FORESTS. .
Forat • . • . • . • . FR. Biaban,• . • . • . . PERs.
Forst; Wald, . GER. Floresta, Selvosa, . SP.
Jangal, . . . . HIND. OMR; . . . TURK.
Foresta, Rose°, . IT.
Drs. Roxburgh, Boyle, Wallich, Gibson, and M 'Clelland, for manyyears continuously, during tho earlier part of the 19th century, urged the necessity for attention to the forests of India and Burma. A vast extent of forest land in Oudh, situated on the east side of the Kerrowlee river, was described by Dr. Boyle as holding out the prospect of very valuable supplie,s by the year 1850, provided that means were adopted for preventing wanton de struction, and of allowing the young plants to grow up and supply the place of those which are cut down. Dr.Wallich drew attention to the forests then occupying the islands of the Gogra, com monly called Chandnee Choke. He represented them as in everyway deserving of being preserved for the use of Government, and protected from destructive depredation. The sissoo and sal forests of the Dehra Doon were also recommended to be preserved, being as important for the stations in the north-west of India, RS the forests of Oudh and Gorakbpur are for those in the south.
Dr. Gibson unceasingly advised the Bombay Government to preserve their forests, and to form plantations of hardy trees ; Mr. Dalzell's efforts to preserve the Sind forests were untiring ; in 1840, 1848, and 1878, Surgeon-General Balfour advised arboriculture.
In 1850, the British Association at Edinburgh appointed a committee to report on the probable effects of the destruction of tropical forests, and the 'report was presented the following year, 1851, at their meeting at Ipswich. A year afterwards, forest conservancy establishments were sanc tioned for the Madras Presidency and for British Burma, and by Act vu. of 1865, the Government of India issued forest rules and.penalties.
The forests of India had up to that time been injured by the fires of the kumari cultivators and cowherd races, and by reckless felling of wood merchants ; whilst no systematic efforts were adopted to preserve or restore. Kumari cultiva tion has since been prohibited, the firing of forests to obtain fresh grass for cattle has been prohibited, and fire-paths formed, 40 to 50 feet broad, to cut off the fires. Great forest tracts have been re served, new plantations formed, and seed dibbled iu amongst the mass of vegetation.
The report of the committee had reference chiefly to the influence of forests on the climate and productiveness of a country ; and it is now acknowledged that the indiscreet destruction of the forests of any country is apt to bring upon future generations three calamities,—the want of fuel, the want of water, and the want of timber ; while the appropriation of forest, land for purposes of cultivation would not benefit the revenue, as regards climate, the interests of ag,riculture, the I progress of commerce, and the general prosperity of a province, doing so would gradually lead to the most serious consequences. Not only is the rain that falls economized and prevented from rapid evaporation, but the water which sinks into the ground is being continually pumped up from great depths by the roots of the trees, and exhaled by the leaves, thus actually moistening the neighbouring atmosphere in the driest weather, and benefiting the crops of the neighbouring fields. In passing through a tamarisk jungle early in the morning, even in the driest weather, the whole of the foliage is found dripping,—not from dew, but from the water of exhalation brought up from great depth,s by the vital processes of vegel tation ; the whole of this passes into watery vapour in a few hours. If forests be cleared away,
the neighbouring fields become exposed to the vio lence of parching winds, and liable to be covered with drifting sand, while cattle find no grazing and no shelter from the scorching. heat.
The Sunderbun tract, extending over 3000 square miles, is a dismal swamp, growing timber trees and undervrood, its most valuable tree being the Heritiera littoralis. The western coast of the Peninsula of India, the country above the ghats in Canara, the Animallay and Pulney Hills, have famous forests, and 3Ialabar teak has always been remarkable for its superiority to that of other places, and with which the dockyards and ordnance department was long supplied. The forests to the eastward of the Salwin river, in Marta,ban, when visited by Dr. Wallich, were very favourably- reported on, for the supply of splendid bamboos as well as of teak, for the extent of the forests, the size of their timber, and the facility of procuring it. Subse quently, Dr. APClelland reported in the forests of Pegu and Tenasserim, 85 species of soft white wood, many of them valuable either for their fruit, gums, oil-seed, or spices ; others, for their close and compact structures, aro employed in the manufacture of small ware, as a species of Nauclea used for making combs, and two species of Erytluina yield the light charcoal employed in the manufacture of gunpowder. These light woods, useless a,s timber, belong to the families Urticacem (including more than 20 species of Ficus). and, Sterculiacem, Laurinem, Bubiacem, Myristicacem, Anonacem, Spondiacem, and Big noniacemi with odd species from other- families. Of the remaining white woods, 25 in number, valuable for their strength and closeness of grain, 17 of them were thought fit for house-building, and 8, from the hardness and fineness of their grain, render them valuable as fancy woods for cabinetmaking. He found 25 red-coloured woods, 7 of which, from their strength and solidity, adapted for the various purposes of house-build ing ; 7, from tho elegance of their grain and colour, aro suited to the various purposes for which mahogany is used, and 11 are suited to the finer purposes of fancy cabinet work. Yellow woods, 3 in number, hard and finc-grained, suited to fancy purposes. There are 12 dark-brown woods, all valuable, 11 of them adapted for house building, and probably for ship-building, and one for special purposes, requiring great strength and hardness Black woods consist of 4 different kinds, all of which aro valuable for their strength and hardness. There were 7 varieties of light-brown wood, coloured svood embracing all the tiniber of most value in the province, e.xclusive of teak. ' In British Sikkim are 105,004 acres of forest, and there are also forests in Assam, Dacca, Chittagong, Cuttack, Palemow, and the Raj malial Hills. In British Sikkim and the Dwars of Bhutan are largo tracts of sal (Vatica robusta). The higher slopes of the Darjiling district above 6000 feet have been reserved ; plantations of temperate and sub-tropical trees have been formed, and several thousand maho gany trees were planted in tho Terai. Forest tracts of the N.W. Provinces are in Kaumon, Garhwal, Meerut, Rohilkhand, Gorakhpur, and Jhunsi. In Kamaou and Garhwal, the total area surveyed was 406,134 axeas, of which more than nine-tenths were covered with the cheer or stone pine. The Government forests in Gorakhpur cover an area of 127,527 acres, 116,384 of -which are occupied by sal trees, with an average of 25 to the acre. About 400,000 acres of Garlswal and Kanmon are covered by the Films longifolia, bearing about 15 trees to the acre.