Forests.— In Bengal, as in India generally, great attcntion has been paid to the manage ment of forests. Great destruction is causcd among forests by fires, which are sometimes the result of accident but more frequently made purposely by the natives in pursuance of a system of jungle cultivation that appears to prevail throughout India. This consists in cut ting down and burning a patch of forest and raising a crop in the open space, no plowing or digging being necessary. The next year this patch is abandoned and another treated in the same way. Another cause of destruction is the wastefulness of those who use the timber. The sunder-trees, for example, which furnish the best wood for the boats which are built in great numbers throughout eastern Bengal, have been rut down in so reckless a manner that the west ern parts of the Sunderbunds have already been to a large extent exhausted. In order to limit the destniction that goes on by such proceed ings certain portions of the Indian forests are reserved and placed under the entire control of the government and additions arc made to these reserves every year. Of the total 10,612 square miles of forest in Bengal in 1913, 4,871 were reserved, 1,711 protected and 4,030 unclassed.
Aniinals.— Among the wild animals are tigers, elephants, boars, bears, wolves, foxes, jackals, hyenas, leopards, panthers, lynxes, hares, deer, buffaloes, antelopes and monkeys. The most formidable of all these animals (and more so even than the lion) is the tiger, which here attains its utmost size and perhaps also its greatest ferocity. Thc domestic animals include native horses, thin, ill-shaped animals, and not well adapted for any kind of labor; cattle, of a very inferior breed, being extremely small and miserable looking; sheep, likewise of diminutive size, with very coarse, hairy wool, but when well fed their flesh is excellent. Hogs and goats are also plentiful, and buffaloes are domesti cated for the sake of their milk. Reptiles are numerous and formidable, including gavials, a kind of crocodile, with which the larger rivers are infested; and among the serpent tribe, many of which are highly poisonous, the deadly cobra de-capello. Turtles, frogs and lizards also abound, with swarms of mosquitoes. The turtles are chiefly procured from the island of Che duba, in the Bay of Bengal. Fish are so ex ceedingly plentiful as to be within the reach of almost every class of inhabitants. Game, poul try and water-fowl of all descriptions abound in Bengal, particularly ducks, of which there is a great vanety and most of them of a superior kind. The gigantic crane, commonly called the adjutant, from the stately air with which he struts about, frequents the towns in consider able numbers, performing the office of scaven ger by clearing the streets of garbage, in con sideration of which duty he enjoys an entire immunity from all disturbance; his principal food is offal, toads, lizards, serpents and in sects. Crows, lcites, sparrows and other small birds are numerous.
Agriculture.— The staple crop of Bengal is rice, which is cultivated so as to produce three harvests in the year — spring rice, autumn rice and winter rice. The last of these har
vests is by far the most important. Besides sufficing for the wants of the population, the rice crop leaves a large surplus for exportation. Oil seeds are also largely cultivated, chiefly mustard, sesamum and linseed. The jute plant (pcit) has long been cultivated, and in recent ttmes the cultivation of it has greatly extended. It will grow on almost any description of land. Part of this crop is cultivated by those who use or manufacture it, almost all the Hindu farmers weaving cloth from it. It is now man ufactured also in large mills under European management, and jute goods are now an export of some importance, though not pearly so much so as jute in the raw state for manufacture in Europe. The sunn plant, somewhat resembling the Spanish broom, is now quite extensively cultivated and eiported to Great Britain, afford ing excellent material for both sails and cord age and being made into fishing nets by the natives. Cotton is grown over all India, but the best of the herbaceous lcind is raised in Bengal and on the Coromandel coast; the finest grows on light, rocicy soil. The cotton of India is generally inferior to that of the United States, but this is believed to be wholly owing to careless cultivation and to the slovenly man ner in which it is prepared for the market. The cultivation of the date-palm and the manu facture of date sugar are carried on to a con siderable extent, forming a profitable business for the cultivator. This kind of sugar forms an article of export. The sugar-cane is culti vated, but not nearly to such an extent as might be expectcd. There are two kinds of sugar-cane, a yellow hard cane, about the thick ness of a finger; the other much thicker and deeply stained with purple. The latter is the most productive but the most troublesome to cultivate and therefore avoided by the more indolent farmers. Tobacco, which requires a light soil, is grown in three different situations — in rich spots of land contiguous to the farmer's house, in high land suitable for the growth of sugar-cane and on the banks of rivers. The betel leaf, famous for its intoxi cating quality and largely uscd over all India on that account, is cultivated in what is called a voroj, or fort, and is carefully protected from the sun and wind. Indigo being one of the principal articles of foreign commerce with Bengal, is extensively cultivated in that prov ince. The opium production of Bengal was a government monopoly under Mohammedan rule and has been retained as such by the Brit ish. All the juice of the opium poppy must be sold to the government at a fixed price. This cultivation is carried on in the west of Bengal. Orchards of mango trees are to be found in every part of Bengal, the fruit being in general demand during the hot months. The cinchona tree and the tea plant have also been added to the agricultural products of Bengal.