supporting the rights of private ownership they forgot the equal rights of the community which were gravely imperilled; since with the complete destruction of the forests the material required by the far more numerous body of agriculturists in the country could not be supplied, and large areas would go out of cultivation owing to the diminution of the water supplies.

In September, 1838, the Board of Revenue again addressed the Government of Madras and forwarded reports on the Malabar, Canara and Rajahmundry forests from the Collectors of these provinces. A brief review of these reports, including the one from Travancore already mentioned, is necessary before dealing with the Board's reply.

While the Malabar and Canara forests were in full progress of exhaustion, the conterminous forests belonging to the Rajah of Travancore, abounding in excellent teak, were under a good system of management, which yielded large supplies of teak yearly, while at the same time suitable provision was made for the perpetuation of the forests. Of every ten trees fit to cut two were left standing for seed; and for every tree felled ten young trees were planted, the management being conducted by a Conservator (who appears to have been a Scotch Forester) under the control of the Resident at Travancore. Captain Cortland Taylor stated that a million young teak trees were planted during the time of Colonel Newal (a previous Resident) alone.

The Travancore report (August, 1837) was from Mr. Munro, the Conservator of the Travancore Forests, to the Resident, Colonel Fraser. The teak in Travancore had apparently been considered the property of Government, and a Conservator had been employed for some years. Munro gave some interesting sylvicultural notes regarding the growth of teak. "The teak tree shoots up for the first seven or eight years remarkably fast till it attains the height of 12 or 15 feet, after which its growth is uncommonly slow, and it does not attain the rise of the 6th-class log even in the most favourable situations till it is about 35 or 40 years old; a 5th-class log takes about 50 years, a 4th about 60 years, a 3rd about 70 or 80 years, a second about 90 and a 1st class takes about 100 to 120 years. Munro said he made this statement with confidence, as he had acquired his information from his own personal observation and the experience of nearly 20 years in the woods." He added that a tree of the 1st class will remain

"sound and good" for nearly 200 years and then begin to decay slowly. Munro added some other interesting sylvicultural details which proved him a forester of no mean calibre for those days in India. To season the timber after ringing he allowed the tree to stand one or two years, when it was felled and piled up in a dry place whence, in the third year after ringing, it was sent down for sale.

The following extract from Munro's report is of interest: "The system of throwing open teak forests to all who wish to cut, or giving them to contractors, is in the highest degree ruinous. They cut indiscriminately all that comes in their way; any range of forest, however extensive, would be destroyed if left to their tender mercies. They never think of planting, and all that such speculators calculate on is present profit or loss, without troubling their heads about depriving future generations of the benefit they now enjoy. The teak forests in Malabar are, I am told, in this predicament, and if the British Government do not oblige them to plant, and also leave some large trees here and there for seed, this valuable tree will be extinct. There are two ranges of hills in our forests that were formerly rented to a Parsee, and if the contract had not been taken from him, before it was too late, he would not have left a teak tree standing. It will take 40 to 50 years. before the forests recover the effects of his avarice." Munro mentioned in the same report that he estimated that there would be upwards of 100,000 trees fit to cut that season, and with reference to the quality of the Travancore timber, Captain Cortland Taylor stated that a large quantity of selected teak had been contracted for at Allepee in October, 1837, for the Ceylon Government, at Rs.81 per measurement ton, and that the price was expected to rise during the season to Rs.100.

The Malabar report of May, 1838, by Mr. Clementson dealt with the position of the forests. With few exceptions they were the property of private individuals, who appeared most generally to have permitted the felling of teak without discrimination as to age or size of the trees in consideration of what was termed the "Kooty Kunum," which was a fee of one rupee paid by the coast timber merchant for each tree cut down. The only forest owner who pursued a different course was the Nilumbur Rajah, who being aware of the value of his forests, exploited them himself, cutting and transporting the timber to the river banks where he sold it, realising, it was said, a profit of about 100 per cent.

The Forests of Malabar were at some distance from the seaboard, but the timber was rafted down the rivers to the coast. When all the large trees most adjacent to the rivers had been cut out, and the transport from the more distant forests became too costly, the timber merchants turned their attention to the smaller trees, and these followed their predecessors. It was this admitted state of affairs which caused Clementson to reiterate his suggestion of the imposition of a high duty on undersized material with the object of putting an end to the sale of young trees. An all-round duty of 8 per cent per candy only was paid on the timber, 5 per cent inland duty and 3 per cent sea duty. This duty averaged Rs.9 per candy (1st class, Rs.12; 2nd class, Rs.9; 3rd class, Rs.8). As can be well imagined the coast dealers (who sold the timber to the Bombay merchants) made enormous profits. The revenue derived from this source by the Madras Government was stated in 1837 to be Rs.27,000 on an export of about 33,000 candies! Many fortunes were made at this period in the Indian timber trade.

Clementson, contrasting the Travancore forests with those of Malabar, said the easier conditions in the former were due to the fact that they belonged to the Government and that restrictions could therefore be adopted in Travancore which owing to the private ownership would be impossible in Malabar. He repeated the recommendations cited in his letter of 1834, the imposition of an enhanced duty on undersized material "as the best and only equitable means of checking in some degree the destruction of young trees." Clementson maintained that the forests still abounded in valuable trees, that the exportation of timber was progressively increasing and that in his opinion the difficulty alleged to have been experienced in providing timber had been greatly exaggerated. And, he added, it was reputed that no trees had been felled in the Palghaut Forests since 1828 and that they were rich in timber. These were conservative and ex parte opinions which investigations by officers detailed for the purpose later on failed to substantiate.

The 1838 report on the Forests of Canara was from the Collector, Mr. H. M. Blair. The teak forests, he said, were considered to be the property of Government, and no trees could be felled without permission. In Southern Canara little teak was to be found, whereas in the north considerable quantities of teak trees existed, both at the foot of and above

the Ghâts. These forests were originally considered sufficiently valuable to be placed under the charge of a Conservator (Captain Watson and his successors), who was stationed at Sedashegur, and had a large establishment under him to fell the timber and transport it to the coast. The Conservatorship was abolished in 1823. The forests were then left under the care of the Revenue authorities, who took measures to prevent trees being injured or felled; but from want of an experienced establishment were unable "to improve the trees or to plant young ones when required." The teak in North Canara was divided into two classes. "The first is a dwarfish stunted tree, seldom growing 50 feet in height, of which there are extensive forests in the eastern frontier of the Soopah and Sondah talooks. The degenerate size of this tree is attributable to its growing at a distance from the line of Ghauts under unsuitable conditions." The timber was not suited to shipbuilding, but was thought to be well suited for gun-carriages, agricultural implements and small beams and rafters. These forests were thought to contain about 154,000 trees. Considerable numbers of the trees were felled annually, and conveyed to the Mahratta country for building purposes. Permission to fell had to be obtained, and a payment of a duty of 5 per cent of the value of the wood, estimated at Rs.9 per candy. In 1836 and 1837 a total revenue of Rs.5424 was received from this source. The second class of teak "is found along the line of the Ghauts and is the description which is valued for naval purposes." It was conjectured that there were upwards of 40,000 of these trees in the forests. Most of them were at some distance from the streams and therefore difficulty would be experienced in extracting them, all the timber which could be easily floated down having been removed by the Conservators under the old regime. The supervision of the forests was now in the care of the Revenue authorities, and Blair was of opinion that their preservation was sufficiently secured by the system then in force. But little teak wood was removed in the district and trees were seldom stolen. The chief destruction to the forests was done by the kumri (or shifting) cultivation on the hill-sides, but this evil was easily checked by the Revenue authorities. The improvement of the forests, Blair admitted, was a work of difficulty since there was no one in the province with a practical knowledge of Forestry. Colonel Gilbert, who had been Conservator for some time, planted some small experimental teak plantations both on the coast