The forests of Mysore are those of Bilikal in Kan kanhalli, and Singapore, Mavakal, and Kachanhulli Ashtagram, and in 1878-79 had an aggregate area of 442 square miles. Of sandal-wood, 1009i tons were sold for Rs. 3,89,335, and the sales of timber and bamboos produced in 1875-76 Rs. 71,932, in 1878-79 Rs. 34,757.
The aspect of Coorg presents an entire forest ; the long and narrow valleys cultivated within it serve but to render the vast woods more striking. The whole of the eastern boundary presents a.
remarkable line of demarcation, exhibiting an almost uninterrupted. and impervious wood from the Burmag'terry Hill till reaching the Cauvery ; this space is wholly uninhabited. Advancing westwards, the wood decreases in density as the country improves in cultivation, and becomes gradually thinner till reaching the Western Ghat, the immediate summits of which, naturally bare of wood, aro clothed with a luxuriant herbage.
In 1881 there were 16,246 square miles of forest and fuel reserves in Bengal, Berar, Burma, Hin dustan, and the Panjab ; the Panjab bad 15,000 square miles of rakh or preserves in its various districts, and there are leased forests in Berar, Bombay, Garhwal, Tebri, Madras, and Panjab.
Under Act vii. an order was issued prohibiting felling of forests at an elevation of 6000 feet or upwards. In 1879 the Panjab Government issued regulations to protect the Ilazara forests, providing for their management, grazing, cutting timber within the reserved area, and the creation of village forests, the district officer being empowered to set apart certain areas of the village waste for this purpose. Such areas are the crests and slopes immediately below the crests of hills, the catch ment basins of rivers, all steep and rocky slopes and other waste lands of which the clearance is, in the opinion of the 'district officer, unadvisable. And in the case of other kinds of lands, a majority of the landowners, representing two - thirds of the revenue, may apply to the deputy-e,ommis sioner to have a tract set apart 1113 villa,ge forest. Squattina breaking up the soil, cutting trees or brusliwok barking trees, or grazing cattle con trary to the general orders, removing dead leaves or kindling fires, are prohibited within a village forest. Also the district officer can require the owner of any cultivated land on a hill-side to take the necessary step for ensuring the stability of the soil ; and also, in ease of erosion of a river's banks, or of risk of torrent action, or of the occurrence of landslips, to enclose and plant the necessary area in such manner as most effectually to guard against the threatened danger. The areas so en
closed are to be regarded as a reserved forest, and the owner is to be compensated as though it were taken up for a public purpose.
The forest's wild products vary in different parts, but honey, wax, roots, fruits, gall - nuts, ginger, turmeric, cardamoms, dye - powder, resin, and various fibres are obtained yearly from the forests of the Madras Presidency. Cinnamon bark, cinnamon flower, resins, gall -nuts, and bamboo sprouts, in Malabar. The most valuable of these products is cardamom ; but a largo quantity of this spontaneous crop is never gathered, and all efforts to collect it aro failures, as the jungles are uninhabited by human beings, and wild animals take shelter in them. Cinnamon bark and flower are procured, the former by stripping the trees, and tho latter by plucking the flowers when in blossom. Nagabetta (a species of cane) is carried away in large quantities by wayfarers and pilgrims frequenting the temple at Subramania, where they grow largely. The Government of Madras have repeatedly declared that they will not sanction any step in the direction of monopolizing the forest products, the collection of which affords the only employment and means of subsistence open to tho inhabitants of wild forest tracts.
The gross revenue derived frotn the Indian forests, the ten yeara 1872 to 1881, was .£6,204,977, and the charges f.4,207,554. The importance of foresta to tropical climates, as inducing rain and preserving surface-water, is recognised. The extensive clearing of a country diminishes the quantity of running water that flows over it. Rain oftener falls, and more dew is deposited, in well-wooded countries than when a country is naked ; tnountains, when covered with their native forests, gather clouds around their summits, condense the humid particles of the air, and equalize tho fall of rain ; lands destitute of the shelter of trees allow of a more rapid evapora tion ; forests preserve the surface - water, and husband and regulate its flow.—Royle's Productice Resources of India; ill'elelland; Cleghorn in Year book of Facts, p. 203, of 1868 ; Scindinn, July 12, 1856; Annals, Indian Administration, March 1861.