easily crowd a number of young trees at 6 feet apart on to a few acres in a corner of his grant and thus have the total number required ready for the inspection. But this would have little useful effect on replanting the whole of the area from which the old teak had been removed during the previous ten years. And this, of course, was the object aimed at.

The extent of the forests upon the Attaran which it was suggested should be leased was approximately estimated at 228 square miles, 110 of which were reckoned to bear teak very unequally distributed on this area. Assuming that these forests were given under perpetual leases, Falconer recommended that the following replanting conditions should be inserted in the leases, on the principle that the proportion of the surface brought under teak planting was of greater importance with reference to the efficient renovation of the forests, and their ultimate productiveness, than the number of plants raised in a crowded spot.

Supposing, said Falconer, the forest trees, large and small, to stand 30 feet apart, there would be 30,976 to the square mile; and assuming one in ten to be teak, there would be 3097 to the same area, and 340,736 over the whole extent of teak-yielding forest. This number was considerably in excess of any returns that had been made of the actual contents of the teak forests upon the Attaran rivers, which Guthrie fixed as low as 93,458 large and small, but excluding very young trees upon an extent of 140 square miles. The rate here given, however, was low for the area, as it would allow less than five teak trees (4·84) to the acre, and it was not much in excess of what some of the best forests had been supposed to bear. O'Brien considered that there were from 10,000 to 12,000 fullgrown teak trees fit to cut upon the Kyoon-Geown Forest in 1841, with an unusual abundance of young trees. This forest, which in the returns was fixed at 8 square miles, had been at that time worked for ten years, and if O'Brien's estimate were adopted as nearly approximate, and assuming the young trees to have only equalled the full-sized ones, there would have been from 20,000 to 24,000 teak, large and small, on KyoonGeown. The same area (8 square miles) with 4.84 teak to the acre would yield 24,780 trees, and it did not appear that an adequate and beneficial renovation of the forests, so far as the interests of Government and the well-being of the Province are concerned, could be well fixed at a lower rate. The objection at first sight was that it was framed too low.

In order to carry out this principle Falconer advocated that the leases should contain conditions that the grantees show, at the end of ten years, that one-half of the area of their forest holdings was either planted out or bore young natural teak growth, at the rate of 4.84 per acre or 3097.6 to the square mile, estimated upon the whole of the grant, exclusive of fullgrown trees. This would leave half the area at their disposal for occupation or otherwise, and imply 9.68 young teak upon the acre of the moiety under teak culture. At the end of the ten years the grantees would have to show 320 acres per square mile planted throughout with young teak and bearing not less than 3097 trees, or an annual planting area of 32 acres containing 310 trees.

This proposal of Falconer's, which was in effect to get the plants at once placed at the distances best suited to their growth to maturity, did not apparently take into account that a proportion of these young trees would almost certainly fail, either from being smothered by the more rapid-growing softwooded species, bamboos, etc., since the young trees might be planted the year before the inspection was made and be killed out a year or two afterwards; nor was any provision made for death by disease, insect attack, and so forth. For the Doctor did not appear to contemplate that any supervision could be given to the young trees so widely spaced apart, which were apparently to be subsequently left to fend for themselves. It appears an obvious statement to make that, for the 4.84 mature teak per acre found standing in the forests, a far larger number per acre must have become eliminated in the struggle for existence during the growth to maturity. Consequently to make fairly certain of obtaining the 4.84 trees per acre at the end of the rotation it would be necessary to start with a far larger number.

Falconer deprecated the idea of asking the grantees to make plantations on the Conolly lines owing to the cost of looking after them, which the grantees would not be likely to face as there would be no sale for the thinnings owing to the lack of a local population, whilst the expense of rafting them to Moulmein would not pay; for bamboos being so abundant and in universal use, small pole timber had little value. Tremenheere had suggested that if the licence-holder would not replant his forest area it should be done by Government at his expense. Falconer agreed with Colvin that this was inadvisable, adding, "The grantee should be alone responsible for his own failure

or success, and the Government officers ought in no wise to be mixed up with his operations." Forest Officers nowadays would scarcely agree with this opinion. Falconer considered that his plan should be offered to the licence-holders, who should be given a fair chance to comply with the Government terms; failure to comply would result in the resumption of the leases, the land reverting to Government "in order to terminate the present unsatisfactory state of things."

The Doctor advocated the same conditions being made in the leases for the Houndrow and Lhang-booa; the latter forests being in the hands of native holders, he remarks, "it is not contemplated that they would undertake leases involving outlay on planting."

With reference to the reserved forests, then limited to the Thengan-nyee-Nyoung and Upper Mittigate, Falconer advocated their retention. They possessed great capabilities for conducting planting operations advantageously, on a large scale, while the teak crop standing upon them was considerably below what the area could be made to produce. The forests had, as has been shown, been worked in open defiance of their reservation, showing the impossibility of enforcing rules in the forests and preventing trespass without an adequate staff. "It seems to me in every way expedient that they should be brought up to their full capabilities, both as prospective sources of supply of the best timber and as a practical illustration to the leaseholders of what may be effected by a judicious system of operations and a sufficient outlay. The grantees may, with some justice, expect that Government will take the lead in showing the practicability of the conditions, which it is proposed to render imperative upon them."

This enunciation by Falconer of the policy that Government should show the way to the commercial community in proving the commercial possibilities of the exploitation of the products of the forests is of importance. Although when applied to the formation of plantations on areas leased and lumbered by the timber merchants it has as a general rule proved a failure in the past both in India and other parts of the world, such as America and Sweden for instance, and is moreover in many States a matter whose desirability is of debatable value, since it results in a considerable area of the soil of the State being owned by the trader, to the disadvantage of that portion of the community inhabiting such areas. But in the case of the commercial exploitation of foreign products and their

utilisation in industries it will be subsequently shown that the Indian Government gradually recognised the duty of the State in this connection and, by initiating departmental exploitation at the outset, proved the commercial possibilities of the new departure and then left to the merchant the further development of the business on the commercial scale.

For the two Government reserves above mentioned Falconer advocated the establishment of nurseries and the rearing of young seedlings on the Conolly plan at Nilumbur. Instead of planting out the seedlings at 8 feet apart, as was done at the latter place, he advocated putting them in at 20 feet apart or 109 to the acre so as to save the expense of early thinnings, for which there would be no sale. During the first five years he advocated filling in all failures amongst the young plants. In any locality where it might be desirable to grow medium-sized useful timber, intended for felling before the tree had attained its full dimensions, he suggested putting in the seedlings at 15 feet apart; by felling alternate trees, when they had reached marketable size, the rest of the trees for the production of larger timber could be left at 30 feet apart, nearer than which I do not consider that sound timber trees could be grown. The planting in both cases would be so managed that the trees when full grown should stand in alternate lines. After five years the young trees might be expected to have attained 15 to 20 feet in height, when they might be left to themselves-making suitable provision against fire, where the plantations are exposed to that contingency."

Falconer said that he was not in a position to frame any estimate of the cost of this plantation work, the nearest approach to that kind of operation with which he was acquainted being the tea plantations in Assam, which was hardly an analogous case.

Falconer dismissed O'Reilly's suggestion that new teak plantations should be formed near the coast-line instead of in the malarial parts of the teak area proper in Tenasserim, which were distant from the seat of Government, rightly saying that it would be unadvisable to abandon the known favourite habitat of teak for localities whose capacity for the growth of the species were unproved and only problematical. He also totally disapproved of Helfer's suggestion for renovating the teak forests by scattering teak seed wholesale throughout them, without any preliminary preparation of the ground or regard

to system and arrangement, arguing that since Nature had failed to maintain the necessary supply of teak seedlings in the forests, in spite of the large annual production of good teak seed by the trees, sowing seed by hand over these areas could not produce any better results.

Falconer concluded his Report with the following strongly worded recommendation:-

"In order to carry out any measures of renewal of the teak forests in the Tenasserim Province with success, I consider it to be indispensable that a qualified Conservator be appointed, who should have no other duties to attend to besides the charge of the forests. The Officers who have filled the appointment since 1841 have most of them held it in conjunction with other responsible avocations, requiring their presence in Moulmein, and although they have evinced much zeal and ability in the general administration of the forests, they could not be expected to be possessed of the theoretical and practical knowledge of arboriculture required in an efficient conservator, and which were essential for conducting operations to a successful issue. To this cause I attribute the failure of the nurseries established in 1843, and the want of any subsequent effort to replace them. These officers, from the circumstances above noticed, had not probably that weight and influence with the grantees which their office ought to have carried along with it. The practical administration of the forests since 1848 has been made over to the Commissioner's Assistant, and a sufficiently well-organised system is in operation for regulating the felling and collection of the timber duties, but the Conservancy' of the forests, properly so-called, is entirely unprovided for, and I would not recommend that any measures of renewal be commenced upon till the vacancy is suitably filled up. The Government would then have the assurance that they were conducted with professional skill and a thorough knowledge of the subject. Errors and causes of past failure would be avoided or, when committed, they would be speedily remedied. The grantees would have a qualified authority on the spot to refer to for information and advice, which I consider to be of great importance.'

As was abundantly proved later on, the last thing the grantees wanted was to have a proper qualified Conservator in charge of the administration of the forests.

But Falconer's strong recommendation, backing up the demands in this matter of the Madras and Bombay Govern