they do not find moisture
near the surface, plunge deep down for it. No one ever saw
a tree blown over in a forest with a tap-root to it, or the
sign of one. I have examined hundreds of trees. Some-
times in natural moist forests it is almost impossible to
walk for the roots that cover the surface in a perfect net
work. I have seen miles of banyan trees blown down and
not even a lateral root penetrating the earth, showing how
much this tree in a dry climate derives its moisture from
the air. Many years ago, in a storm that swept down miles
of avenue trees between Trichinopoly and Coimbatore, the
uprooted trees presented a vast hollow centre where the tap-
root usually appears. Observe a banyan tree growing
out of a palmyra tree or out of the cleft in a wall of a
ruined pagoda. Where is its tap-root ? Nowhere! The roots
are seen like those of an orchid clinging to the wall or tree.
There are many trees that exist not so much by the moisture
the roots pump up from the earth, as by the moisture the
leaves absorb from the atmosphere. Those not capable of
absorbing moisture from the atmosphere, part with none
through their leaves, such as the casuarina and eucalyptus,
both calculated by the shape and texture of their leaves to
withstand dry winds. Observe the Teak tree, its vast leaves
will only enable it to flourish in moist places, as the amount
of evaporation exercised on such an extent of leaf area would
soon exhaust it in a dry climate. Nature always provides
a remedy, and if one tree has no deep roots, it is enabled
to absorb moisture from the atmosphere ; if it cannot absorb
moisture then it loses none. Again, by capillary attraction
moisture iu the earth is gjways rising to the surface, and
thus many roots obtain a supply. If it were possible to
take up a plant with a long tap-root without injury, then
it would be advisable to do so, but as it is a simple impos-
sibility to take up a plant of any size without damage, we
are forced to cut the tap-root. Even in planting small Teak,
78 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
tea or coffee plants, if the tap-root is over six inches, it is
almost certain to be turned up, and then it cannot possibly
grow. When the tap-root has been turned up, it may at
once be known and the tree picked out of a thousand. So
little is the question of the treatment of tap-roots under-
stood that a crude experiment made by a Sub-Conservator
in Bengal was actually sent down to the Madras Forest
Department as a kind of guide. The deduction arrived at
by the Sub-Conservator was, that " cutting tap-roots when
the plant was strong (query, large ?) was advisable, but if the
plant was weak (small ?) they should not be cut " ; if he
had added that the weakly plants should be thrown away,
he would have been right. There is no more fatal error
than putting out weak plants ; at the best they make but
indifferent trees. It is astonishing to see the number of
weakly seedlings that come up in a bed, though some care
may have been taken in securing good seed, especially
where seeds are small, such as cinchona or casuarina seeds.
Concluding Remarks.
In recommending the use of the transplanter, I have care-
fully considered its advantages over moss, baskets, peat
pots, flower pots and bamboos, indeed, have tried them all ;
but for simplicity, economy and certainty, nothing can equal
the transplanter. In using it, if the soil is light and dry,
a copious watering should be given to the beds, and the
earth round the plants pressed down, so that the earth
may not fall away from the roots. A native, in planting
out, if left alone, exemplifies the way of how not to do it.
First, he tears the plants out of the beds by main force ;
making them into a bundle, he grasps them by the roots,
any that he cannot hold, are carefully laid down in the sun ;
in planting he uses a dibble^grasps a plant out of the
bundle drawing the roots forcibly through his left hand,
places the root in the small hole made by the dibble, care-
fully turning up the tap-root as he does so, then stamps down
the earth on the top leaving the sides open thus the plant
is put out, and, I need hardly say, killed. With a trans-
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 79
planter, all this is impossible. In calculating the quantity
of fuel to be obtained from a fuel reserve, planted up, I have
estimated the yield from the tenth to twentieth year at 15
tons the acre, though I find that Colonel Beddome, in a
Report to Government, only estimated the yield of ordinary
scrub jungle at half a ton an acre yearly. Here there is a
great discrepancy, but it must be observed in the Report
under consideration the jungle in question had not been
planted up or conserved in any way, viz., fenced, and cattle
and fires kept out, whereas my fuel plantation has been care-
fully conserved and planted up for fifteen years. If we con-
sider what half a ton means, the estimate appears surprisingly
low. Ordinary trees make a cubic foot of wood a year, but
allowing for a dry climate and poor soil half a cubic foot
a year is a fair average, or say 251bs. and allow only 300
trees the acre, this gives us an annual increment of a little
more than three tons an acre a year. I think this is nearer
the mark, and if we plant up and really conserve the jungle,
a yield of 15 tons a year per acre after the trees are ten
years old, is not too high. It is understood that the process
of cutting out, and renewal by seed-planting, goes on in a
uniform manner.
Calorific poivers of ivood.
As there is much uncertainty regarding the calorific
powers of various kinds of wood, I append a short table
showing how woods vary in their value as fuel.
Beech wood split and dry ... I'O
Red pine 0'61
Poplar 050
White pine 1 72
Oak wood (Summed ... 1'18
It may safely be assum^pthat casuarina, Teak and many
of our ncacias have a greater calorific power than any in
the list here shown, and the difference between beech and
poplar proves how necessary it is that a fuel plantation
should only consist of the best fuel trees. It is well known
to Engineers, that with inferior fuel steam cannot be kept
80 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
up, and on the Railway they have ample experience of
various kinds of fuel, Acacia sundra bearing an excellent
reputation and Pongamia glabra the reverse. It is the
same with charcoal, no blacksmith will use any charcoal
but that made from E. Jamboolana sal, Teak or hard and
heavy Acacia wood. Eucalyptus globulus is also esteemed.
I have given examples of the growth of this tree ; some
imagine that the faster the tree grows the worse the wood
is. Even London is not free from this idea. On page 647
" Encyclopaedia of Agriculture," he writes, that " a certain
slowness of growth is essentially necessary to the closeness
of texture and durability". . . but Lindley (" Theory of
Horticulture" page 415,) maintains that " fast grown timber
is the strongest." It is a well-known fact amongst experi-
enced arboriculturists that in places where the soil, climate
and elevation is suitable, fast grown Teak is the best, but
in low, swampy situations, fast grown Teak is apt to be
spongy. For instance, Palghaut Teak cannot be compared
with Anamallay or Wynaad. Nor can the Teak grown
in low situations in Burmah be compared with that grown
in the Attaram Forests. Timber really derives its good-
ness from the soil, not from its rate of growth. Given
a good soil, good situation, and good climate, the tree must
grow fast and produce good timber ; let any of these be
wanting, and the result is spongy or knotted and twisted
timber of slow growth and small. It is rather a puzzle
to know where the casuarina grown in pure sand obtains
its hard timber. Silica and water it has in abundance, but
the lime potash and other ingredients that go to build
up a tree, where do they come from ? The answer is, they
must be in the water. For instance, rain falls inland on
high ground : then by percolat^i is carried down through
various strata until it can sink Wo lower ; then by under-
ground passages it finds its way for miles, it may be ten
or a thousand ! finally, no longer repressed by rocks or
beds of clay it rises by syphouic* action to the surface,
* We have an excellent example of this syphonic action in the celebrated
rock of Ghoty which rises some 1,000 feet high out of the plain and
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 81
bringing- with ifc all the various ingredients derived from
the strata through which it has percolated. It may be
argued that in this Essay I have paid more attention to
timber than to fuel plantations, but I answer in the words of
Lindley, " Fast grown timber is the strongest'' whether it
be for fuel or building purposes, and I would add that in all
cases, where practicable, always select the best soils for a
plantation rather than indifferent ones. I must here mention
that on no account should the same kind of tree be planted
to fill up vacancies in the fuel reserve ; for instance, acacia
sundra is common in scrub jungle growing rather far apart.
To fill in the vacancies put in seeds of tamarind, E. jamboo-
lana, neem, and jack; for one kind of tree invariably con-
sumes all the food in its vicinity required for its special con-
ditions. This is well exemplified in the Teak plantations at
Nellumbore, where occasionally a natural Teak tree is observed
to have been enclosed in the artificial Teak plantation ; for a
radius of thirty feet all the young Teak languishes and
refuses to grow, but should a blackwood tree have been
enclosed, the young Teak near it flourishes and does not
exhibit any appearance of poverty.
The old Scotch adage declares that tc Hawks do not pike
out Hawks e'en," but assuredly old trees of the same species
devour their young ; for instance, the wild cinnamon has a
large seed which rapidly germinates, thousands of young
plants may be seen around the parent tree, growing well
so long as the food in the seed supports the young plant,
which may be for six months ; by the end of a year there is
hardly a young plant alive. The same results take place
with the wild mango.
After the whole block haAbeen felled over at the end of
the tenth year, a dense crop of suckers will come up. This
is due to the light being let in.
half way up are deep wells in the rock ; also in the seashore from Madras
to Pulicat fresh water is found in the sandy strip of land close to the sea
near the surface, and inland but a short distance, where beds of clay
prevail, brackish water is found.
11
82 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
If in any portion of the block there is a paucity of suckers,
it is advisable to cut shallow trenches across the bare spots,
parallel to one another, and at intervals of from four to six
feet apart so as to sever the roots of the trees cut over. This
will immediately produce an abundant supply. The suckers
may be left alone now for two years, when, if the soil is fairly
good, they will have made such growth that they may be
thinned out to six feet apart, the most vigorous being left,
and the weakly ones cut away.
At the end of the fourteenth year the sucker growth may
be cut over ; but the entire block, or a portion, should be
completely cleared, in order that light may be let in, and a
new crop of suckers spring up.
The roots of the trees cut over in the first crop having
taken complete possession of the soil, the second crop ought
to produce twice as much as the first, and in fact will do so.
The third crop of suckers will produce five-eighths more
than the original planting and afterwards this will be about
the average septennial produce. No other description of tree
that I know of will continue to produce heavy crops of fuel
for a great number of consecutive years as this one will, for
it is almost impossible to eradicate it when once thoroughly
established, and it should, therefore, never be grown on, soil
which is to be devoted afterwards to other crops.
It is desirable in making a wattle plantation to plant a
few * E. Gldbulus trees between, as they considerably add
to the outturn of the first two crops, the Eucalyptus being
felled over from the stool at the end of the fourteenth year
when the stool-shoot will be of considerable size on an
average, fourteen inches in diameter and sixty feet high.
As I have known of no inftnces of E. Globulus being
felled over more than twice from the stool, I cannot say how
often it would bear this treatment. Any assertion on this
head would be mere theory ; but it can, I think, be safely
* Mr, Lateraon's Fuel Plantation on the Segur road ia an instance of
this.
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 83
expected, that it would stand the shock of being cut down
five or six times in. as many septennial fellings without
showing any considerable diminution of outturn.
In making mixed plantations of Eucalyptus and Acacias,
it must, however, be borne in mind that the former must be
planted far apart, twenty or thirty feet at least, as other-
wise they would, by their superior rate of growth, injure or
destroy the less vigorous, and more slowly growing Acacias.
To form a plantation of Eucalyptus Globulus, shola or
fern land is the best. If possible, a north-easterly aspect
should be chosen, especially in the case of grass-land where
the south-west monsoon impoverishes the soils that have
that aspect from the constant denudation and wash that
take place, which carries all the humus down to the
valleys. It is, therefore, the bottoms of the valleys where the
E. Globulus will flourish best and attain its maximum
height. The largest tree of this species on the Nilgiris is to
be found in such a situation, and at Gayton Park, it is over
fourteen feet in circumference at six feet from the ground.*
The next largest is to be found at Woodcock Hall, and is
thirteen feet eight inches at three feet from the ground.
This latter grows on grass-land, the former in Shola.
I estimate the Gayton Park tree to contain 400 cubic feet,
of timber equal to eight tons and worth Rs. 64. It is about
forty years old. Of course it could not be expected that
many trees would reach this size even in a timber plantation
at forty years, for this particular one has the monopoly of
the soil all round, standing as it does, by itself.
A blue-gum-tree, twenty-five years of age, growing
amongst others even larger, produced 120 cubic feet, and
I shall base my calculations on this outturn.
Having obtained a block ot rich shola-land, a small piece
should be selected for a nursery.
It is necessary to have water near, or be able to divert it
to the spot. The ground, if steep, should be terraced or
* This tree is said to be thirty years old.
84 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
thrown into beds, if level, and each bed to be 3i feet broad,
and from 10 to 30 feet long.
The seed obtained from the best and mosb mature trees
should be sown early in March, for, if put down in January
or February, the young plants may be cut down by frost.
It should not be buried deeper than three-eighths of an
inch, and should be in rows about 6 or 7 inches apart.
When the young plants are 9 inches high, they should be
taken out, and the tap-root cut to a length of not more than 4|
inches, so that lateral rootlets may be thrown out all round.
This is done with a two-fold object. In the first place, the
Canarese or other cooly, if left to his own devices, is certain,
in planting out, to trust the wretched plant into the pit
anyhow. The consequence is, that the long tap-root gets
doubled back, and the plant languishes and dies, or, if it
does succeed in growing at all, only produces a mis-shapen,
stunted, weakly tree. When, however, the tap-root has been
cut, innumerable fibrous roots are thrown out in every
direction, principally laterally, and these seize upon and
extract the nourishment which they find in the surface
humus thrown into the pit.
After the tap-root has been shortened, the plant should
be put either into a small bamboo basket, or tied up with
humus round the roots, and wrapped in a bit of old gunny
bag or moss, and tied round with " Nar" (bark). It can
then be replaced in the bed.
In the first burst of the monsoon these young plants,
which, by that time, will have grown to a height of 12 to 18
inches, will have thrust their roots through the fibrous
covering which envelopes them below. They are now ready
for planting out.
Of course, by this time the provident planter has had his
land cleared, burnt, lined, and pitted 6 feet x 6 feet, also
fenced.* He only waits for the first burst of the monsoon,
when the ground has been thoroughly saturated. Coolies
* A lino of acacias G feet deep ought to surround every Eucalyptus plantation
to keep the wind out.
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
85
are now employed all day long in planting out. Each pifc
is half filled by scraping in the rich, dark-brown hnmus lying
round, not the yellow sub-soil that has been taken, perhaps,
out of the bottom of the pit. The ball of moss-covered earth,
protecting the roots, is gently placed on the soil thus cast
in, and fresh humus thrown in and firmly pressed down all
round. If the plants are small, a few large clods should be
placed round, to partially break the force of the monsoon-gale-
About the tenth* year, it will be necessary to thin out the
crop, if it is desired to form a mixed fuel and timber planta-
tion ; but not otherwise.
The best distance to plant Eucalyptus is undoubtedly
6 feet x 6 feet. This will give 1,200 trees to the acre, and at
ten years of age they ought to average t three trees to the
ton or produce a total of 400 tons at Rs. 8 per ton = Rs.
3,200.
The following balance sheet will show the profit on the
transaction per acre :
Statement C 10 years.
Expenditure.
Receipts, &c.
RS.
RS.
Felling, burning, &c. ...
12
By sale of 400 tons at Rs. 8
Pitting at 25 pits per day per
per ton 3,200
man, earning 4 annas cooly,
Expenditure ... ... ... 1,157
1,200 pits ...
12
Plants
5
Profit 2,043
Transplanting...
7
Sickling weeds...
10
Tax at Rs. 2 per acre .
20
66
Interest at 10 per cent, for 10
years
66
Felling and lopping 1,200 trees
at 3 annas per tree
225
Carting 400 tons at Rs. 2 per
ton ...
800
Total ...
1,157
* Sometimes as early as the fifth.
t A ten-year old will produce a tofc, if growing by itself, and iu rich soil.
86 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
A plantation of this kind can be advantageously cop-
piced, for E. Globulus shoots freely from the stool, and in
the second decennial felling, will produce a considerably
heavier crop than during the first, as the tree has already
an abundance of well-formed, far-reaching roots, all in active
operation, in providing the growing stool-shoot with sap ;
whereas the original seedlings had to spend considerable
time in taking possession of the ground with its roots. As
I have already stated, how long this system of coppicing
with the Eucalyptus will pay, is purely a matter of conjec-
ture. I shall proceed now to give thw result of working a
mixed timber and fuel plantation of Eucalyptus.
Having established your plantation in the manner already
set forth, it will be necessary in the tenth year to make the
first thinning, and we can then cut out 50 per cent, of the
more weakly trees, to make room for the rest. The trees
thus cut over will shoot from the stool, but the shoots will
be poor and weakly, owing to the shade of the ones left.
The trees felled can be cut up into billets at about 3
annas per tree and sold for firewood.
In the fifteenth year, a second thinning will be necessary,
and 220 trees should then be felled and lopped at a cost of
6 annas each and sold for fuel.
In the twentieth year, a third and last thinning may be
carried out, of another 220 of the least vigorous trees re-
maining, leaving 160 of the largest, at as even distances as
possible apart, for timber.
This thinning can be sold for timber and should fetch
6 annas per cubic foot, but I will only take its value as
fuel.
At the end of the twenty-fifth year, the balance may be
felled for timber. The trees will then average 110 cubic
feet each, and realise ten annas per cubic foot in the
market.
The balance sheet for tweuty-fi ve years for au acre of
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
87
mixed timber and fuel plantation of E. Globulus will there-
fore be as follows :
Expenditure.
Receipts.
RS.
A.
p.
RS. A.
p.
Felling and lopping
Sale of 600 trees at Rs.
600 trees at 3 annas
8 per ton=200 tons 1,600
each ...
112
8
Add simple interest at
Felling 220 trees at 6
10 per cent, for 15
annas each ..
82
8
years on value re-
Carting 220 trees of
covered from plan-
H tons each = 330
tation in the tenth
tons, at Rs. 2 per ton
660
year, Rs. 1,600 ... 2,400
Felling 220 trees at
330 tons of fuel from
12 annas each
165
second thinning at
Carting 220 trees of 2
Rs. 8 per ton ... 2,640
tons each 440 tons,
440 tons of fuel from
at Rs. 2 per ton ...
880
third felling at Rs. 8
Felling 160 trees of
per ton 3,520
110 cubic feet each
17,600 cubic feet of
at 1-4 per tree
200
timber from 160
Carting 160 trees of
trees, 110 cubic feet
above dimensions =
each, of last felling
392f tons at Rs. 2
at 10 annas per
per ton
785
11
5
cubic foot 11,000
ExDGnd.itu.ro u/p to 10
years as per State-
Total 21,160
ment C
1,157
Deduct Charges ... 6,389 6
7
lo
Add * rent np to 25
years
30
Profit Rs. ... 14,770 15 5
3
To
Simple interest for 15
years on all expen-
diture up to the tenth
year at 10 per cent...
1,735
8
Total ...
5,808
3
5
Add supervision and
sundries at 10 per
cent.
580
13
IT*
Grand Total of
Expenditure 6,389
Sr'n
I have drawn out the above statement on the supposition
that the owner leaves his plantation to a certain extent to
nature, having charged nothing against the pay of a watch-
man, or made any provision for charges connected with the
sale of the timber, &c. A watchman is only necessary to
prevent grass fires damaging the trees, or any one hacking,
10 years' rent has been calculated in tho previous statement.
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
or stealing them. If, however, provision is made for a
watchman, a sum of Rs. 170, at Rs. 12 per acre annually,
would have to be charged to this head, and selling charges
would come to about a thousand rupees, and these two items
would lower the profit to Rs. 1 3,600-0-5 j\ per acre for the
twenty-five years.
Mixed Fuel Reserves. Supposing a man were to become
possessed of 500 acres of natural jungle, what would be the
most profitable method of working it, if it were near a large
town ?
In the first place, such a block would most probably
consist of a mixture of trees, many species of which would
be of little or no value as fuel.
I will here give a list of a few such trees, as it may be of
service in teaching the fuel planter what not to plant :
Tamil.
Pongamia glabra ...
Bombax Malabarica.
Poonga Maram.
Mool Ellavay Maram.
LJfEJSLDffLS.
Erythrina Indica ...
Semecarpus Anacar-
dium.
Moorkoo Maram ...
Seyrankottay Maram.
GDL-LDITLD.
Ficus of all species.
Terminalia Bellerica.
Athie Marangul
Thani Maram
$ IT 63/7 LD ff LD .
Mallotus Peltata ...
&c. &c. &c.
Uppu Kutthi Maram.
O /JLJf.qj S jgy/fi/T
The first thing to be done would be to cut down and get
rid of such trees, thorny bushes, and brushwood as uselessly
encumber the ground to the detriment of more valuable
fuel-producers, and dispose of them for what they will
fetch. The poorer classes of natives will be glad enough to
purchase for a trifle such stuff, and will remove it them-
selves. It will be necessary to exercise proper supervision
when this is being done, or damage may be committed.
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 89
Where the soil is but scantily covered with trees, it will
be advisable to fell out and sell such, in order that there
in;iy be no interference by mature trees with young ones
planted out.
It is here necessary to caution the amateur fuel-planter
against attempting to stock his jungle by planting out
seedlings under grown-up trees. This will assuredly fail,
as I have already explained.
The block should be thoroughly fenced round, and the
cheapest and best permanent fence I know of, is one to be
formed in the following manner :
A deep ditch, with the bottom wedge-shaped, 4 feet deep
and 4 feet wide, is to be excavated, the earth being thrown
up on the inner side. A fence of the same description as
that provided for a casuarina plantation, previously de-
scribed by me, should now be erected on the summit of the
thrown-up earth ; and when the croton has struck, germi-
nated seeds of palmyra (Boi'assus flabelliformis) should be
sown at intervals of 4 feet on the inner side of the hedge.
These, when grown up, make a splendid fence, and any
small gaps can easily be repaired with bamboo thorns. The
date palm (Phoenix) is also very good, as its armed leaves
present a formidable obstacle to the intrusion of stray cattle.
It will not, however, grow well everywhere. A living
bamboo fence is also good, but not equal to those previously
mentioned.
The Mexican Agave, again, makes a fine fence ; but wild
pigs are fond of the immature leaves, and destroy the whole
plant to get at them. This was my experience in the
Walliar Reserve.
A nursery must be formed near water, and beds made and
plauted-np with seeds of the best fuel-trees adapted to the
soil of the Reserve. Vermin (rats) can be kept from the
young plants by strewing pods of cowhage (Mucuna pruri-
ens) round the stems of the seedlings. All perfectly open
or bare spaces should be pitted 6' X 6', some being planted
entirely with 0110 single description of tree, whilst others
12
90 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
should contain a mixture in order to determine which are
the varieties that succeed best on the particular soil or soils
of your block. In planting out, it will be necessary to
remember that Casuarina succeeds best in a sandy soil, and
Acacia Arabica in black cotton, and do not plant the Casua-
rina in the clay, and the babool in the sand.
On the Western Coast, at Mangalore, Casuarina does not
thrive well in sand, even when water is only 4' or 5' below
the surface, the growth being slow.
Your block being subdivided into smaller blocks of, say,
fifty acres each, you can fell each over when they reach
maturity, which will depend on the nature of the species
growing in each block and the soil. As each compartment
is felled, it can be either treated as coppice or replanted,
the former system being the best for such kinds as shoot
freely from the stool, and the latter for those that do not.
The average outturn per acre for a mixed plantation will
be about the same as in the case of the Australian wattle
for the first crop ; but the succeeding crops will bear no
comparison with the sucker crop of Australian acacia that
invariably succeeds a clean felling.
The following balance sheet will show the result of work-
ing a block of 500 acres for 12 years and 6 months.
Assuming that you have had to pay such a price for the
land, that any little profit realised by the felling and disposal
of the timber or fuel already growing on it, just recoups
you for the outlay you have incurred.
You may then expect to realise a profit, at the end of the
eighth year on the first of your plauted-up blocks ; and sup-
posing that you have felled and planted each block at inter-
vals of 6 months, each compartment will be fit to fell just
6 months later than the one last cleared, and the last will be
cleared 12 years and 6 months after the first was planted-
up.
Of course the energetic fuel-planter may be more rapid
in his rotation*, and his returns will bo proportionate.
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
91
By the end of the eighth year, the trees will average, if
planted on fairly good soil, 10 iaches in diameter at least, and
weigh 300 Ibs. a piece. It will take 8 such trees to produce
a ton of firewood, and if they are planted 6 feet x 6* feet the
acre of 1,200 trees will produce 150 tons at 8 rupees a toil
= 1,200 rupees. Felling and lopping charges at 3 annas
per tree will cost 225 rupees.
RS.
Carting 150 tons at 1-8 per ton 225
Supervision and sundries, say ... .. 20
Then for 12J years the profit on the whole 500-acre Block
will be
RS.
3,750
4,500
2,000
Expenditure.
750,000 plants at Rs. 5 per
1,000
Pitting 600,000 18-in. cube
pits at 12 as. per 100 ...
Shading and watering ... ")
Planting 500 acres ... J
* Shading and watering at
30 rupees per acre
2 Watchmen at 100 rupees
a year each
Quit-rent at 1 rupee per
acre for 12 years
Total . 34,000
Simple interest at 10 per
cent, for 8 years 27,200
Felling and lopping 500
acres of Fuel at 225
rupees per acre 1,12,500
Carting 75,000 tons at 1-8
per ton 1,12,500
Supervision and sundries... 10,000
Receipts.
RS.
By sale of 75,000 tons of
Fuel at 8 rupees per ton. 6,00,000
Deduct charges 2,96,200
Net profit ... 3,03,800
Total ... 2,96,200
Final Eemar'ks : It is difficult at present to fix the exact
amount of calorific power of the various species of Indian
trees. It may be taken for granted, however, that the
denser and harder the wood, the higher the amount of
calorific power it possesses. Resinous woods, and such as
are of an oily nature, e.g. } teak, satinwood, sandal, black-
wood, &c., burn with a fierce flame, but throw out dense
* Till plants are established.
92 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
volumes of pungent smoke, which more or less unfit them
for fuel. Hard woods like tamarind, acha,* acacias,
Arabica, Sundra, &c., burn with a fine clear flame and pro-
duce excellent charcoal. The manufacture of charcoal for
iron smelting, forges, &c., may be profitably carried on, in
connection with a Fuel Plantation ; but this article is so
light that it will bear carriage greater distance than fuel,
and pay, and can therefore in many instances be more
cheaply produced in Natural Forests, where the manufac-
ture of this article is permitted to be carried ou by Govern-
ment or private individuals.
It is hardly within the scope of this article to describe
minutely the manufacture of charcoal ; suffice it to say, that
it should never be made by the clumsy and wasteful native
method of digging a pit, &c. The work should be con-
ducted on scientific principles. The admission of air being
carefully regulated as combustion proceeds, at the right
moment it is totally excluded, the whole of the wood having
been carbonised to the very core of each billet. The fire is
extinguished from want of air, and when the charcoal is
cold, it is collected, and ready for sale.
And now, a word or two about the tap-root. It is very
necessary to a young plant, indeed, in some species, indis-
pensable. It is the pump by which the young plant sucks
up nourishment and moisture from often great depths. It
is only necessary to examine the tap-root of the palmyra
(Borassus Flabelliformis) seedling. It looks like a carrot,
with a very long tail, and grows straight out of the nut
without any appearance of foliage. It is not till long after-
wards that the primary leaf appears. How unlike the
cocoanut, where the leaf first appears out of the eye of the
nut, the rootlets running in a fibrous network into the husk
and over the shell of the nut ! Why this difference ? Because
the cocoanut generally and naturally grows ou the seashore,
or the banks of tidal creeks; the nuts consequently, usually
fall into the water, and drifting to the shore, speedily take
* Hardwickia linata.
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 93
root and grow. Far otherwise is it with the palmyra which
grows often in the sandiest and most unprofitable looking
ground. The seeds when moistened by the rains, drive their
tap-roots deep into the soil, otherwise they could not pos-
sibly survive through the trying hot weather which follows.
The tap-root is, therefore, a provision of nature, to enable
the young plant to get into a region of moisture sufficient to
enable it to pull through one dry season. The lateral roots
are the ones that mainly supply the plant with food.
Pull up a young tamarind 4? feet high, ifc often has a tap-root
2 feet long ! It is better to plant such seeds in situ ; they do
not bear transplanting well, or any docking of the tap-root.
You may have the required elevation, soil, and aspect,
and yet fail in making your Fuel Plantation thrive, if you
neglect paying attention to the amount of rainfall.
As an instance of this, I may cite the case of a few plants
of Acacia Dealbata and Eucalyptus Globulus that were
planted by Mr. Breeks in a sholah in the Khoondahs,
beyond a place called Bhangy Tappal.
They could not have been planted in a better situation
as far as appearances went, but when I visited them in 1879,
I never saw anything more miserable than the growth
they had made. The Acacias were only 3 feet high, and the
E. Globulus only 7 feet ! The excessive rainfall of this region,
where over 300 inches fall during the monsoon, had been too
much for them. I have only said a few words about the
enemies that fuel-producing trees have. These may be
classed as insect, animal, and vegetable.
In the earlier stages, insects may be accounted the most
troublesome. Legions of ants devour some kinds of seed,
when it is collected and put out to dry, and other legions
carry it off, and bury it in their burrows the moment it is
sown. If you put it away carelessly when you have col-
lected it, you will discover to your cost that an army of
weevils are in possession, and by drilling it full of holes,
have rendered it worthless. All seeds should be kept in
94 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
bottles carefully corked, and sealed up. Care should be
taken that it is thoroughly dry before it is put into the bottles
or ifc will get mouldy. After your seed has been planted,
you will very likely find that a good deal has been dug up
and eaten by field rats, &c., during the night, if it happens
to suit their taste.
No sooner has the seed sprouted, than you find you have
a fresh set of enemies to contend with, the larva of beetles,
and of moths, to say nothing of mole-crickets, and the
larvae of certain butterflies, which look on the foliage as
their special property. The first two burrow underground
and only come up to feed at night. The young plants
will be found to have been cut down at the base by the
powerful nippers of these grubs, and often, row after row
will be destroyed, and scarcely a plant eaten. The only
remedy for this is to search for the depredator and destroy
him. A tiny burrow will be seen where the larva has
entered, after his night's work, generally near the stem of
the last plant cut over, and if the ground is carefully turned
up with a pointed stick, the insect will be found not far off.
Mole-crickets cut down plants in the same way at night.
They can be caught by placing a lantern at night where they
are troublesome with a pit 14 x 15 inches in which a tin pot
with a little oil at the bottom has been placed. The crickets
attracted by the light, fall in, and get drowned. Sometimes
the roots of seedlings are attacked by worms and other insect
foes. A mixture of salt, lime, and powdered tobacco
sprinkled round the base of plants so afflicted, will be found
an excellent remedy, as the whole of this is dissolved by the
water applied to the plant, and wash down to the roots,
which it does not injure. If rats are found troublesome,
apply the pods of the cowhage creeper (Mucuna pruriens)
to the base of the plants. Not a rat will go near them, as the
velvety prickles which thickly coat the pod, cause an intol-
erable itching if touched, this must be remembered by the
person applying the pods, or he will get the bristles into
his own hands uud sutler severely. There are two species
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 95
in Southern India, one with deep, orange bristles set in
parallel rows, and the other of an olive green, thickly covered
with spines. The cowhage, or cowitch as it is popularly
called, is known in Tamil as Poonay Poodkoo Kodie. If your
nursery is situated low down near water, you may be troubled
with land crabs. These are very troublesome, clearing a
whole bed of every plant in a single night. I have poured
a gallon of a mixture of quicklime and urine down their
holes every day for a week; but found that it made not the
slightest impression on them. The fruit of Emblica Offici-
nalis, known as Nellikai in Tamil, is excellent. The round
little fruit can be rolled like marbles into the crab holes
ten or twenty into a hole. They decay in the water at the
bottom of the burrow, and make it foul, and unfit for the
crabs, it is even said to kill them ; but I have no proof of
this.
When the young plants in your plantation are a few feet
high, the stem is often bored out, by the larva of beetles
of various species. The watcher in charge should go round
with a bit of soft copper wire 2 feet long and one-tenth
of an inch in diameter, and after removing the excrement
of the insect which it cunningly felts together with silk,
and uses as a screen to hide the entrance to its tunnel, probe
the hole with the wire, which from its softness will follow
the curve upwards or downwards as the case may be. The
point of the wire will generally pass through the insect, if
he is at home, and kill him and this can be ascertained by
examining the point of the wire when it is extracted, when
it will be found to be wet, and covered with portions of the
slain insect.
If, however, in addition to boring the tree, the larva has
girdled it as well the best plan is to coppice it below the
limit of the tunnel, and cut the top of the severed stool
neatly into a cone. The fuel-planter has still a multitude
of enemies to deal with, for as the trees grow up, some
species are almost entirely destroyed, or, at all events, have
their growth greatly retarded by various species of Loran-
96 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS.
thus, which, frugiverous birds and bats plant for him, on the
boughs of his trees. Acacia Melanoxylon is particularly
liable to be injured in this way, the little Nilgiri Flower
Pecker, Dicoeum Goncolor, being the culprit usually, who
distributes the seeds. All species of Loranthus are the
Leeches of the Vegetable Kingdom, and suck the sap
out of every plant, they thrust their cruel roots into. The
only remedy is to cut them out as they appear if the trees
are not too high. Unless a plantation is meant to be a
mixed one of fuel and timber, it is not worth while bothering
about Loranthus.
Hares do no damage to young fuel-plantations in India.
Deer, Sambur, occasionally rub their horns against a tree
here and there, and scrape off a little bark, but this is all.
Domestic cattle, when they break in, play the very mis-
chief, breaking down trees with their horns, barking them,
and trampling the young seediugs in nurseries to death.
Goats eat nearly everything, and will speedily put an end
to a fuel-plantation, if they are sufficiently numerous, and
get in very often.
In the plains the Casuarina seed should be collected in
April. If removed much later, 50 per cent, of the cones will
have cast their seeds. In the Wynaad, seed can be collected
from June till December ! In the nursery beds, if you wish
to force your young plants of this species on, a compost 34*
inches deep should be made. This, of course, will add
considerably to the cost of the plants, but it is a decided
advantage if you are late in the season. The compost
should be made as follows :
30 per cent, of rich mould or humus.
20 per cent, of sand or brick-dust.
30 per cent, of two years' old cattle-manure.
20 per cent, of saw-dust not teak.
If the soil is porous, and water far from the surface, the
tap-roof/ should not be shortened, unless it is over 18 inches
in length, when tho tap-root mwt\)Q cut if your pit is 18
ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 97
inches cube, or be doubled up. If the season is a hot one,
the beds in the nursery ought to be carefully shaded.
Forked uprights 7 feet high should be put into the ground
8 feet apart and a paudal covered with a bamboo or woday
coochy (Bheesa Travancorica) or auy of the lesser bamboos
tatty constructed. This tempers the noon-day heat, and
provides a sufficiency of light. The Casuariua seed is very
light, and will not bear being too thickly covered with
mould, one-eighth of an inch is sufficient, just enough to
prevent its being blown away by wind. Any heavy rush
of water, such as that from a watering pot, will drown the
seed and wash it to the surface. What I have already said
about the fine spray, from a garden engine, must be remem-
bered. If the beds are made of compost, no percolation
worth anything will take place, if the channel system of
watering is adopted, as described earlier. If the soil is
constantly kept damp, and this is a sine qua non, the seeds
will germinate in from ten days to a fortnight. If water
is close to the surface of your soil, pursue the method
pointed out for E. Globulus of transplanting once, previous
to planting out. The Casuarina ought to have its tap-root
cut, this is to be done, when it is 3 4 inches high to
make it produce lateral roots. No plant should be put out
less than 9 inches high, and not over 1J feet. Plants can.
be reared in bamboo pots, where these are large, abundant
and cheap. The joint should be 2 inches from the bottom of
the pot, to allow of drainage, and should have a few pieces
of broken brick, or tile, placed over a hole ^ inch in diameter
drilled through the diaphragm, also for that purpose. The
mouth of the pot should be the larger end of the bamboo
joint. With bamboo pots, the plants can be put down, pot
and all, as whiteants quickly eat up the bamboo, and free the
roots, and if this does not happen, the bamboo rots from
combined heat and moisture, and the roots pass through the
sides ; the tap-root generally makes its way through the
bottom of the pot at once, when the bamboo is put into the
ground.
13
98 HUMUS AND THE DEFERTILIZATION
With Eucalyptus the planter will find it necessary to
trim the tree to a mere tuft of leaves at the top, just before
the monsoon gales commence. If this is not done, the seed-
ling will get wind-wrung at the base, or even be completely
uprooted, or bent on one side. In Cuddapah, Casuarinas
have been established at a cost of less than 2| annas per
tree, but this may be taken as under the mark.
I have given a list of a few of the best fuel producing
trees, and likewise of a few that should not be planted ; but,
as the number of these last is legion, it is better that the
fuel-planter should only plant those that have been already
proved a success, and not try any rash experiments on a
large scale, with new species.
CHAPTER XIII.
HUMUS AND THE DEFERTILIZATION OP FOREST SOILS, &C.,
IN INDIA.
Nature of Forests. I WILL begin by dividing the forests of India into three
broad classes :
(1) The deciduous forests ;
(2) The tropical evergreen forests ;
(3) The alpine shola forests.
The first class may again be subdivided into two divi-
sions :
(a) Heavy deciduous forests where no grass grows ;
(b) Open deciduous forest in which there is a rank
growth of coarse grass.
In (a) we find a little humus in hollows; but on all slopes,
there is an utter absence of it. The soil is usually a deep
chocolate brown on the surface; but lower down the sub-
soil is yellow. Forest fires annually burn the thick layer
of leaves that carpet the ground in January or February ;
but such fires burn slowly and with little flame. In the (b)
class of forests, fires annually rage, sweeping everything
clean before them and doing enormous damage.
OF FOREST SOILS, &C., IN INDIA. 99
In such forests in the Wynaad, the soil is a rich black
loam ; but elsewhere, where the soil is poor, by nature, and
the forest scanty, it may be red, brown or other colours
and either stony, gravelly, or rocky, as the case may be.
In class (2) tropical evergreen forests, fire, as a rule, never
enters ; an abundance of leaves are shed annually on the
ground ; and yet, strange to say, no humus worth speaking
of is to be seen except in hollows, and in the monsoon, the
greater portion of the shed leaves will be found to have dis-
appeared. The soil, however, is generally rich, and of a
dark-brown or black color. In the 3rd class the alpine
shola forests the ground will be found covered to a great
depth, with the finest humus the forester's ideal covering
for the surface of the soil of his forest. The covering which
prevents wash, absorbs the rainfall, and retards evaporation.
To have the soil of his deciduous forests covered with, a thick
layer of humus is a dream of the Indian forester's ; but a
dream it will continue to be and nothing else, as I purpose
proving further on.
In Southern India real humus does not exist below 4,000
feet. The higher you go above it, the more humus you
find ; but above 6,000 feet, the depth of humus is constant.
Let us enter a shola, say on the Neilgherries, and pro-
ceed to examine the surface soil. First we remove a dense
covering of leaves, some bright orange and red and quite
pliable that have but just fallen, others crisp and yellow
that have been there for weeks, and others again, in the
layer below that have lain there for months, leaves in which
the skeleton is wholly or partly exposed. Then below that
layer again, we find a multitude of brittle bits of twigs, the
shells of berries and fruit, black with age, seeds that have
been bored by insects or emptied by rats and squirrels,
particles of decayed leaves, the crumbled cases of empty
shells and remnants of insects, long since dead and gone,
mixed up with the excretae of a host of earthworms. Below
this last stratum, we find a layer of soil, in which it is barely
possible to distinguish the fine particles of vegetable origin
100 HUMUS AND THE DEFERTILIZATION
that almost entirely compose it. Now, why should there be
this difference between the forests of this class and the pre-
ceding ones? The casual observer is easily able to account
for the want of humus in deciduous forests. It is all burnt
up annually he says, how then can there be humus ? No
doubt forest fires burn up every particle of dry vegetable
matter they can get at ; but if a forest at a low elevatien
were protected from fire for a century, there would still
be no humus !
Annually the trees of deciduous forests shed countless
millions of leaves on the surface on which they grow.
Their dead branches and trunks fall, and rot where they lie
(if not burnt up) and yet there is no humus ! Countless
hosts of insects are at work carefully collecting and bury-
ing every particle of vegetable matter, that is devoid of
life. Every leaf and twig that falls is instantly covered
with a layer of earth by the teeming millions of white ants
(Termes) that inhabit all tropical countries, and carried
piecemeal deep into the earth. Every tree that dies or
falls is bored into and reduced to powder by other countless
hosts of longicorn and other beetles, everything being sub-
sequently buried by the termites in their galleries from two
to twelve feet underground. In course of time other myriads
of earthworms devour the vegetable substances thus hid-
den, with quantities of the finer particles of the soil, which
they throw up to the surface of the soil in the shape of
what is known as worm " castings."
Thus the leaf mould is not lost but only hidden from
sight, to reappear in a different form on the surface of
the soil.
But in the deciduous forests the fall of leaves is so very
sudden that the white ants have but little time to collect
the harvest before the forest fires devour it. Instead
therefore of the leaves, twigs and trunks returning to the
soil, what was taken from it for their formation!, they are
burnt to ashes which the winds of heaven and April storms
carry far and wide. Ill the course of centuries and centuries,
OF FOREST SOILS, &('., IN INDIA. 101
the soil of deciduous grass forests becomes mixed with the
fine particles of charred grass, which sometimes lie to the
depth of an inch or so on the surface after a forest fire.
These are swallowed with atoms of earth and grass by earth-
worms, and thus thoroughly mixed with the soil, which in
this manner obtains its dark colour.
In the heavy evergreen tropical forests, on the other hand,
forest fires never (or very seldom) enter. The legions of
earthworms that inhabit the soils of such forests devour
and throw up to the surface almost pure vegetable humus,
and this operation being continually carried on for ages,
gradually covers stones, and gravel often to a great depth,
with a rich and finely comminuted vegetable soil.
We are little aware what important services are being
rendered to us by such despised insects as white ants,
and earthworms ; were it not for the former, all vegetable
substances would be burnt up in deciduous forests and
wasted, and the soil gradually but surely impoverished;
and were it not for the latter, the substances buried by the
former would not be returned to the surface of the soil, and
thus brought within reach of surface rooting plants, nor
would soils barren and gravelly or stoney on the surface
be coated with a rich mould which the tender radicles of
the fallen seeds of forest trees find no difficulty in pene-
trating and absorbing food from.
Not only do white ants improve the soil by burying
vegetable substances in it, but by continually carrying to the
surface the finer particles of the soil from great depths,
both for the construction of their tumuli and for purposes of
protection from their enemies, for they coat everything they
attack with a thin layer of fine earth, before gnawing it
away, they perform for us some of the services of the earth-
worm in burying gravel and stones.
Not only are forests affected by these two great classes
of insects, but pasturages are improved by the earthworm,
which annually coats the surface of the soil, in some places,
to a depth of nearly two inches, with its castings.
102 HUMUS AND THE DEFERTILIZATION
Koomaree Of all varieties of cultivation carried on in the world, this
is the most pernicious. It is variously known in India,
under the names of Koomaree, Tuckle, Ponnam, Kothkad,
&c., and in Burma as Toungya.
The system on which it is practised is as follows : A tract
o'f virgin forest is selected, felled in November or December
and burnt in March or April. Paddy or millet (Eleusine Co-
racana) is sown when the first showers fall on the ashes of
the clearing the ground in some districts being scratched up
by a stick or small hoe. With the grain are sown the seeds
of cucumbers, pumpkins and Indian corn (Zea Mays).
When the crop has been reaped, the clearing is abandoned,
to be recultivated after a lapse of years, amounting from six
to twenty-five according to the area of forest at the disposal
of the aboriginal tribe who practise this method of cultiva-
tion.
In Wynaad, the Coorchas, Kaders, Moopahs, Jain
Curumbers, Bett Curumbers, Naikas ; in Pal ghat the
Mulcers ; on the Anamallays the Puliars, Kaders,
Moodugas, &c. ; in Coimbatore the Irulars, Sholagars and
Kosuvas; in Kurnool, Cuddapah, &c., the Chentsuas and
Yenadies ; and in Burma the Karens are almost entirely
dependant on this system of cultivation for a living.
The process to which the soil of a forest ' Tuckled' ia
subjected is this :
The accumulated vegetable growth and humus of years
is burnt to ashes in February. The heavy thunder-storms
of April and May wash the lighter particles into streams
and rivers by which they are carried away to the sea and
lost.
The heavy rains of the southwest monsoon complete the
mischief.
At the end of from ten to fifteen years the soil is once
again covered with a growth of low forest nature's effort
to repair the mischief done. But just at this period the
junglewallah thinks it about time he had a second crop off
the same plot. So he fells and bums it once more, and
OP FOREST SOILS, &C., IN INDIA. 103
again with the advent of the monsoon, the surface soil
travels to the sea.
The roots of giant forest trees penetrate the soil to great
depths and bring up to the surface the elements of plant-
life there found. The koomaree cultivator therefore not
only exhausts the soil on the surface but to great depths
below. The result is that each successive crop of trees is
not as vigorous as the one preceding. Until in course
of time trees refuse to grow at all, and a scrubby
growth of thorns takes its place. If, especially on
steep declivities, the thorns are also " Tuckled," finally
everything will cease to grow, and disastrous landslips
take place. In fields under the plough, especially where
high cultivation is practised, it is easy enough to restore
the fertility of lands exhausted by cereals or root crops,
by turning up the sub-soil, and heavy manuring ; but how
is it possible to restore the fertility of a soil required for
the growth of trees where every particle of vegetable food
has been abstracted by the roots of successive growths
of trees for generations and generations, and then finally
removed entirely from the surface of the soil by the united
action of rain and floods ?
It will be seen from this of what vital importance it is to
the well-being of the country that this system of cultivation
especially on steep slopes should be put an entire stop to.
Our mountain chains especially, consist almost entirely of a
skeleton of solid rock gneiss, covered in many instances with
but a thin coating of soil, derived from the decomposition of
the felspar in it. Many portions of the Western Ghats, the
Chenat Nair (Palghat) Forests for instance, have barely an
average coating of twenty feet of soil on them and where the
practice of koomaree cultivation is steadily carried on, it is not
difficult to predict how long it will take for the bare rock to
appear in nil its naked deformity. Unfortunately, very large
areas of the Ghat Forest belong to private proprietors, whose
only thought is to cut them to pieces, and realise every farthing
that can be wrung from them as soon as possible. The only
104 HUMUS AND THE DEFERT1LIZATION
thing that has protected them so far has been the large num-
bers of inferior trees which do not repay the cost of re-
moval. Koomaree cultivation, however, if it extends much,
will finally effect this, except on the very steepest ridges.
Forest fires, rain- I have explained the manner in which earthworms im-
fall and the action i -i i i i i
of animals. prove the soil and cover up stones and gravel by their cast-
ings. These castings are hard and clayey in nature, and not
easily dissolved by rainfall, however heavy. In grass lands
which are fired annually by village herdsmen, these nodules
of insect-formed clay are partly calcined by the action of
fire and then fully exposed to the united action of sun and
rain, which tends to pulverise them. When the young grass
has sprouted, large herds of cattle are driven up from the
plains to graze on the tender and succulent green shoots.
They trample on and reduce the clay nodules to dust. Heavy
storms follow in April and May, and the finely pulverised
soil is washed down the steep slopes into streams and lost.
Cattle also by continually treading on the humus and worm-
castings in forests trample the soil (where level) into a hard
compact mass, which the delicate radicles of seeds cannot
penetrate. Reproduction is, therefore, seriously interfered
with.
Kestoration of The only possible way in which soils exhausted by koom-
exhansted soils. aree cu jtivation can be restored is to put an entire stop to it.
If the mischief has proceeded so far that reboisement is
necessary it should be taken in hand at once, and the areas
requiring it planted up with such descriptions of trees as
suit the climate and locality, and are likely to bind the soil
with their roots. For high elevations the Acacia deal-
bata answers excellently for this purpose. Some species
of ficus are also very good, especially those that throw
out an abundance of aerial roots such are suited for
low elevations. It may be contended that the abori-
ginal tribes have practised the koomaree system of cul-
tivation from time immemorial that it is impossible to
put a stop to it. There is considerable truth in this ; bub
the word impossible in this instance should form no part
OF FOREST SOILS, &C., IN INDIA. 105
of the Indian Forester's Vocabulary. To suppress the
practice will take years and years. The aboriginal tribes
must be found some other means of employment. They
must be civilised. Lands must be set apart for them and
permanent villages built. They must be encouraged to
plant fruit trees and grow other crops than those they have
been accustomed to. They must be taught trades and
stimulated to practise such as they engage in at present,
e.g., the manufacture of pottery, of basket-work and the
art of the blacksmith. Congenial employment must be
found for them by the Forest Department, such as timber
squaring, the collection of forest produce, &c., and deserv-
ing men should be employed as watchers, elephant-drivers
and maistries. They can be made of the greatest service
to the Forest Department or the reverse, as they happen to
be treated ; at present, they are aliens and outcastes, swindled
by everybody and oppressed by every peon and police-
man in the country. How can the Curumber be expected
to rise in the scale of civilization when he dare not possess
property ? If he invests in a few fowls, sheep, or goats,
the first peon who happens to see them will at once
appropriate them to his own use. If he grows vegetables,
they too will be stolen from him and the unfortunate owner
most probably be made to carry them to the house of his
despoiler. Dare the wretched man complain he is kicked
and beaten. This picture is not over-coloured in any way.
It is what actually occurs in every forest and almost every
day.
Tracts of forests that have been much " Tuckled" must
be closed and carefully conserved for perhaps centuries
before they can be expected to recover from the mischief
done to them.
Grass lands will have to be fire-traced, and no cattle per-
mitted to graze over them when recently burnt. When,
however, the monsoon has restored the thick carpet of grass,
that should naturally cover them, cattle can do but little
harm. The grazing of cattle, as already pointed out on
14
106 HUMUS AND THE DEFERTILIZATION, &C.
steep slopes, but recently burnt, is likely to cause damage
and loss of much valuable surface soil.
The operations of the coffee planter on steep slopes are
often so carelessly carried on that as much or more damage
is done by him in a shorter space of time than even by the
koomaree cultivator.
Many a planter opens up a much larger area than he has
the capital to cultivate properly. The steepest slopes and
ridges are recklessly denuded. The soil is continually and
diligently dug up and pulverised just at the time of
heaviest rainfall and may be seen during a heavy storm,
hurrying in a coffee-coloured torrent to the sea. In ten
years, he undoes the work of centuries, and finally abandons
the impoverished soil covered with a wretched growth of
thorns and brambles. On such steep slopes landslips may
be confidently expected, and must in the nature of things
occur.
Having ruined one block of valuable forests, he hastens
to ruin another. A marked contrast to the careful and
scientific planter who having selected land with a gentle
slope works on a rational method, saves his soil in catch-
drains or soil-pits and manures liberally, returning to the
soil a fair equivalent of what he has taken from it. It is
said that the man who makes two blades of grass grow
where only one grew before is a benefactor to mankind;
but he who destroys a valuable forest and leaves it a wil-
derness of thorns and weeds cannot be considered such.
The ignorant and careless planter not only ruins the land
actually cultivated by him, but frequently damages the
surrounding forest as well by allowing the fire from his
felling to extend into it by which number of trees are
scorched and killed and others seriously injured. The fell-
ing is frequently so situated that wind enters and uproots
the trees all round near its edge, and these with those
already fallen, furnish the materials for a firo that still
further damages tho forest.
FOREST PRODUCTS. 107
CHAPTER XIV.
ON FOREST PRODUCTS.
THE forests of Malabar are some of the finest in the
Presidency, They cover an enormous area of the district.
The genera and species of trees, &c., comprised in the
Flora are numerous, and varied, and the economic products
yielded by them, equally so.
In the enumeration of these products and the method
of their collection, I will classify them in the following
order :
(1) Gums, resins and oleo-resins.
(2) Oils, essential and fixed.
(3) Tan barks and dyes.
(4) Fibres, and paper materials.
(5) Spices, drugs and medicinal roots.
(6) Edible fruits, roots, &c.
(7) Sundry products.
Acacia Arabica. This tree occurs sparingly in the
Palghat Taluq of the district. Gum exudes from fissures in
the bark, or knife cuts, purposely or accidentally made, in
the dry weather. It is of excellent quality, of a pale straw
or yellowish red colour, and is occasionally eaten by children.
The amount produced in the district is so small as to be
hardly worth mentioning.
Acacia Sundra found in the Walayar reserves; but
does not extend further west or south; produces a fair
catechu. I have not, however, known it manufactured in
the district.
AdenantMra pavonina yields a clear gum, not col-
lected.
Aegle Marmelos yields a poor brown gum in round
nodules.
Ailanthus Malabarica found in the Anamallays ; yields
a brownish coloured plastic resin known as Muttipdl. It is
extensively burnt as incense by the natives. The Mulcers,
108 FOREST PRODUCTS.
Khaders, Puliars and other jungle tribes search the forests
for it in the dry weather, and barter it for rice, chillies,
cloth, &c., to the bazaar men, who yearly travel into the
forest to the " pathies" or villages of the aboriginal tribes
to obtain it and other forest products.
Albizzia Lebbek yields a clear gum copiously, if the
bark is cut or injured in the dry weather.
Albizzia Odorattissima. The gum of this tree is poor in
quality, and dark in colour. It is only obtainable in the
dry weather, by hacking the trunk of a tree with a knife.
Alstonia Scholaris. A very handsome evergreen tree
found everywhere in the district, from the sea-level to
nearly 3,000 feet in the Wynaad. An abundance of milky
sap flows out of the bark when cut, which has some of
the qualities of caoutchouc about it ; but is sticky, and
more fit for bird-lime. Some of these trees in the evergreen
forests of the Chenat Nair forests are over thirty feet in
circumference.
Anacardium occidentale. The cashew-nut has taken
kindly to the west coast where it has found a congenial
soil, and climate, and spread everywhere \ it produces an
excellent gum, which is used by book-binders as a protection
against cockroaches and other insects.
Anogeissus latifolia occurs throughout Malabar up to
2,500 feet elevation. Produces an abundance of excellent
clear gum, if the bark is injured. It is not, however, col-
lected in the district.
Areca Catechu Cultivated. The seeds of the wild spe-
cies contain a large percentage of tannin, and catechu could
no doubt be extracted from them. The aboriginal tribes,
however, only chew the nuts with wild betel (Chavica betel)
leaves, and lime made from the shells of fresh water snails.
Artocarpus integrifolia The jack tree. Common in
the forests of the Western Ghats; produces an abundance of
milky sup which on exposure coagulates. It is occasionally
used as bird-lime, when combined with the milky sap of
FOREST PRODUCTS. 109
various species of ficus, the oil made from the seeds of
Schleichera trijuga, fyc. The seeds of the wild jack are also
roasted and eaten by aboriginal tribes, containing a large
percentage of farinaceous matter, as, they do, they are con-
sidered very wholesome.
Artocarpus hirsuta. The lynee or Angelly, a magnificent
tree found throughout the district; produces an abundance
of milky sap, which dries into a dark-coloured mass. The
seeds are eaten.
Bassia latifolia. Common in the Palghat Taluq, yields
an abundance of milky sap of no particular value. The
seeds and flowers are valuable. The former for the large
percentage of excellent oil it contains, and the latter for
the manufacture of arrack.
Bauhinias Sp. All the Bauhinias yield gum none of
which is ever collected in the district.
Bombax Malabaricum. A very common tree everywhere,
yields the dark, dirty-coloured gum like Tragacanth of little
value. The natives use it medicinally.
Butea frondosa. Common everywhere, from the sea-level
to 2,500 feet (Wynaad) yields a lovely clear astringent gum,
very like gum Kino, might be used for tanning leather and
staining wood. It is used medicinally by the natives ; but
is not collected in any quantity.
Callophyllum Augustifolium. A handsome evergreen
tree, abundant in the Ghat forests, produces a clear greenish
resin, which never hardens. It is not collected.
Calatropis gigantea. Common in the Palghat Taluq ;
yields a poor description of gutta. The milky sap is valued
by the natives and used medicinally. The bark yields a
very strong and silky fibre used for fishing-lines.
Canarium Strictum. A gigantic tree of the Western
Ghats. The Coorchias of Wynaad obtain the resin which
it produces in abundance, by lighting a fire at the base of
the tree on the side towards which it is inclined. When
the bark has been well charred, the resin begins to exude
110 FOREST PRODUCTS.
and huge stalactitic masses are formed which are collected
five or six months after the charring of the bark has taken
place. The market price at Calicut varies from one anna
six pies to two annas per Ib. It is almost black in appear-
ance with a vitreous fracture; but if held up to the light
is found to be translucent and of a goldeu-red tint. It is
principally used for sealing bottles, jars, &c. I have found
that in combination with Kerosene oil, this resin forms an
excellent, though slow drying varnish, which however will
not stand exposure to damp or wet.
Careya arborea yields a clear gum which is not col-
lected. The bark also yields an excellent fibre, and the
leaves are the favorite food of the Tassa silk worm
(Antheraea paphia). The apple-like fruit of this tree is
eagerly devoured by cattle.
Cathartocarpus (Cassia) Fistula yields a reddish astrin-
gent gum used medicinally. The bark is used for tanning
leather, and the black treacly substance found adhering
to the divisions between the seeds in the long brown pods
is used medicinally as a cathartic.
Cedrela toona yields a gum resin not collected in the
district.
Cliloroxylon Swietenia. The satin wood is only found
near Walayar and is scarce there. It yields a clear pale
gum. The sawdust of the heartwood is very fragrant
and smells like new ginger bread. It is very unctuous to
the feel, and a good wood oil could doubtless be extracted
from it.
Gryptostegia grandiflora yields a splendid quality of
Caoutchouc far superior to the Ceara (Manihot Glazovii)
rubber. The work of collecting the sap from the ends of the
young shoots is, however, very tedious, and the cultivation
of this climber is on that account not likely to pay. The
caoutchouc is easily separated from the sap, by the addition
of a small quantity of spirits, and by heating the sap gently
over a charcoal fire. The Cryptostegia is only cultivated
in gardens in the district.
FOREST PRODUCTS. Ill
Diospyros Embryopteris, found from the sea coast up to
2,500 feet elevation (Wynaad). This tree affects the neigh-
bourhood of streams as a rule. The fruit contains a large
quantity of very clear liquid gum which is exceedingly as-
tringent. This gum is used for tanning fishing-lines, nets,
&c., and in colouring and glazing the slices of areca nuts
which are sold in the bazaars.
Erythrina Indica. Common throughout Malabar, both
cultivated and wild ; yields a poor gum of a dark colour.
Euphorbia Nivulia yields a copious supply of milky
sap of poisonous odour. On congelation, it produces a
hard somewhat brittle, yellow gum which partially melts
when thrown into hot water. This Euphorbia is very com-
mon on the low laterite hills near Calicut.
Euphorbia Pulcherima. This shrub is cultivated in
gardens for its lovely scarlet bracts. The milky sap pro-
duces, when dried, a darkish gum.
Ficus Elastica. This fig has only recently been intro-
duced into Malabar, and is growing well in the Manantoddy
Botanical Garden. The India rubber produced by it, is too
well known to need description.
Ficus religiosa. The peepul is a common tree through-
out the district. Its milky sap hardens into an inferior
Gutta Percha.
Garcinia pictoria (Morella). A common tree on the
Western Ghat where it grows in the heavy evergreen
forests at an elevation of from 1,000 to 2,500 feet. This
species produces the true gamboge of commerce; but it
seems to be greatly neglected. I have found on prodding the
bark with an awl that a small mass of excellent gamboge
appears of about the size of a pea. If the bark is cut, tears
of gamboge collect along the edges of the bark, where cut,
and dry. The easiest way of extracting the gamboge is to
scrape the bark carefully, so as to remove all particles of
dead bark, moss, and other impurities. The bark is then
peeled off the trunk, and pounded in a mortar. The whole
112
FOREST PRODUCTS.
of the colouring matter is extracted by six or eight hours of
boiling. The extract thus obtained is to be inspissated over
a charcoal fire, and when the liquid portions have been suffi-
ciently evaporated, the residue may be sun-dried, after being
moulded in blocks. The product thus obtained is inferior
to the natural exudation, having a greenish tinge. Gamboge
is used medicinally, and in the arts as a paint. There are
other species of gamboge-producing trees (Garcinias) in
the shola forests of the district ; but the gamboge pro-
duced by them is, on the whole, inferior to that from this
species. G. Wightii and G. Travancorica ; both produce
very fair gamboge.
Isonandra Wightiana. This magnificent evergreen tree
produces copiously a thick milky sap which hardens into a
kind of Gutta Percha. Commercially it has at present no
value.
Lagerstroemia Microcarpa yields sparingly a gum resin,
of no particular value.
L. Flos Regince. This species also yields a gum resin
very similar to the above.
Hacaranga tomentosa. Evergreen forests. Yields in small
quantities a medicinal gum.
Melia Azadarachta yields freely and in large quanti-
ties a clear gum, which is used medicinally in India.
Moringa pteriggosperma cultivated in Malabar, yields a
dark-coloured gum used medicinally, otherwise of no value.
Odina Wodier yields quantities of a bright clear gum,
which is used in calico-printing, &c.
Poinciana regia yields gum of a pale straw colour in
small quantities.
Pterocarpus marsupium. A valuable timber tree of the
deciduous forests, yields an abundance of ruby-coloured sap
which hardens, and breaks up into small garnet-coloured
grains. This gum resin is exceedingly astringent and is
used medicinally and to stain wood. The Myristica Mala-
bar ica also yields an abundance of kino.
F011EST P110DU< 113
Sapindus detergens occurs in Palghat; yields a gum.
The seeds are collected, the epicarp being used as a sub-
stitute for soap.
Semecarpus Anacardium. A common tree. The bark,
and seeds, produce a black substance, which is exceedingly
poisonous to some people. I have obtained a black varnish
from the seeds by roasting and squeezing them. The
fumes are, however, during this process, exceedingly noxious,
causing swellings and partial blindness. It is dangerous to
stand under these trees at night or during rainy weather ;
for the drops from the leaves will produce swellings of the
face and body.
The Semecarpus Travancorica, is equally dangerous.
Shorea laccifera occurs only in the Beni tract of the
Wynaad forests. It yields an abundance of a fragrant resin
known as " Sambrani " burnt as incense by the natives.
Spondias Mangifera yields a dark gum of poor quality.
Sponia orientalis. Occasionally a little gum is to be ob-
tained from this tree; but it is of little or no value. The
bark yields a fibre.
Sterculia Villosa yields a gum of no value. The bark
however yields excellent fibre, of which elephant drag ropes
are made in Malabar.
Tectona grandis. The wood of the Teak tree yields a
tar, very similar to coal tar in appearance. It would be
of value for tarring timber where white ants are abundant,
and destructive, for they show a great dislike to the oil of
Teakwood, and will not touch it as long as the oil remains
in it.
TerminaUa lellerica. A lofty tree, of the deciduous
forests, yields a quantity of clear gum which is not how-
ever collected.
Valeria Malabarica. This species yield an abundance
of a clear green resin known as " Vellay Jcongilium" by
the natives, and is used by them as an incense. The
bark of the tree is notched when the resin flows and
15
FOREST PRODUCTS.
gradually hardens. Ifc makes an excellent varnish, if melted
with spirits of Turpentine, and clear shell lac.
Xylia dolabriformis. The Irul a hard wooded timber
tree of the lowlands of Malabar. The timber of this tree is
exceedingly resinous, and a tar might be obtained from it.
Another ironwood the Mesua ferrea, yields copiously both
from the bark and green fruit, a semi-liquid resin of a strong
odour.
OILS ESSENTIAL AND FIXED.
Adenanthara pavonina. The beautiful scarlet seeds of
this tree produce an oil, which is not much used, as the
trees are scarce.
Albizzia Leblek. The seeds of this tree contain a small
quantity of oil which is used medicinally by the natives.
Aleurites moluccana cultivated both in the Wynaad and
the low country. It produces two crops of seeds in a year,
and the seeds often lie for years on the ground before
germinating. This tree is very quick in its growth and
produces large crops. The nuts contain a large percentage
of the finest oil. They are also edible, if kept for any
length of time, but if eaten fresh, they are poisonous. This
tree is well worthy of attention, and should be extensively
propagated.
Mlettaria Cardamomum. This is the most important
forest product, yielded by the grand forests of Malabar.
The outturn of cardamoms now in Malabar has fallen far
short of what it used to be. The cultivation not having
been attended to of late years. This, however, will soon be
remedied; for the important reserved forests of Peria in
Wynaad will shortly be leased out, and the cultivation of
this valuable spice encouraged in every way. The crop
ripens in October, and sells when cured for rates varying
from Rs. 50 to Rs. 110 a tularn = 321bs. English. The
seeds are principally used as spices and medicinally, and
an essential oil is extracted from them by distillation which
is used medicinally as a carminative, and for disguising the
FOREST PRODUCTS.
taste of nauseous drugs. For particulars regarding the
cultivation of this spice, I refer the reader to Ludlow and
Owen's pamphlets on the subject.
Anacardium occidentals. Cashew-nuts are largely eaten
roasted both by Europeans and Natives. They contain a
large percentage of a clear, bland oil, which is far superior
to olive oil, and might be used for oiling delicate machinery.
The demand for the nuts is however so great that the oil is
never likely to become a marketable product. The tree is
abundant on the west coast, and self-sown seed comes up
everywhere. The pericarp of the nut contains about 30
per cent, of a powerful caustic oil, that blisters where it
touches the skin. This oil is used for polishing gunstocks.
The pedicel of the seed is fleshy of a brilliant golden or
pinkish red colour, very juicy ; but slightly astringent. It
is largely eaten by the natives iu the hot weather. It how-
ever leaves an unpleasant acrid feeling behind in the
throat.
Anamirta Cocculus. The fruit of this climber is used to
adulterate beer. The seeds contain a fatty oil.
Andropogon Muricatum. Khus-khus grass grows wild,
and is cultivated in Malabar. The roots are used for
Khus-khus tatties in the hot weather. When distilled with
water, a delicious essential oil is obtained, having the peculiar
and fragrant odour of these grass roots when wet.
Andropogon Gitratus. Lemon grass grows plentifully on
the slopes of the Western Ghats everywhere. When distill-
ed, it produces a fragrant essential oil which is used by
perfumers.
Andropogon Nardus. Citronelle grass is found wild in
patches on the Western Ghats. It is also cultivated. From
171bs. of grass I distilled Ifoz. of essential oil of a yellow-
ish brown colour, exceedingly fragrant and closely resem-
bling the odour of crushed Verbena leaves. It is largely
used by perfumers and soap-makers at home. There are
large distilleries devoted to the extraction of this oil in
Ceylon.
11G FOREST PRODUCTS. .
Atalantia monophylla. The leaves of this thorny plant
yield au essential oil. The rind of the berries also con-
tains it.
The Neilgherry Atalantia. A. thorny climber, contains an
abundance of essential oil in its leaves and berries. I dis-
tilled a quantity of both, and found the odour to closely
resemble that of essential oil of Citronelle.
Bassia latifolla. The seeds of this large tree produce a
quantity of fatty oil which is used to adulterate ghee. It
is common in the Palghat Taluq. The seeds of the
Isonandras also contain a large percentage of fatty oil.
They are not however utilized.
Benincasa Cerifera. This pumpkin is cultivated in our
forests by the Curumbers, &c. The blue bloom on its
surface can be scraped off and melted into a kind of
vegetable wax. The natives, however, are ignorant of this.
The seeds contain a mild pale oil as indeed do those of all
species belonging to this order (Gucurbitacece).
Bombax Malabaricum. The seeds of the silk cotton tree
contains a large percentage of a thin colourless oil, which
is not made any use of.
Buchanania latifolia. The Cheroonjie nut grows on the
confines of Mysore. The seeds are excellent eating, and
contain a quantity of bland limpid oil. The seeds are in
such demand however that the oil is never extracted.
Butea frondosa. The seeds yield a medicinal oil.
Callophyllum August If oliutn. The seeds of this tree
yield a bright green oil of a peculiar odour ; it is used for
lamps. All the other species of Gallophyllicm also bear
oil-producing seeds.
Carapa moluccensis yields a fatty oil by expression
used for burning in lamps.
Cerbera Odallum. The poisonous inaugoe-shaped fruits
of this small tree yield an oil which is used for lamps.
Cinnamomum Zeylanicum. The species and varieties of
this tree in Malabar are innumerable. Their leaves contain
FOREST PRODI"* I- 17
an essential oil of a strong aromatic odour. The bark, when
distilled, produces another fragrant essential oil, and the
bark of the roots of many species contains camphor.
Groton tiglium. The seeds of this species contain a
large percentage of oil, which is used medicinally by natives,
and others as a powerful purgative, and externally as a
blister.
Cynometra ramiflora. The Irrupu yields from its seeds
a medicinal oil.
Diospyros Embryopteris. The seeds yield a pale-coloured
oil, which is used medicinally by the natives.
Flaycourtia Raymontchi. The seeds yield an oil.
Garcinia pictoria. The fruit of the Gamboge tree is
pickled by the natives, and a yellow fatty oil is expressed
from the seeds known as Cocum butter. It is used medi-
cinally, and for burning.
Melia Azidirachta. Neem oil is extracted from the small
yellow fruit of this tree. It is dark-yellow in colour, and
possesses an unpleasant taste and smell. It is used me-
dicinally, and for the cure of mange in dogs. Natives seem
to have great faith in it. It is also used for burning; but
produces a heavy and pungent smoke.
Mesua ferrea. In addition to the resin with which the
fruit is generally coated, the seeds contain a brownish oil,
which is used medicinally and for burning.
Mimusops Elengi. The seeds of this tree which is found
in the Western Ghats produce a medicinal oil.
Moringa pterygosperma. The seeds of this tree produce
a large quantity of oil which when clarified and freed from
impurities is used by watch-makers and perfumers. It
is an excellent oil for gun locks. The seed pods are,
however, so extensively used when young as a vegetable
that it is not surprising the oil cannot be obtained in larger
quantities.
Myristica Malabarica. This fine tree of the Ghat forests
produces a nutmeg covered with a mace. The seed when
118 FOREST PRODUCTS.
pounded and boiled, throws up to the surface of the water
an olive-green viscid resinous oil which is nearly odourless.
It is said to be used medicinally. I procured three ounces
of the oil from six pounds of bruised nutmegs.
Pongamia Glabra. The seeds of this tree are collected
by natives in Malabar. The oil yielded by them is thick
and of a darkish colour. It is used medicinally for cutaneous
affections, and is burnt by the poorer classes.
Ricimts Communis. The castor oil shrub is too well
known to need description. It is found both cultivated
and wild especially on the banks of the Nelambur river.
The oil is extensively manufactured in Malabar and the
creaking mills in which the seed is crushed may be seen in
every village in the district. The seed of this plant
furnishes the food of the bronze-winged dove (Chalcophaps
Indica) .
Schleichera Trijuga. This handsome tree is abundant
in Malabar, where it is preserved for the sake of its seed,
which contains a large percentage of oil. The oil is princi-
pally used for burning; but also medicinally, and in the
manufacture of birdlime.
Strychnos nux vomica. This tree is found from the sea-
level to 2,500 feet in Wynaad. An oil is said to be expres-
sed from the seeds, and used medicinally by natives. Large
quantities of the seeds are exported from Calicut by the
Firm of Messrs. D. Maneekji and Sons.
Tamarindus Indicus. This tree only thrives in the Pal-
ghat Taluq, as it prefers a dry climate. The seeds produce
a clear thin oil. It is for the sake of the fruit however that
the tree is chiefly valued.
Tectona grandis. The seed of the Teak tree contains
a good deal of oil.
Terminalia bellerica. The kernel of the seeds yields by
expression a medicinal oil of a greenish colour. The T.
Chelula yields a somewhat similar oil.
FOREST Piionn.Ts.
Vateria Malabar ica. The seeds yield by boiling a solid
fat of a pale yellow colour, used for burning. It might be
utilized iu the manufacture of soap and candles.
Xi/Ua dolabriformis. The seeds are said to yield an oil.
TAN BARKS AND DYES.
Acacia arabica. The bark of this tree is occasionally used
for tanning. It yields an excellent brown dye, which can be
changed to black by the addition of proto-sulphate of iron,
as a mordant. I have often dyed shikar suits with it, and
the colour is permanent. Many of the other acacias are used
for dyeing and tanning notably A. Decurrens an Australian
species.
Albizzia LebbeJc. The bark of this tree is occasionally
used for tanning.
Areca Catechu. The nuts are used for dyeing and might
be used for tanning, were they not too expensive for this
purpose.
Artocarpus integrifolia. The wood of this tree made into
a decoction produces a yellow dye.
Bixa orellana. The reddish powder that covers the seeds
of this plant are used for dyeing.
Briedelia retusa. The bark of this thorny tree can be
used for tanning.
Butea frondosa. The gaudy flowers of this, tree are used
for dyeing ; but the colours are fleeting.
CcBsalphinia Sappan. This small tree is most extensively
cultivated throughout Malabar. It reaches a larger size iu
Wynaad, however, than it does on the Coast. When a daughter
is born in a Thean family, the father plants a certain number
of Sappan trees, which form her dowry when married. There
are factories at Calicut where the dye is prepared. I found
on visiting them that the wood cut into chips was boiled,
and a quantity of country arrowroot was then thrown into
the decoction and when saturated, removed and dried.
This pink powder is exported in large quantities to the
120 FOREST PRODUCTS.
Arabian Gulf, Cutch, &c. The Chinese pay a high price for
Sappan wood when the billets are long, straight, free from
flaws, and thick. This looks as if they employed the wood
in turnery and cabinet work. In Malabar, however, the
trees are, as a rule, poor and crooked, and are grubbed up
roots and all, before they reach maturity.
Cathartocarpus (Cassia) fistula. The bark of this tree is
principally used in Malabar for tanning.
Gedrela Toona. The flowers yield a reddish dye.
Curcuma aromatica. Wild turmeric is found in the
forests of Wynaad and the Western Ghats. It is exten-
sively collected and is known as " Custoory Manja." It is
used by native women as a cosmetic and in dyeing.
Cynometra ramiflora. A decoction of the chips of the
heartwood of this tree yields a fine purplish dye.
Diospyros Embryopteris. The fruit of this tree is used
for tanning and dyeing. In combination with proto-sulphate
of iron (Annabathy) it produces all shades of brown, brown-
ish-black, and black.
Erythrina Indica. The scarlet flowers of this tree pro-
duce a red dye.
Eugenia Sp. All species of Eugenia produce barks used
for tanning and dyeing. In combination with the salts of
iron, all shades of brown and black can be obtained.
Lagerstroemia microcarpa. The bark is said to be used
in tanning.
Lawsonia alba. The young leaves of this shrub are
largely used by Mahomedans for dyeing their nails, beards
and horse tails occasionally a bright orange red.
Mallotus Phillipenensis (Rottlcra tinctoria). This small
tree is very abundant from the sea-coast to 2,500 feet in
Wynaad. The clusters of orange-red berries are very strik-
ing in February when the berries ripen. The dye is the
downy bloom that covers the fruit. It is obtained by dry-
ing the berries and shaking them smartly in a vessel when
the powder is rubbed >IT : unl falls to the bottom. It is not
FOREST PRODUCTS. 121
easily soluble in water; but is completely so in alcohol.
The colour is of a brilliant yellow.
Mangifera Indica. The young fruit of the mangoe when
dried is sometimes used as a mordant.
Memecylon tinctorium. The flowers and leaves are used
in dyeing in combination with other dyes.
Michelia Champaca. The flowers of this handsome timber
tree are used for dyeing a pale yellow. The blossoms are
very sweet scented.
Morinda tindoria. This small tree is found in the
Walayar Reserves, and in the forests near Palghat. The
bark of the roots yields a reddish dye.
Wodina Wodier. The bark of this tree is sometimes
used for tanning.
Phijllanthus Emblica. The fruit and leaves are used for
tanning and dyeing. With gallnuts and proto-sulphate of
iron, a deep and permanent black is produced. The fruib
is eaten raw and pickled.
Pterocarpus marsupium. This tree produces the gum
kino of commerce. The heartwood when cut into chips
and soaked in water, yields a pale-blue dye.
Ttandia dumetorum. The fruit of this thorny shrub,
which is common throughout Malabar, is principally used
to poison fish. The bark is used medicinally, and the fruit
is said to be used in dyeing.
Salix tetrasperma. Common in swamps in the Wynaad.
The bark is astringent, and would make good tan bark ; but
is not used in Malabar.
Semecarpus Anacardium. The pericarp of the seed of
this tree produces a black oily liquid used for marking linen
in combination with quicklime as a mordant.
Soymida febrifuga. The bark is used medicinally and in
tanning.
Tectona grandis. Oil crushing the young leaves of this
16
122 FOREST PRODUCTS.
tree, a bright lake-coloured dye is produced. I have not
heard of its being used for dyeing.
Terminalia bellerica. The seeds of this tree are used
in tanning and dyeing. Sambur and other deer eat the
fruit.
Terminalia Chebula. The gallnut tree is only found in
the forests in the extreme east of Wyuaad. The crop is
annually leased out. The seeds and leaf galls when collected
are taken to Mysore, where they are extensively used in
Hunsur and Collegal in tanning leather. A solution of
gallnuts with protosulphate of iron is used in the manufacture
of ink. A durable black dye is obtained from a decoction of
myrabolans ; the cloth after being dyed, is dipped in a strong
solution of proto-sulphate of iron. A yellowish brown dye is
produced if the salts of iron are not used. Alum is usually
used as a mordant, when it is desired to fix the shade of
brown required. Gallnuts constitute one of the most
important forest products of the Madras Presidency.
FRUIT AND EDIBLE KOOTS.
Baccaurea Sapida. The trunk of this tree is thickly
covered in October with bunches of reddish-coloured fruit.
The aril of the seed, which is sweet, and sub-acid is eaten,
and resembles the Mangosteen in flavour. It is capable of
cultivation and improvement. It is abundant in the Ghat
forests.
Solarium robusta. This handsome solanum bears clusters
of orange-coloured fruit, the size of a billiard ball. The
fruits are densely covered with a coarse velvetty coat of
fine prickles. When the epidermis has been peeled, the
fruit resembles the boiled yolk of an egg and tastes exactly
like the fruit of Phy sails Peruviana ; it is very closely
allied to a solanum introduced from Brazil by Mr. Broughton
the Government Quiuologist, some thirteen years ago ; the
only difference being that the stems of 8. Robnata are armed
as well as the leaves, whilst the Brazilian species is unarmed.
There is uo perceptible difference in the fruit.
FOREST PRODUCTS. 123
Eugenia Species. The fruit of all species of Eugenia is
edible. The rose apple, Jamoon and others are too well
known to need description. On the summits of the Western
Ghats a very beautiful species is abundant, with bright
blue flowers and pear-shaped fruit, the size of a robin's egg,
of a brilliant golden, or scarlet colour, and looking like drops
of molten sealing wax.
Phyllanthus Emblica. The sour and astringent fruit of
this small tree is eaten raw and pickled. It possesses the
peculiar property of turning brackish water sweet.
Garcinias. The fruit of almost all the trees of this genus
are edible. The Mangosteen is one of the most important.
Some are eaten pickled, and some made into tarts.
Diospyros Melanoxylon. The fruit of this tree is edible,
and is occasionally sold in the bazaars.
Zizyphus Jujuba. This tree yields a sour little orange
plum, which is eateu by native boys and deer.
Spondias Mangifera. The Hog plum is eaten pickled by
natives; it is also greedily devoured by deer, &c.
Artocarpus Integrifolia. The fruit of this tree is eaten,
when green in curries. The seeds are eaten roasted.
Ficus species. The fruit of most trees of this genua are
eaten in times of scarcity and by animals. There is a
scandent species, with a trunk rarely over six inches in
diameter that produces bunches of very large purple figs
which, when ripe, are by no means ill-flavoured. The bright
orange fruit of the common atti have a very pleasant smell ;
but they are usually full of thousands of small double-tailed
flies. All wild animals eat the fruit of wild figs greedily.
There are very few trees, or shrubs in these vast forests that
bear edible fruit. It is surprising that amongst such a
variety of trees there should be so few fruit-bearing ones.
OF EDIBLE SUBSTANCES OTHER THAN FRUIT.
Phoenix Sylvestris yields a very delicate and nutty-
flavoured cabbage that is eaten both raw and pickled.
124 FOREST PRODUCTS.
Caryota Urens also yields a cabbage and an abundance
of toddy or palm wine.
Calamas Sp. The larger rattans when cut, yield an
abundance of limpid sap which is used as a substitute for
water, where none is obtainable.
Termes Sp. Not only are the perfect winged insects of
this genus eaten as food by man, beast, bird, reptile and
fish, but their conical dwellings often furnish a crop of
excellent mushrooms of two species. The one, very small,
and of a white colour, appearing in thousands in the Wynaad
in June and July, and the other, as a rule, found only in
the forests, of a slightly darker colour, and of larger size and
excellent flavour which grows from the underground spongy
masses of wood, in which the young white ants are reared.
Cattle propagate a third edible species by eating the mush-
rooms and dropping the spawn afterwards over the grass
hills in the Wynaad.
Honey and Wax are both plentiful and abundant in
Malabar. The exuberance of vegetation, and millions of
flowering trees, offering a fine field to the many species of
these industrious little insects. There are four species of
honey bees in the forests of Malabar.
Apis dorsata. The largest of all is a fierce and irascible
insect which it is highly dangerous to meddle with. It
breeds on cliffs.
Apis Mellifica. This bee is identical with the European
bees, and I see no reason why it should be separated as
distinct ; it breeds in holes of trees, rocks, &c., is easily do-
mesticated, and in hill regions above 3,000 feet elevation,
produces the best honey.
Apis florea, is a very small bee that builds on twigs of
trees, bushes, &c. ; it is not capable of being domesticated
nor worth it. The fourth species, a Trigona, is a very
minute bee which builds in crevices of walls, &c. The glob-
ular cells are built of a mixture of resinous substances,
which I Lave seeii these little creatures collecting from
FOREST PRODUCTS. 125
Mcsua, Canarium, Callophyllum, Artocarpus and other trees.
It resembles cobbler's wax in appearance. The amount
obtainable from each hive is very small, half a pound or so.
An allied species in Burmah (Trigona loeviceps) produces a
.similar substance which the Burmese use for caulking
boats. The only use to which I have seen the wax of the
Indian. Trigona put, is in waterproofing the powder pan of
matchlocks, and for the mouth pieces of Indian Bag-pipes
which are made with too reeds and a gourd.
Silk. There are numerous species of silk-producing
moths in the Wynaad, and Malabar, the principal of which
are the Tassa moth (AntJiercea paphia). The Atlas moth
(Attacus atlas) and the sociable silk moth (Cricula Trifene-
strata).
EDIBLE BOOTS, &c.
Dioscorea Sp> All the Dioscoreas produce edible roots,
some are cultivated, and others grow wild, and form the
chief support of aboriginal tribes in the dry weather and
times of scarcity. These roots are the chief mainstay of
Coorumbers and others, and without them they would be
wretched indeed. The women and children are sent oufc
daily to search for, and dig up the long tuberous roots which
often descend into the earth, to a depth of six or seven
feet. It is a work of great labour to the poor women to
excavate the holes in the baked and hardened soil to this
depth. The roots when cooked in the ashes are mealy, and
well-flavoured, and must contain a great deal of nourish-
ment.
On the higher slopes of the Western Ghats, an edible
orchis occurs the " salep" of the shops, which is used
medicinally, and is iu great repute amongst Mahomedan
Doctors.
Curcuma Angustifolia yields arrowroots in large
quantities which is manufactured to a considerable extent in.
Malabar. Other species of Curcuma also produce arrowroot.
Most of the species are abundant in the forests of Malabar.
126 FOREST PRODUCTS.
Piper nigrum. Wild pepper is abundant in all the
evergreen forests, and is collected to a small extent.
Chavica Betel. This vine grows wild in the deep ravines
of the Chenat Nair Forests.
Chavica Hoxburghii. The Pipli or long-tailed pepper is
very common in the forests of Nilambur ; it grows wild
everywhere along the foot of the Ghats.
Acacia Concinna. The pods of this thorny scandent
acacia form one of the most important of our forest pro-
ducts. They are eagerly sought for, and collected.
Natives use the fruit for washing their heads.
Deer horns, Ivory } Sec, The former are picked up, and
sold to merchants in February and March when the grass
has been burnt. Ivory is but rarely found, and is then of
but little value as it is more or less damaged from exposure
and the gnawing of porcupines.
FIBRES AND PAPER MATERIALS.
Agave Americana grows fairly well in Pal ghat ; but
does not occur further west. Yields a strong fibre which is
manufactured into twine, hammocks, &c. It ought to yield
a valuable paper stock.
Agave Vivipara. This species replaces the former in the
moisture regions of the West Coast. It fu-rnishes an
excellent fibre, closely resembling that of A. Americana;
but the staple is not so long, the leaves being shorter.
Ananassa Sativa grows wild in parts of Wynaad, and
the Western Coast. The leaves furnish a strong and beauti-
fully silky fibre, which is not however utilized in any way.
Artocarpus integrifolia furnishes a strong fibre.
Bambusa Arundinacea. The young shoots of this bamboo
yield excellent paper stock. All the other species of
bamboos also yield paper stock. The young shoots o
Bheesha rheedii, and Bheesha Travancorica yield a superior
paper stock.
FOREST PRODUCTS.
Bauhinia Sp. The bark of all the bauhinias is fibrous
and yield a good bast.
Bohmeria Malabarica. This small tree yields a magnifi-
cent silky fibre greatly valued by the Coorchias and other
aboriginal tribes for bow strings on account of its great
strength. It grows freely in all shola forests in the
neighbourhood of water iu ravines. The fibre closely
resembles the rheea and might be profitably cultivated.
It is known by the Coorchias under the name of Manuali.
There are several other bohmerias in the Ghat forests
which furnish excellent fibre.
Bohmeria nivea. The Rheea has been introduced into
the Manantoddy Botanical Garden, and has thriven there.
Bombax Malabaricum. The silky down of this tree is
largely used on the coast for stuffing pillows, &c. The
fibre from the bark can be made into cordage.
Borassus flab elli for mis. The petioles of the leaves are
fibrous, and can be utilised for paper or cordage.
Buteafrondosa. The bark yields a strong fibre.
Calamus Sp. Canes and rattans are extensively used in
the district. The former principally for walking sticks ;
those from the Anamallay forests are famous. Rattans are
used for ropes across rivers and in the Wynaad in the
monsoon, almost all large rivers are crossed on bamboo rafts
with a loop at the head through which the rattan cable
passes. By hauling the cable, the raft is gradually forced
across the river. On the Anamallays deer and ibex are
snared with rattan nooses. The uses to which all species
of calamus are put are innumerable.
Calatropis Gigantea. This shrub is found in Palghat.
The bark yields a very strong, soft, silky, fibre used for
fishing-lines, &c.
Cannabis Saliva. Hemp is not cultivated for its fibre
at all in the district. A few plants are occasionally seen
near the houses of natives, who grow it solely for the
127
128 FOREST PRODUCTS.
intoxicating " bhang " it produces, and which is largely
smoked by Mahomedans.
Careya Arborea, furnishes an excellent fibre, used by
natives principally in house-building, &c.
Caryota urens. This palm yields an exceedingly valuable
fibre which is extensively used in Malabar for fishing-lines.
Surrounding the base of the petioles of the leaves, there
is a mass of coarse wire-like fibre, varying in thickness
from the size of horse-hair to that of a knitting needle.
This fibre is used in Malabar for elephant ropes, &c., but is
valued at home for the manufacture of brushes, and is
known to the trade by the name of Kittal fibre. From the
petioles of the leaves, however, a strong yellowish fibre is
drawn, which when knotted together makes excellent fish-
ing-lines. This fibre is sometimes boiled in milk which
makes it last longer the native fishermen say. It is brittle
when dry ; but very strong when wet and pliable. Unfor-
tunately the cabbage of this palm is edible, and it is
exterminated both by natives and wild elephants, wherever
found in the forests. Were it not for this, the forests of
Malabar would abound with millions of these very valuable
palms. In addition to the fibre, and cabbage produced by
them, the older palms contain starch from which sago is
manufactured in Malabar ; but it is of poor quality. The
flower spathes are cut and yield large quantities of the best
toddy. This palm deserves special protection.
Corypha umbraculifera. The leaves of this handsome
palm are used for an infinite variety of purposes, for thatch-
ing houses, umbrellas, the covers of bullock coaches, &c., &c.
Cyperus Corymbosus. The very handsome Palghat mats
are made from this cyperus which grows wild on the
banks of streams.
Eriodendron unfriictuosum. The bark yields a fibre,
which might be used for paper stock. The silky down
surrounding the seeds is used for stuffing pillows.
Ficus Species. Tho bark of the trunk and especially of
the aerial roots of all figs yield fibre, more or less strong
FOREST PRODUCTS. 129
and suitable for cordage, paper stock, &c. The fibre of tbe
aerial rooks of Ficus parasiticus is bigbly valued iii Wynaad
for bow strings by the Coorchias and is there knowii as
colinar not to be confounded with the coli uar of Cauara
which is produced by Helicteres isora, a shrub.
Girardinia heterophylla. This nettle produces an excel-
lent fibre of great strength. It is not used in any way in
the district, though the Todas of the Neilgherries extract
and use it for thread.
Grewia tilicefolia. All the Grewias yield good fibre.
Wild elephants are very fond of the bark of this species.
It is sometimes used for the drag ropes of elephants.
Helicteres isora. A common shrub in Malabar which
yields an excellent fibre, largely used for the large timber
drag ropes, by which elephants haul timber in Malabar.
It ought to make excellent paper stock.
Hibiscus Species. All the plants belonging to this genus
are fibre producers. The most important however is one
in the Wynaad, with a small pink flower, which grows in
extraordinary abundance everywhere, and produces a
splendid fibre, well worthy of attention (H. procera ?).
Kydia Calycina. A small tree common in the deciduous
forests. The bark yields a fair fibre.
Laportea crenulata.The bark of this unpleasant shrub
yields a white strong fibre ; but the stinging hairs of the
petioles of the leaves cause such agony that few care to
meddle with the plant.
Musa textilis. The Manilla hemp produces a very strong
and durable fibre. It has been introduced into the Wynaad
and thrives there. The fibre would answer well for paper
stock.
Musa ornata grows wild on the slopes of the Western
Ghats, and produces a strong but coarse fibre.
Musa Superba. Abundant in the sholas of the Western
Ghats. The natives use the leaves for plates. The fibre i~s>
strong and durable.
17
130 ESSAYS ON THE BEST METHOD OF PLANTING
Odina Wodier yields a fair bast.
Pandanus odoratissima. The leaves are used largely on
the Coast, in the manufacture of mats. They might be
turned iuto paper stock, as well as the fibrous stems. A
species of Pandanus which is found in the Cardamom
forests, and which is stemless is also used for the same
purposes.
Polyalthia Coffeoides. The bark of this tree yields a good
fibre, which is occasionally used for elephant drag ropes.
Sponia orientalis. The bark of this tree yields a fibre.
Sterculia guttata. The bark of this species yields an
excellent fibre, much valued by the natives.
Sterculia urens yields a fair fibre.
Sterculia Villosa. This is known as " Anay Vaccay Nar"
and is almost exclusively used in the manufacture of ele-
phant drag ropes.
Yucca gloriosa grows well in the Wynaad ; the leaves
yield a very tough fibre.
CHAPTER XV.
FUEL PLANTATIONS.
Prize Essay*
IN the Madras Presidency we have various climates and
soils, and different degrees of rainfall. It stands to reason
that a tree which would succeed admirably on the sandy
littoral of the East Coast, would be an utter failure on the
Nilgiris. We have, therefore, to take into consideration
several points before starting an undertaking of this nature.
In the first place we must obtain our land in the imme-
diate neighbourhood of the market in which we propose to
sell our wood, or otherwise the cost of transporting tho fuel
would infallibly eat up the profits. A plentiful supply of
* By Rhodes Morgan, Esq., F.Z.S., Deputy Conservator of Forests.
FUEL PLANTATIONS IN INDIA. 131
cheap labour is the next requisite, and a soil suitable to the
particular species of tree we wish to plant.
In our choice of the most suitable tree to plant, we must
remember to choose such as will produce the greatest out-
turn to the acre within a given period of time, and at the
same time possesses such an amount of calorific power, as
will enable it to compete successfully with slower-growing
woods possessing a higher amount of latent caloric.
In Trichinopoly, I experimented with a considerable
variety of fuel trees, for the supply of wood to the Railway,
and judging from my own experience and that of others,
the Casuarinoj muricata is far and away the best.
It will not, however, do to plant this tree in all soils. In
a stiff clay it grows but slowly, and sometimes even dies ;
whereas in deep, fine sand, it distances all other fuel-trees
in its rapid and surprising rate of growth.
It suits itself to a wonderful variety of climate, and fine
specimens may be seen growing in the arid plains of the
East Coast, the moist and humid shores of Malabar, and
inland, at an elevation of 2,500 feet, at Manantoddy.
In addition to its great value as a fuel-producer, its tim-
ber is used for building purposes, and is capable of bearing
a higher cross strain than almost any other known species
of Indian tree.
When grown by itself, and allowed to branch, it is highly
ornamental, and a desirable addition to an avenue, or park.
We will now assume that the would-be fuel-planter has
obtained a block of 100 acres of suitable land within a mile
of his market.
The first thing to be then done, is to obtain a sufficient
number of ripe cones, gathered from the most vigorous,
healthy, and mature Casuarina trees we can find, and put
them in the sun to open. Care must be taken that ants do
not get at the seeds, or they will destroy every one. The
cones should, therefore, be placed on a table, the Ieg3 of
132 ESSAYS ON THE BEST METHOD OF PLANTING
which should be protected by being placed in tins contain-
ing- kerosine oil.
The next thing to be done is to select a portion of the
land obtained, for the formation of a nursery in the immedi-
ate neighbourhood of fresh water.
As Casuarina plantations should be formed only on the
sandy banks of rivers, or near the seashore, water is gene-
rally to be found within a few feet of the surface. It will,
therefore, be necessary to sink a well. To do this no
great outlay is needed, for it is not necessary that the well
should last longer than two years at the most. In Trichino-
poly, in the sandy soil of the banks of the Cauvery, there
known as "Padugay" land I found the following con-
trivance answer splendidly:
I made an open cylinder of basket-work, of a creeper I
found growing in the neighbourhood, resembling osier in its
qualities. The cylinder, four feet in diameter by six feet in
height, I placed over the spot where I wished to sink my well.
A man then got into the basket and scooped away the sandy
soil at the bottom, which he handed up in a vessel to men
seated on the rim of the cylinder to press it down. As the
soil was undermined, the basket-work sank till it became flush
with the surface of the earth, when another six feet of creeper
was woven on to it, and the previous process repea/ted. In
this manner when a depth of seven feet of water had been
obtained, the well was completed, and a Picottah rigged up.
For about a fortnight after, the water of the well is foul and
useless, owing to the putrefaction of the bark, leaves and
small twigs of the creeper ; but if it is daily baled out, it
becomes clear and sweet again.
The nursery beds should be raised to a height of three
inches and should be oblongs of fourteen feet in length by
three and a half in width, with path-ways of a foot in width
between each.
As the best distance to plant Casuarina is six feet by six,
you will require 1,200 plants, and making an allowance of
FUEL PLANTATIONS IN INDIA. 133
300 more for failures, 1,500 in all per acre or for tlie 100
acres one lakh and 50,000.
The seed should be sown in the beds in rows six inches
apart and one-eighth of an inch deep ; and as the seedlings
should be planted out when nine inches high, each row of
three and a half feet in length will only hold about 20 plants,
two inches apart. There will then be twenty-eight rows in a
fourteen feet bed--holding, by the above calculation, 560
plants.
You will, therefore, require about 268 such beds for
150,000 plants for the 100 acres ; and if they are ranged in
eight rows of 33 beds each, allowing for a water-channel of
one foot between each bed and three feet between each of the
rows, your nursery will occupy 133 feet x 150 feet = 19,950
square feet ; and allowing 400 square feet for the well and
lift, a total of: 20,350 square feet, or half an acre, less 136
square yards say half an acre.
The nursery should be surrounded by a stout fence, and
the cheapest and best is undoubtedly a sunk fence of four
feet in depth, wedge-shaped at the base, so that cattle cannot
get out and over into the nursery ; the inner edge of the
ditch should be constructed of green croton stems of three
inches in diameter by four feet high, or Erythrina (Q-P^SS
LLffin) posts four feet apart, the intermediate spaces being
carefully filled in with bamboo thorns lashed diagonally to
cross reapers of split bamboos.
If the croton or Erythrina is put down at the beginning
of the rains, it will speedily root, and such posts are not
liable to the attacks of white ants as timber posts are.
(N.B. Too much moisture rots Erythrina cuttings.)
Croton seeds can then be planted at intervals of 4" all
round the fence on the inner edge, and when they have
grown up, a strong living fence will be formed.
To water the nurseries, all that is necessary is to divert
the stream flowing from the picottah when it is worked
into the channels provided for the purpose between the
134 ESSAYS ON THE BEST METHOD OF PLANTING
beds, and, as each channel is filled brimful, the entrance
to it between the two beds to be watered is dammed up by
scraping a mamotie full of earth up agaiust the entrance.
The bed on either side is then moistened by the percolation
of the water through the sand of which it is mainly com-
posed. Any portions of a bed not wetted by the percola-
tion of water from the channels should be watered by a
galvanised iron watering pot with a very fine rose ; but it
is even better to use a small garden engine till the plants
are an inch or so high on account of the sand being washed
by too heavy a stream of water into ridges, which smother
some of the young plants and lay bare the roots of others.
A spray of any required degree of fineness can be produced
with the garden engine by placing the thumb over the
nozzle and breaking up the jet.
When the plants are nine inches high, they should be
removed from the beds by means of a transplanter, an
instrument made of sheet iron of a semi-cylindrical shape,
which takes up the young plant with a ball of earth round
the roots, and thus prevents the fibres of the roots being
broken or injured. The whole of the land having been
pitted with holes of 18" cube, the planting of the young
Casuarinas is next proceeded with. The gardener in charge
of the nursery, provided with a sufficient number of
transplanters, rapidly removes the plants from the nurseries
and hands over to a woman in attendance as many trans-
planters, filled with a plant each, as she can carry in a
basket. The woman proceeds to the pits to be planted,
where a man relieves her of her load and sends her back to
the nursery with the last lot of transplanters he has emptied.
A little girl now hands the transplanters with the plants, one
by one, to the man ; an assistant (boy) fills up the pit with
the best soil near, and the man thrusts the transplanter and
plant partially into the loose soil thrown in by his assistant,
and with his hands fills in the earth all round, and putting
two fingers of his left hand, one on each side of the stem
of the plant, with his right withdraws the transplanter.
Another woman should now follow with a watering can and
FUEL PLANTATIONS IN INDIA. 135
give the newly-planted seedling a fair allowance of water,
say, a gallon. Each plant should then be shaded for a few
days with a basket made of cocoanut leaves or any suitable
substitute.
The young plants will now require regular watering till
they are firmly established and growing vigorously.
According to the Forest Keport of 1872-73, page 68,
Casuarina trees only seven years old averaged 60' in height
and 30" in circumference at the ground. This has been
very much my own experience ; so I shall base my calcula-
tions accordingly, only allowing that they reach this size at
eight years and not seven.
I have estimated the price of Casuarina seedlings at
Rs. 6 per 1,000 at the outside. An acre of land will contain
1,200 pits 6 x 6; we will therefore allow 1,500 plants to the
acre; 300 to replace failures.
Pitting should not cost more than Rs. 6 an acre as, the
soil being sandy, 200 18' cube pits can be cut for a rupee.
Staking the pits ought to be done for Rs. 2 an acre ; if this
is not neatly done, the work will not look shipshape.
Planting, watering, and shading for the first week I put
down at Rs. 9 an acre.
The subsequent watering till the plants are established
will cost Rs. 26 an acre at least.
Fencing ought not to cost more than Rs. 3 an acre.
Replanting failures and sundries, one rupee. Quit-rent at
one rupee an acre will be Rs. 8 up to the period when the
crop is fit to fell.
Taking eight-year old trees to contain on an average 10
cubic feet all round, and, supposing that only 1,000 such
trees survive out of the 1,200 planted, we have 10,000 cubic
feet of wood, and as Casuarina weighs about 601b. green to
the cubic foot, 600,0001b. of fuel (-J- 2,240), or 267f tons.
The average selling price of such fuel is Rs. 8 per ton ;
therefore the sum realised will be Rs, 2 ; 142-13-8.
136
ESSAYS ON THE BEST METHOD OF PLANTING
Interest on the outlay incurred will amount at 10 per
cent., to, ou Rs. 64, Rs. 6-6-5 per annum.
Felling aud sawing into billets at five annas per tree,
Es. 312-8-0.
Carting 267f tons at Rs. 1-4-0 per ton = Rs. 334-13-1.
Supervision and Sundries Rs. 80.
Our account now stands thus :
A.
Expenditure.
Receipts.
RS.
1,500 plants at Ks. 6 per
1,000 plants 9
Pitting 6
Staking and Lining ... 2
Planting, Watering,
Shading (one week) ... 9
Watering till the plants
are established ... 26
Fencing ... ... ... 3
Replanting failures ... 1
Quit-rent ... ... 8
A.
p.
ES. A. P.
Sum realised by sale
of 267? tons of fuel 2,142 13 8
Deduct Expenditure... 842 8 5
Profit... 1,300 5 3
Total... 64
Interest at 10 per cent,
on above ... ... 51
Felling and sawing into
billets 1,000 trees at
five annas per tree ... 312
Carting 267f tons at
Us. 1-4-0 per ton ... 334
Supervision and Sundries 80
3
8
13
4
1
Grand Total of Expendi-
ture 842
8
5
A Casuarina plantation can also be worked as a mixed
fuel and timber plantation, a percentage of the finest trees
being left to the acre after the smaller ones have been thin-
ned out; but, as this essay is entirely on fuel plantations, I
will not enter further into the subject.
In addition to Casuarina, there is a considerabls variety
o indigenous and of introduced trees that yield the finest
fuel.
FUEL PLANTATIONS IN INDIA.
I append the following list of a few such :
137
Acacia Arabica ...
leucophlcea
Cassia floribunda..
Albizzia lebbeck...
Acacia amara
Inga dulcis
And many others.
Karu-Veylum
Vel-Veylum
Konnay
Vaghay
Woonjal
Korkapilly ...
Qsiressr&Gur.
In addition to producing good fuel of high calorific power,
the Acacia Arabica and Albizzia lebbeck produce timber of
considerable value, the dense dark-red heart-wood being
used for a variety of economical purposes.
The black heart- wood of Cassia floribunda is also a valu-
able wood.
If, in obtaining a block of 100 acres of land, a portion is
found unfitted for Casuarina, it is advisable to plant any or
all of the above mentioned species of fuel-producing woods,
which in a stiff soil, like black cotton, are almost certain to
produce a heavier outturn per acre within the same period
of time.
It is a mistake to thin out a portion or the whole of a fuel
or timber plantation and replant the places occupied by the
trees so taken out. Not only will the trees left standing
be detrimental to the young plants from the shade cast by
their branches, but their roots will deprive the little ones
of all nourishment and kill them.
It is far better to fell over completely a portion or the
whole of the block and allow the stools to shoot up into
coppice, when the coppice may again be felled when it has
reached a sufficient size; but the outturn will be a little
less than the original crop taken off the land, within the
same period of time previously.
With Casuarina not more than three or four coppicings
can with advantage be effected on the same land, it being
preferable to replant for the fourth crop with another
18
1.38 ESSAYS ON THE BEST METHOD OP PLANTING
species of tree if possible ; but, if the land is sandy and
all land selected for Casuarina is mostly so other species
will make but poor growth, unless such sandy land is situ-
ated on the bank of a river, where I have found that the
trees previously mentoned will succeed.
FUEL PLANTATIONS ON THE NILGIRIS.
The Australian trees introduced into the Nilgiris are by
far the best to plant for fuel purposes. The indigenous
species of fuel-trees cannot, in any way, be compared with
them, as they are, one and all, so very slow in their rates of
growth compared to the introduced trees.
Though many species of Eucalyptus have been introduced,
E. Globulus has taken most kindly to the soil, and has pro-
duced the most astonishing results. The two Australian
Acacias, Melanoxylon and Dealbata, are both excellent, espe-
cially the flowering Acacia or Wattle of the Australian
Colonists, and are of quick growth. Melanoxylon, in addition
to its producing good fuel, is an excellent timber, known
in Australia as blackwood, and much used and valued
there.
On the Nilgiris many of the indigenous sholas have
been utterly destroyed in order to create fuel plantations of
the above three species of trees, and this is a shame, for the
Eucalyptus, especially, thrives exceedingly well on grass
land, though not so well as on shola, and the Acacias, Mela-
noxylon and Dealbata, also succeed in grass-land, especially
in rich hollows.
The thousands of acres of grass-lands in the immediate
neighbourhood of Ootacamund, if planted up with a, mixture
of E. Globulus and Acacias would have supplied the whole of
the fuel requirements of Ootacamund for ever.
The * Wattle has the habit of throwing out suckers from
the roots, often at a distance of seventy yards from the main
stem, in surprising numbers ; and a single tree will, in a few
* A Melanoxylon does the samoj but not so freely.
FUEL PLANTATIONS IN INDIA.
years, surround itself with thousands of smaller ones if
planted by itself, especially if a ditch one foot deep is cut
through the roots at a distance of twenty or thirty yards
from the stem, and afterwards other concentric rings are cut
within and without the first one at intervals of six feet. Every
root severed will throw up suckers. In grass-land, wattle
might be sown broadcast, after ploughing up the ground
carefully. Seed can be obtained on the hills at about three
annas per pound. It should be sown, like wheat or barley, on
soil well pulverised by frequent ploughings and thoroughly
saturated by the early monsoon showers, and then harrowed
in. As this system has never been tried, to my knowledge,
on the hills, I merely throw this out as a suggestion. The
seedlings should grow up exactly like the sucker crop that
succeeds a clean felling of wattle, and must be treated the
same way, the produce will be about equal to a sucker crop.
In making a fuel plantation of the wattle all that is neces-
sary is to plant the land up with seedlings 12 feet X 6 feet,
in holes two feet cube, dropping a few seeds in as well into
each hole, for the greater the number of roots the better and
sooner will the plantation get on. This should be done in
June, when the south-west monsoon bursts, and in cloudy
weather. If the plantation is carefully protected from
cattle, for goats eat the leaves greedily the first crop will
be ready to fell at the end of the seventh year, and each tree
will produce, on an average, including the branches, about
ten cubic feet of wood, weighing at GOlbs. per cubic foot
about GOOlbs. or a total of 360,0001bs. per acre, calculating
600 trees to the acre at 12 feet X 6 feet. This would
produce about 160 tons and valued at 8 Rupees per ton,
Rs. 1,280.
The cost of cartage would come to about Rs. 320 at two
rupees per ton, for it cannot be done cheaper on the hills,
where rates are rather dear and even if the plantation were
not more than a mile from the market.
The cost of pitting would be about Rs. 7-8 per acre of
planting Rs. 2.
140
ESSAYS ON THE BEST METHOD OF PLANTING, &C.
The plants would not cost more than Ks. 1-8, as they will
grow with very little care and trouble, and the seed can be
sown broadcast. Seed would cost eight annas.
The rent would come to Us. 14 for the seven years at Rs.
2 per acre. Watchman's charges would not exceed Rs. 1-8
per year or Rs. 4-8 per acre for three years, when the young
trees will be past danger. The following balance sheet will
show the profit approximately to be expected on a Wattel
Plantation :
B.
Expenditure.
Receipts .
600 plants and 1 Ib. of seed ...
Pitting 600 pits at Rs. 1-4
per 100
Watchman for 3 years
Planting 600 plants ...
Quit-rent
Total ... 30
Interest at 10 per cent, on
above, for 7 years ... 21
Felling and lopping 600 trees
at 6 annas per tree ... 225
Carting 160 tons at Ks. 2 per
ton ............ 320
Supervision and sundries ... 20
RS. A. p.
200
RS. A. P.
By sale of 160 tons
of fuel at Ks. 8 per
ton 1,280
Deduct expenditure. 616 o
Profit, Rs. 664
Grand Total ... 616
INDEX.
Page.
Acacia Arabica ... ... ... 90
Dealbata, its uses ... ... ... 43> 5 6 93> !4
Decurrens ... ... ... ... ... 55
Melanoxylon ... ... ... ... ... 42, 96
Molissima ... ... ... ... ... 68
Scandens ... ... ... ... ... 71
Sundra ... ... ... ... ... 80, 81
Account stands ... ... ... ... ... 64
Achawood ... ... ... ... ... ... 54
Acrocarpus fradinifolia ... ... ... ... 54
Action of Animals ... ... ... ... ... 104
Advantage of planting Seeds ... ... ... ... 72
Age of Teak trees on the Land... ... ... ... u
of Plants ... ... ... ... ... 136
to coppice ... ... ... ... ... 63
Aloes (56
Anamallies ... ... ... ... ... - 22
Arnotto ... ... ... ... ... 56
Artificial Plantation ... ... ... ... ... 72
Artocarpus integrifolius ... ... ... ... 53
Attention to Rainfall ... ... ... ... ... 93
Australian Acacias ... ... ... ... ... 138
Avenue Trees ... ... ... ... ... 77
Average outturn per Acre ... ... ... 90
Balance Sheet ... ... ... ... ... 85
for 25 Years ... ... ... ... 87
of an Acre ... ... ... ... 60
Eucalyptus 69
Fuel 75
Timber ... ... ... ... 70
Timber and Fuel Plantation ... ... 65
Bamboo Pots ... ... ... ... ... 97
Bamboos ... .., ... ...24,51,55
Rafta ... ... .., ... ... 24
Bambusa arundinacea... ... ... ... ... 55
ii INDEX.
Page.
Bambusa giganitea ... ... ... ... ... 55
Beech Wood ... ... ... ... ... ... 79
Beni ... ... ... ... ... ... 24
Best kind of Trees ... ... ..* ... ... 39
Bheesa Travancorica ... ... ... ... ... 97
Bixa Orellana ... ... ... ... ... 56
Black Loam ... ... ... ... ... ... 99
Wood 52
Block to be fenced ... ... ... ... ... 89
Blue Gum ... ... ... ... ... ... 83
Borassus flabelli formis ... ... ... ... 89
Bowani ... ... ... ... ... ... 66
Brandis' and Stewart's Flora ... ... ... ... 28
Bridges ... ... ... ... ... ... 15
Broughton, Mr. ... ... , ... ... ... 57
Brushwood ...
Buckled Saws ... ... ... ... ... 20
Burmah ... ... ... ... ... ... 102
Timber ... ... ... ... ... 25
Burning Cattle Manure for Fuel ... ... ... 4 1
of Teak Depots ... ... ... ... 15
Csesalphinia Sappan ... ... ... ... ... 119
Casalpinia Corriaria ... ... ... ... ... 55
Calatropis gigantea ... ... ... ... ... 109
Callophyllum Angustifolium ... ... ... ... 109, 116
Calorific powers of Wood ... ... ... ... 79
Camphora officinarum ... ... ... ... ... 55
Camphor Trees ... ... ..- ... ... 55
Canarese ... ... ... ... ... ... 44
Canarium strictum ... ... ... ... ... 109
Carapa moluccensis ... ... ... ... ... 116
Careya arborea ... ... ... ... ... no
Carpenter Bee ... ... ... ... 29
Carpenters
Carriage facilities ... ... ... ... ... 3
Carting ... ... ... ... ... ... 16, 91
Caryota urens ... ... ... ... ... 124, 128
Cassia floribunda ... ... ... ... ... *37
Cassia florida
Castor oil ... ... ... ... ... 4<>
Casuarina ... ... ... ... ... ...47>54. 61
as a Fuel and Timbei Plantation ... ,., i.^
INDEX. Ill
Page.
Casuarina muricata ... ... ... ... ... 61, 131
planting ... ... ... ... ... 65
seed ... ... ... ... ... 96
Cathartocarpus (Cassia) Fistula ... ... ... no, 120
Cattle Food ... ... ... ... ... ... 18
Cause of Disease ... ... ... ... ... n
Caution to Amateur Planters ... ... ... ... 89
Ceara Rubber ... ... ... ... ... 38,55
Cedrela toona ... ... ... ... ... 54
Cerbera Odallum ... ... ... ... ... 116
Charcoal making ... ... ... ... ... 74
Chatoo Menon ... ... ... ... ... 9
Chatty Wells ... ... ... ... ... ... 73
Chenat Nair ... ... ... ... ... ... 103
Chentsuas ... ... ... ... ... ... 102
Chloroxylon Swietenia... ... ... ... ... 53
Choice of Trees ... ... ... ... ... 131
Cinchona ... ... ... ... ... ... 47
Cinnamomum Zeylanicum ... ... ... ... 116
Climate ... .., ... ... ... ... 76
of Nellumbore ... ... ... ... 12
Wynaad 12
Cocoa ... ... ... ... ... ... 56
Coffee Planter ... ... ... ... ... 106
Coimbatore ... ... ... ... ... ... 77
Cold ... ... ... ... ... ... 59
Colonel Beddome's Reports ... ... ... 11,52,74,79
Havelock's Report ... ... ... ... 56
Morgan's Report ... ... ... ... n
Colored Glass ... ... ... ... ... 4
Compost ... ... ... ... ... ... 96
Concluding Remarks ... ... ... ... ... 78
Congenial employment ... ... ... ... 105
Consumption of Wood... ... ... ... ... 68
Coonoor ... ... ... ... ... ... 50
Theobroma ... ... ... ... ... 56
Coorchas ... ... ... ... ... ... 102
Coppicing ... ... ... ... ... 63, 137
Corypha umbraculifera ... ... ... ... 128
Cost and Profit of an Acre ... ... ... ... 36
from Nellumbore and Anamallies ... ... ... 7
of Cartage ... ... ... ... ... 139
of Condimental Food .., ... ... ... 19
IV INDEX.
Page.
Cost of Fencing ... ... ... ,,, ,,, 135
Firewood Billets ... ... ... ... 86
Iron Kilns ... ... ... ... ... 74
Cowhage ... ... ... ... ... ... 95
Cow Tree ... ... ... ... ... ... 55
Crickets ... ... ... ... ... ... 94
Croton ... ... ... ... ... ... 66
,. seeds ... .,, ... ... ... ... 133
tiglium ... ... ... ... ... 117
Crowbar Holes ... ... ... ... ... 2
Cryptostegia grandiflora ... ... ... ... no
Cuddapah Hills ... ... ... ... ... 5
Cultivation of Palmyra ... ... ... ... 42
Curcuma aromatica ... ... ... ... ... 120
Curumbers ... ... ... ... ... 44, 52, 105
Cutting and Felling .. ... ... ... ... 33
Cuttings ... ... ... ... ... ... 48
Cynometra ramiflora ... ... ... ... ... 120
Cyperus Corymbosus ... ... ... ... ... 128
Dalbergia Latifolia ... ... ... ... ... 52
Damp Sand ... ... ... ... ... ... 73
Dark Brown Soil ... ... ... ... ... 99
Deer ... ... ... ... ... ... 96
Horns ... ... ... ... ... ... 126
Depots ... ... ... ... ... ... 14
Dioscorea ... ... ... ... ... ... 125
Diospyros Embryopteris ... ... ... 111,117,120
Melanoxylon ... ... ... ... 56, 123
Distance for planting Eucalyptus ... ... ... 85
of Depots ... ... ... ... ... 15
Divi Divi ... ... ... ... ... ... 55
Dragging ... ... ... ... ... ... 15
Dressing Wounds ... ... ... ... ... 14
Drinking Water ... ,.. ... ... ... 45
Earthworms ... ... ... ... ,.. 101
Ebony ... ... ... ... ... ... 56
Edible Fruits, Roots, &c. ... ... ... ...107,125
Substances other than Fruit ... ... ... 123
Education of Ryot ... ... ... ... ... 41
Elephants ... ... ... ... ... ... 46, 52
Elcusine Coracana 102
INDEX.
Page.
Elevation ... ... ... ... ... ... 59
Ellettaria Cardomomum ... ... ... ... 114
Emblica Officinalis ... ... ... ... ... 47, 95
Emetics ... ... ... ... ... ... 45
Enemies of Teak ... ... ... ... ... 52
Eriodendron unfructuosum ... ... ... ... 128
Erool ... ... ... ... ... ... 54
Erythrina Indica ... ... ... ... ... 111,120
Eucalyptus amygdalina ... ... ... ... 60
globulus ... ... ... 55,66,68,80,81,83,93
trimming ... ... ... ... ... 98
varieties ... ... ... ... ... 58
Eugenia jambolana ... ... ... ... ... 80
Eugenias ... ... ... ... ... 71, 120, 122
Euphorbia ... ... ..^ ... ... ... 66
Pulcherima ... ... ... ... m
Excessive Rainfall ... ... ... ... ... 93
Expenditure ... ... ... ... ... 91, 140
Experiments with Seeds and Cuttings ... ,., ... 49
Fast growing Timber ... ... ... ... ... 10
Felled Timber ... ... ... ... ... 86
Felling ... ... ... ... ... ... 11
,, and sawing ... ... ... ... ... 136
Fences against Elephants ... ... ... ... 14
Fencing or hedging ... ... ... ... ... 133
Ferguson, Mr. ... ... ... ... ... 9
Fibres and Paper Materials ... ... ... 107 126
Ficus elastica ... ... ... ... ... 38, in
religiosa ... ... ... ... ... in
species ... ... ... ... ... 123, 128
Filling of Pits ... ... ... ... ... 85
Final Remarks ... ... ... ... ... 9
Fire-path ... ... ... ... ... ... 3
Fires destructive to young Trees ... ... ... 34
First Thinning ... ... ... ... ... 86
Flaycourtia Raymontchi ... ... ... ... 117
Floating ... ... ... ... ... ... 27
Nellumbore Timber ... ... ... ... 24
Wynaad do. ... ... ... ... 23
Forest Fires ... ... ... ... ... ... 104
Report, 1869 ... ... ... ... 52
38
"VI INDEX.
Page.
Forest Report, 1872-73 63
Staff ... ... ... ... ... ... 8
Formation of Nurseries ... ... ... ... 132
Form of Teak Seed ... ... ... ... ... i
Free Lime ... ... ... ... ... ... 38
Frugiverous Birds ... ... ... ... ... 96
Fruit and Edible Roots ... ... ... ... 122
Fuel Plantations ... ... ... ... ... 61
on the Neilgherries ... ... ... 138
reserved Jungles ... ... ... 71
Planter ... ... ... ... ... ... 90
Galactodendron(Brosimum) utile ... ... ... 55
Gall-nuts ... ... ... ... ... ... 46
Garcineas ... ... ... ... ... ... 123
Garcinia pictoria ... ... ... ... ...111,117
Gathering of Casuarina Seed ... ... ... ... 131
Gayton Tree ... ... ... ... ... ... 57
Girardinia heterophylla ... ... ... ... 129
Girdling ... ... ... ... ... ... 26
Teak ... ... ... ... ... 26
Glass Houses... ... ... ... ... ... 48
Gneiss ... ... ... ... ... 103
Golcondah ... ... ... ... ... ... 52
Gorges ... ... ... ... ... ... 50
Grass-land ... ... ... ... ... ... 69, 105
Grass-lands ... ... ... ... ... ... 138
Grevillia Robusta ... ... ... ... ... 55
Grevvia tilisefolia ... ... ... ... 129
Growth of Trees ... ... ... ... 12
Gums, Resins and Oleo-resins ... ... ... ... 107
Gutta-percha ... ... ... ... 55
Habits of Teak Tree ... ... 27
Hardwickia binata ... ... ... ... ... 54
Hare 96
Head Gardener ... ... ... ... ... 7 2
Health of Establishment ... ... ... 44
Hedge row Timber ... ... ... ... ... 4
Helicteres isora ... ... ... ... ... I2 9
Hibiscus Species I2 9
Honey and Wax I2 4
Hopea Species ... ... ...
Houses for Forest Establishment ... 2 3
INDEX. Vll
Page.
How to put out Fires ... ... ... ... 15
Humus ... ... ... ... 59> 9 8 99
Increase of dry Forest ... ... ... ... ... 39
Indian Forester's Vocabulary ... ... 105
Indigenous Sholas ... ... ... 138
Inga Xylocarpa ... ... ... ... 54
Interest on outlay ... ... ... ... ...112,136
Ironwood ... ... ... ... ... ... 56
Irulars ... ... ... ... ... ... 102
Isonandra gutta ... ... ... ... ... 55
Isonandra Wightiana ... ... ... ... ... 112
Ivory ... ... ... ... ... ... 126
Jack Tree ... ... ... ... ... ... 53
Jain Curumbers ... ... ... ... ... 102
Jarrahs ... ... ... ... ... ... 58
Joss Sticks ... ... ... ... ... ... 31
Judicious Thinning ... ... ... ... ... 9
Jungle Fever ... ... ... ... 45
Water ... ... ... ... ... 46
Kaders ... ... ... ... ... ... 44, 102
Karens ... ... ... ... -.. ... 102
Koomaree Cultivation ... ... ... ... ... 102, 103
Kosuvas ... ... ... ... ... ... 102
Kothkad ... ... ... ... ... ... 102
Kydia Calycina ... ... ... ... ... 129
Lagerstroemia Flos Reginse ... ... ... ... 112
Microcarpa ... ... ... 1 12, 120
Laportea crenulata ... ... ... ... ... 129
Lawsonia alba ... ... ... ... ... 120
Lifting Plants ... ... ... ... ... 62
List of Fuel Trees ... ... ... ... ... 137
Loranthus Species ... ... ... ... ... 96
Loss of Oil ... ... ... ... ... ... 29
Macaranga tomentosa ... ... ... ... 112
Mahogany ... ... ... ... 47
Mahouts ... ... ... ... ... ... 18,44
Main Road ... ... ... ... ... ... 15, 16
Malayalums ... ... ... ... ... ... 44
Vlll INDEX.
Page.
Management ... ,., ... ... ... ... 9
Manantoddy ... ... ... ... ... ... 66
Mangalore ... ... ... ... ... ... 90
Mangifera Indica ... ... ... ... ... 121
Manihot Glaziovii ... ... ... ... ... 55
Manufacture of Charcoal ... ... ... , 92
Medicinal ... ... ... ... ... ... 17
Melia Azadarachta ... ... ... ... ... 112,117
Memecylon tinctorium ... ... ... ... 121
Mesua ferrea ... ... ... ... ... 117
Michelia Champaca ... ... ... ... ... 121
Milk or Cow Tree ... ... ... ... ... 55
Mimusops Elengi ... ... ... ... ,., 117
Minerals for Trees ... ... ... ... ... 37
Mixed Fuel Reserves ... ... ... ... ... 88
Mode of Dragging ... ... ... ... ... 16
Sowing Seeds ... ... ... ... 72
Mole-crickets ... ... ... ... ... 94
Mollotus Phillipenensis ... ... ... ... 120
Moodugas .. ... ... ... ... ... 102
Moopahs ... ... ... ... ... ... 102
Moplahs -. . ... ... 44
Morgan, Mrs. ... ... ... ... ... 56
Morinda tinctoria ... ... ... ... ... 121
Moringa pteriggosperma ... ... ... 112,117
Mucuna pruriens ... ... ... ... ... 89, 94
Mudumalli ... ... ... ... ... ... 23
Mulcers ... ... ... ... ... ... 102
Musa ornata ... ... ... ... ... ... 129
superba ... ... ... ... ... 129
textilis ... ... ... ... ... ... 129
Musquito Curtains ... ... ... ... ... 45
Must in Elephants ... ... ... ... ... 17
Myristica Malabarica ... ... ... ... 117
Mysore ... ... ... ... ... ... 66
Thorn ... ... ... ... ... 71
Naikas ... ... ... ... ... ... 102
Natural Sandal ... ... ... ... ... 34
Nature of Teak Seed i
Nellikai ... ... ... ... ... ... 95
Nellumbore ... ... ... ... ... 13
Teak Plantations ... ... ... ... 9
INDEX. IX
Page.
Never cut into the Stem ... ... 14
Notes on Eucalyptus Globulus ... ... ... 56
Number of Plants and Beds required for 100 Acres ... 133
to an Acre ... ... ... ... 133
Nurseries ... ... ... ... ... 32, 89
Nursery Beds ... ... ... ... ... 67
Oak ... ... ... ... ... ... 49
Odina Wodier ... ... ... ... ... 112
Oils, essential and fixed ... .. ... ... 107
On the management of Teak Forests ... ... ... I
Oodbuttee ... ... ... ... ... ... 31
Ootacamund Gardens ... ... ... ... 50
Our Depots ... ... ... ... 43
Overseers ... ... ... ... ... ... 50
Pandals ... ... ... ... ... ... 62
Pandanus odoratissima ,,. ... ... ... 130
Permanent Villagers ... ... ... ... ... 105
Phenyle ... ... ... ... ... ... 46
Phyllanthus Emblica ... ... ... ... ... 121, 123
Pinus Maritima ... ... ... ... ... 49
Rigida ... .,, ... ... ... ... 55
Piper nigrum ... ... ... ... ... 126
Pitch Pine ... ... ... ... ... ... 55
Pits ... 32
Pitting 135
Plantations ... ... ... ,., ... ... 40
Planting ... ... ... ... ... ... 37135
3 , of Sappan in Malabar ... ... ... 42
Rule in South India ... ... ... ... 13
Teak ... ... ... ... ... 13
Plants ... ... ... ... ... ... 62
Poinciana regia ... ... ... ... ... 112
Polyalthia Coffeoides ... ... ... ... ... 130
Pongamia glabra ... ... ... ... ... nS
Portable Kiln ... ... ... ... ... 74
Price of Sandalvvood ... ... ... ... ... 36
Prize Essays... ... ... ... ... ... 61, 130
Profit per Acre ... ... ... ... ... 66
,, shown ... ... ... ... ... ... 75
Profits on Sandalwood ... ... ... ... 35
Pruning ... ... ... ... ... ... I4j 32
19
INDEX.
Page.
Pterocarpus marsupium ... ... ... ... 112, 121
Public Buildings supplied ... ... ... ... 22
Puliars ... ... ... ... ... ... 102
Punniars ... ... ... ... ... ... 44
Queensland ... ... ... ... ... ... 66
Quinine ... ... ... ... ... ... 45
Rainfall ... ... ... ... ... ... 50, 104
Randia dumetorum ... ... ... ... ... 121
Rats and Squirrels ... ... ... ... ... i, 89
Ravines ... ... ... ... ... ... 50
Receipts ... ... ... ... ... ... 136
on Wattle Plantations ... ... ... ... 140
Red Cedar ... ... ... ... ... ... 39,54
Pine 79
Sanders ... ... ... ... ... ... 53
Reorganisation of Establishment ... ... ... 21
Report for 1871-72 ... ... ... ... ... n
Reserve Blocks ... ... ... ... ... 37
Restoration of exhausted Soil ... ... ... ... 104
Ricinus communis ... ... ... ... ... 118
Ripe Trees ... ... ... ... ... ... I
Roots of Trees ... ... ... ... 82
Rubber ... ... ... ... ... 55
Ryots confined to Village Jungles ... ... ... 40
Sal Seeds ... ... ... ... ... ... 2,54
Salix tetrasperma ... ... ... ... ... 121
Sambur ... ... ... ... ... ... 96, 52
Sandal Plantations ... ... ... ... ... 35
Roots... 33
,, Trees 34
Sandalwood ... ... ... ... ... 30, 31, 47
Santalum Album ... ... ... ... ... 30, 53
Sapindus detergens ... ... ... ... ... 113
Satin-wood ... ... ... ... ... ... 54
Saving in working a Timber Forest ... ... ... 21
Saw-mills ... ... ... ... ... ... 19
Schleichera Trijuga ... ... ... ... ... "8
Scientific Planter ... ... ... ... ... 106
treatment of Plants ... ... ... 5
Scrub Jungle ... ... ... ... ... ... 72
INDEX. XI
Page.
Seasoned with Lime ... ... ... ... ... 68
Seasoning Teak ... ... ... ... ... 26
Season for planting ... ... ... ... 2
Second thinning ... ... ... ... ... 86
Seed Beds ... ... ... ... ... 12
sowing ... ... ... ... ... ... 22
the best... ... ... ... ... ... 84
Seeds carefully preserved ... ... ... ... 94
Seedsmen at Home ... ... ... ... ... 48
Selica 80
Selling price of Teak, 1882 ... ... ... ... 7
Semecarpus Anacardium ... ... ... ... 113, 121
Travancorica ... ... ... ... 113
Shade ... ... ... ... ... ... 33
Shading ... ... ... ... ... ... 63
Sholah Lands ... ... ... ... ... ... 67
Shoot Slips ... ... ... ... ... ... 25
Shorea laccifera ... ... ... ... ... 113
Shorea robusta ... ... ... ... ... 54
Shutting of Teak Forest ... ... ... ... 2
Silk ... 125
Sir William Denison ... ... ... ... ... 56
Sites ... ... ... ... ... ... 3,3 2
Situation ... ... ... ... ... 76
Size of Eucalyptus ... ... ... ... ... 57
Nursery Beds ... ... ... ... ... 32
Trees on River Banks ... ... ... ... 10
Small Seeds how treated ... ... ... .,, 73
Soaking Seeds ... ... ... ... ... 37
Soils 14, 59. 76
Solanum robusta ... ... ... ... ... 122
Sowing of Seeds ... ... ... ... ... 133
Seeds ... ... ... ... ... 2
Sow in March ... ... ... ... ... 67
Soymida febrifuga ... ... ... ... ... 121
Spices, Drugs, and Medicinal Roots ... ... ... 107
Spondias Mangifera ... ... ... ... ...113, 123
Sponia orientalis ... ... ... ... ... 113, 130
Squirrels ... ... ... ... ... ... 52
Steamer and Boats ... ... ... ... ... 25
Stems bored ... ... ... ... ... ... 95
Sterculia fcetida ... ... ... ... ... 56
guttata ... ... ... ... ... 130
Xll INDEX.
Page.
Sterculia urens ... ... ... ... ... 130
villosa ... ... ... ... ... 113, 130
Streehurrycotta ... ... ... ... ... 71
Sub-soils ... ... ... ... ... ... 10
Sucker growth ... ... ... ... ... 82
Suitable Climate and Soil ... ... ... ... n
Sundry Products ... ... ... ... ... 107
Superiority of Malabar Teak ... ... ... ... 29
Supervision ... ... ... ... ... ... 91, 136
Supply ... ... ... ... ... ... 21
Swami Tree . 21
Tamarind ... ... ... ... ... ... 51,76
Tamarindus Indicus ... ... ... ... ... 118
Tan Barks and Dyes ... ... ... ... ... 107, 119
Tap Roots ... ... ... ... ... 92, 77, 84
Tasmania ... ... ... ... ... ... 67
Teak 47> 5<>> 5*> *3
,, Plantations ... ... ... ... ... 5
Tectona grandis ... ... ... ... 113,118,121
Termes ... ... ... ... ... ... 100, 124
Terminalia arjuna ... ... ... ... ... 54
bellerica ... ... ... ... 113, 118, 122
tomentosa ... ... ... ... 54
The Alpine Shola Forest ... ... ... ... 98
Deciduous Forests ... ... ... ... 98
Tamarindus Indicus ... ... ... ... nS
Tropical Evergreen Forests ... ... ... 98
The sinking of temporary Wells ... ... ... 132
Thinning ... ... ... ... ... 9, 12, 85
Third Crop of Suckers ... ... ... ... 82
thinning ... ... ... ... ... 86
Thorny Bushes ... ... ...
Timber of Value ... ... ... ... ... 137
Time for felling ... ... ... ... ... 14
Transplanting ... ... ... ... 97
Treatment of Seeds ... ... ... ... n, 12, 47
Treatments of Seedling Plants ... ... ... ... 134
Trees Average ... ... ... ... ... 68
how planted ... ... ... ... ... 33
in 1845... ... ... ... ... ... 9
Tukkul ... ... ... ... ... ... 51,102
Tuskers slain ... ... ... ... ... 47
INDEX. Xlll
Page.
Value as a Fuel Producer ... ... ... ... 131
Valeria Malabarica ... ... ... ... ... 113,118
Vermin ... ... ... ... ... ... 89
Vizagapatam ... ... ... ... ... ... 52
Vyloor Plantation ... ... ... ... ... 35
Wardian Case ... ... ... ... ... 48
Wastes of curved Teak ... ... ... ... 13
Watchman ... ... ... ... ... ... 87, 140
Watering Nurseries ... ... ... ... ... 134
Plants ... ... ... ... ... 135
Waterings Necessary ... ... ... ... ... 62
Wattle .. ... ... 138
Suckers ... ... ... ... 138
Weak Plants ... ... ... ... ... ... 78
Tea ... ... ... ... 46
Weight of green Teak ... ... ... ... ... 25
of Trees ... ... ... ... ... 91
of Wood ... ... ... ... 135
Wellington Barracks Timber Supply ,.. ... ... 21
gigantea ... ... ... ... ... 58
Western Ghauts ... ... ... ... ... 103
White Ants ... ... ... ... ... ... 28, 101
and Black Muttee ... ... ... ... 54
Cedar 54
pine 79
,, Sandalwood ... ... ... ... ... 30
Wight ... 63
Wild Cinnamon ... ... ... ... ... Si
Wind-wrung ... ... ... ... ... ... 98
Wood as Timber ... ... ... ... ... 58
Working the Forest ... ... ... ... ... 14
Wounds of Feet ... ... ... ... 18
Wynaad ... ... ... ... ... ... 51
Plateau ... ... ... ... ... 50
Teak ... ... ... ... ... 51
Xylia dolabriformis ... ... ... ... ...114,119
Yenadies ... ... ... ... ... ... 102
Yucca gloriosa ... ... ... ... ... 130
Zea Mays ... ... ... ... ... ... 102
Zizyphus Jujuba ,,. ... ... ... ... 123
LIBRARY
FACULTY OF FORESTRY
UNIVERSITY IF TORONTO
SD Morgan, Henry Rhodes
223 Forestry in southern
M6 India
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
