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to become famous in the early annals of the Forestry Department in India.

In August, 1856, Cleghorn submitted a report to the Government of Madras, containing proposals for establishing Forest Conservancy. These proposals were sent up to the Government of India for sanction, which was accorded in November.

On the 19th December, 1856, Cleghorn was appointed Conservator of Forests in the Presidency of Madras. He spent the following year in touring through and examining the forests.

[graphic]

FICUS ENCLOSING A TEAK TREE. GIRTH OVER FICUS, 17 FT. 5 IN. BURMA From Troup's "Sylviculture of Indian Trees"

CHAPTER XIII

FOREST OPERATIONS IN BURMA (TENASSERIM), 1850-1857

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DR. FALCONER'S REPORT

S has been shown, Mr. Colvin, Commissioner of Tenasserim, organised, after Captain Latter's resignation in 1847, what amounted to a small Forest Department, one of the Commissioner's Assistants being placed in charge, and made proposals to Government on the subject of granting perpetual leases of the forests to timber contractors on certain conditions. The most important of these were that the latter should undertake to replant teak on the areas from which they cut the mature trees, and that they should be prohibited from felling young trees. The proviso that the areas felled should be replanted with from three to five young teak for every one removed, had, indeed, formed a condition of the old leases, but it had never been carried out. Grave fears were, therefore, entertained that, with such staff as it was considered financially possible to maintain to superintend the forests, it would be impossible to ensure that licence-holders would carry out in the future a condition which had been so flagrantly disregarded in the past. To solve this question Dr. Falconer, of the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, was deputed in 1849 to visit and report on the Tenasserim Forests, with especial regard to the amount of teak timber they still contained, the abundance or otherwise of young teak growth, the probability of the licence-holders replanting their areas and the possibility of forming plantations, or otherwise securing adequate supplies of young teak on the areas, to ensure the conservation of the forests.

Falconer submitted his Report in January, 1851.

After describing the two species of teak in Burma (Tectona grandis and T. Hamiltoni), of which the former is the chief timber species, and briefly alluding to the geographical features

of the country, Falconer reviewed the previous history of the teak forests from Wallich's tours downwards, pointing out how the latter's warnings that the making over of the forests to timber contractors would inevitably result in their ruin had come true. The four Government nurseries or plantations formed by Captain Tremenheere in 1843 had entirely failed, want of adequate supervision being the cause. It was admitted that the teak trees still standing in the forests were annually loaded with good seed, millions of which annually strewed the ground; yet while the Government surveyors and grantees alike agreed that the forests were rapidly approaching exhaustion, it was equally admitted that in the valuable and extensive Attaran Forests there was no appearance of young trees rising to replace in adequate numbers those which had been felled. All were agreed on this head, with the exception of Latter, who made the extraordinary statement that in his opinion healthy adult teak did not yield good seed, but only trees which were in a state of decrepitude and decay, an opinion which would scarcely have required the authoritative disclaimer it received, were it not for the fact that Latter's Reports on his tours had been printed and widely circulated by Government. Latter's explanation of the action of the epithytic species of Ficus, found so commonly enclosing the teak stems on the Attaran, or, as he termed them, the species of parasitical Ficus, was also a curious one. After describing the way they spread round and up the tree he stated, “ till last comes the closing scenethe parasite has entirely enveloped the original tree in its deadly folds, and absorbing all the juices of its life, nothing remains but the projected stump of some withered arms to show that any other plant had been there." This drew from the Doctor the following sarcastic comment and interesting explanation: "The epithytic species of Ficus . . . enclose the teak in their embrace, in the manner described by Captain Latter, except that they are not true parasites, and do not suck the juices of the trees upon which they grow, using them merely as fulcra of growth. They chiefly fix upon very large trees, and infest other forest species besides teak, in the course of time smothering and destroying the finest timber in the forests. The reason of their being so frequent on teak I believe to be this: the Tenasserim Forests abound in two large species of Buceros; these birds feed largely upon the fruits of the Nyoung-ben, or wild figs; they are timid and very wary in

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