large areas of old free pasture had been wrongly included within forest limits, and secondly, that the inhabitants of villages having no forest within their limits were no longer allowed to graze their cattle free, according to former custom, in the pasture lands of other villages.

The main quandary of the Forest Department would appear to have been that as they had not commenced the preparation of working plans the forests were not divided into units of working ; consequently they were unable to say exactly what areas they would wish to close entirely to grazing and so had to fall back on generalities always a weak position to have to assume. It must be admitted, in fairness to all parties-the Civil Officer, the Forest Officer and the villager alike-that by 1885 the position had become an impossible one.

The recommendations of the Commission were briefly as follows: Residents of forest villages should be allowed to graze their cattle and cut grass for their own use free in the unclosed portion of the forest block, in which are enclosed any or all of the forest lands of their villages. This would give a common rule of procedure, easily understood by the people, for all alike. The privilege to be extended to all who cultivated land within the village, whether resident there or not. As regards the number of cattle to be grazed per village, the Commission is interesting on the subject, but their remarks can be only briefly alluded to. They obtained the views of other Provinces in this connection. They also established the fact that there had been no great decrease in the cattle owing to the closing of the forests in 1879, an argument which had been brought forward. In 1873-4 the total head of cattle in Thana was 361,662, in 1885-6, 355,838. They considered that this number was needed for the proper cultivation of the area annually cropped. The question as to whether any restriction in numbers would subsequently be necessary could be left to the future. In the case of non-forest villagers, they considered that they should pay a moderate fee for grazing their cattle in forest lands. As regards cattle-breeders, they should pay higher fees and only be admitted if there was room for them without hardship to the local villager.

That the agricultural problems connected with grazing and ráb cultivation were causing lively concern to the Viceroy, the Secretary of State and to the Governor of Bombay (Lord Reay) is proved by the hopes they based upon the work of the Commission. In his opening address to the Commission the Governor said:

Agricultural problems have always struck me as peculiarly interesting, and the more one looks into the various agricultural systems of various countries the more one becomes convinced

that over-legislation in agricultural matters is a mistake, and that in the present condition of agricultural science, which is not by any means as far advanced as it ought to be, we must be careful to interfere as little as possible. . . . Local wants, local customs and local systems of village tenure have a right not to be wantonly disturbed unless a very good cause be shown for it. In many instances a scientific justification for local agricultural practices unconsciously observed by the people will be forthcoming.. In his speech on the Indian Budget the Secretary of State asked the question: "How are you, on the one hand, to obtain the most desirable objects of preserving and renewing the forests without, on the other hand, entailing hardships on the people by depriving them of valuable and long-established rights? That is the question which has constantly presented itself to me. I believe, however, that if forest conservancy tends to increase the supply of fodder and fuel for the people of this country, the enterprise will meet with their support, and has a right to their sympathy."

Ráb.-The ráb cultivation was one of the chief questions before the Commission. The word "ráb " literally only means "cultivation," but in practice it had come to denote the prevailing practice of burning the rice seed bed and was also used to denote the material burnt. In the Northern Konkan rice always continuously, and nágli (Eleusine coracana) and vari (Panicum miliare) in rotation with other crops and intervening fallows, were grown from seedlings raised in a thickly sown nursery, usually prepared by burning layers of cow-dung, tree loppings, shrubs, leaves, grass and clay in various combinations. Rice was grown in other parts of the Presidency, both with and without ráb, the latter method being the commonest in most parts of India. The loppings of trees and shrubs used for ráb cultivation were termed tahal or shindad. The findings of the Commissioners on this practice and its continuance were as follows:

"(1) That ráb as practised in the Northern Konkan is good farming.... (2) That there appears no reasonable prospect of replacing rab by a cheaper artificial manure, or by any method of cultivation customary in other parts of India or elsewhere. (3) That without first exhausting the available supply of cow-dung, shrubs and brushwood, for the principal layer, the use of loppings from valuable timber trees for ráb is unwise; that therefore in the best interests of the ryot and of forest conservancy the State should as far as practicable, insist on the full utilization of cow-dung, shrubs and brushwood, before recourse is had to trees which are valuable for timber and firewood."

The Commission expressed the opinion that the supply of grass,

leaves and loppings was not at present in excess of the requirements of this ráb cultivation, which was confined to the better class of low lying lands, as opposed to the varkas or hill lands where the other forms of cultivation obtained. They agreed that although lopping valuable trees was detrimental to forest conservancy it was perhaps a fortunate circumstance that only those forest lands which were situated within a very short distance of the cultivated fields could be profitably exploited for ráb material; the average weight of this material to produce seedlings for an acre of rice being found by experiment to be about 4 tons, and that therefore it did not pay to carry ráb for more than a few miles. It is impossible here to follow the Commissioners through all their arguments, with which the Forest Officers were not in agreement. Wroughton wrote a Memorandum of dissent with the Report on this head; whilst an Indian Commissioner dissented on the ground that its recommendations did not go far enough in the interests of the cultivators. It is easy to estimate the difficulties, the certainty of considerable friction with the population (for the question was very freely discussed in the Press) if the practice was put an end to, and the firm conviction of some of the members of the Commission that ráb was an absolute necessity to rice cultivation. The inevitable compromise was therefore adopted and the continuance of the practice of taking loppings from certain species of trees from the unclosed portions of the forests to make up the deficiency of the ráb supply was granted to the residents and cultivators of forest villages as a temporary privilege and until further orders, in addition to the privilege already enjoyed of removing grass, reeds, leaves, shrubs and brushwood from the same areas. They were also allowed to remove grass from the closed portions of the forest. It was an unfortunate settlement of the matter, or failure to settle it, as it meant further destruction of the forests and an inevitable reopening of the subject, which would certainly not become easier of settlement. In defence of their proposals, the Commissioners pointed out that when the Collector submitted the list of forest Îands in Thana for notification in 1879, he anticipated that only so much of the Protected Forest as was in excess of the area necessary for the exercise of forest privileges would be finally included in the Reserved Forest. This it was held had been the principle which had guided all former demarcations, viz.: the demarcation of the forest lands into two classes, on one of which the wants of the residents would be a first charge, while the other would be held free of all local obligations. In 1882, however, a Committee of Revenue and Forest Officers had assembled at Thana to consider various forest questions pressing for settlement. The results of these recommendations so far as they affected the ráb supply were briefly as follows: All hill ranges and large forest blocks should be constituted Reserved Forests and not be divided into Reserved and

Protected Forests as had been the procedure, only smaller detached areas to be constituted Protected Forest. In other words, the question of local supply was no longer to be the chief factor in the demarcation. The Committee considered that loppings (tahal) were not absolutely necessary as manure for nurseries, and that cow-dung was preferred by the better and more industrious cultivators. That with the exception of loppings permission should be accorded to collect the other materials from the unclosed portions of the forests-that where these were insufficient the Department should provide depots from which the cultivators could make up their deficiencies on payment of moderate fees. It was recognized that the proper conservancy of the forests would be impossible were the tahal system to be continued. Moreover, there was another aspect of the question. Cultivators with trees standing on their own lands had for years been in the habit of selling these to contractors under permission granted in various settlements (though such permission had often been at variance with the standing orders of Government), and thus reducing the amounts of tahal available on their own lands and then resorting to the Government forests. Owing to the great diminution of trees on the agricultural lands the pressure upon the forests had become correspondingly great. The recommendations of the Committee were generally approved by the Government (Resolution No. 1203 of 14th February, 1883) in the words, "The lopping of trees cannot be allowed, nor is there any reason why the inhabitants of villages in which no lands are included in forests should be permitted to take ráb materials from the Government forests. The cultivators of this latter class of villages must procure their ráb from their own varkas or other lands; they clearly have no claim to collect it from Government forests." The findings of this Committee and the orders of Government were at variance with the proposals of the Commission in this matter.

Other Forest Produce.-On the subject of trees on occupied lands the right to which had been reserved by Government (royal trees of former Governments) the Commission proposed, in the interests of the ráb cultivation, that with the object of encouraging the preservation of such trees (to provide loppings) as a permanent source of supply that Government should waive their royalty rights, making over their rights to the cultivators of such land, with or without payment, with the stipulation that the trees were not to be sold to contractors, but to be solely used for agricultural purposes. The Commissioners definitely state their opinion that once the people owned the proprietary right in the trees they would be interested in their protection and maintenance. It showed very little acquaintance with the improvident habits of the people vis-à-vis tree growth, or of their likelihood to withstand a tempting offer of a timber contractor.

As regards other forest produce, the Commission recorded that headloads of branchwood for fuel purposes should be removable free (for barter, sale or consumption) from the special annual cuttings by villagers and all poor inhabitants only. They should be able to cut bamboos for their bona fide requirements from the unclosed parts of the forests free and "without any description of passes "—a most dangerous permission. With the exception of the minor products hirda and beheda nuts (Terminalia chebula and bellerica) and mowra (Bassia latifolia) flowers, villagers were to be allowed to collect free of charge for use, barter, or sale all unreserved and unfarmed minor produce such as fruits, leaves, bark, herbs and roots for medicinal or religious purposes. This suggestion affords sufficient evidence of the ignorance existing at the period on the subject of the enormous potential value of the minor products of the Indian forests.

Finally, on this question of forest privileges the Commissioners say, "It will be observed that in dealing with forest privileges of all kinds we have made no distinction between Reserved and Protected Forests. We are very strongly of opinion that the same privileges should be allowed in all open compartments of the forests, whether Protected or Reserved. All rules as regards the exercise of local privileges should obviously be as simple and intelligible to the people as possible. Different sets of rules for different classes of forest will cause much unnecessary confusion."

The Report of this Commission presents a clear picture of the position into which forestry administration had drifted—a position directly assignable to the regrettable supineness of earlier Governments to face the question of a definite settlement of all rights and claims of the people within the forests and waste lands. The recommendations of the Commission were generally accepted by the Bombay Government and disposed of, so far as grazing and the supply of ráb were concerned, by a Resolution issued in 1889.

Progress during the remainder of the century was slow and, as will be shown, retarded by the failure of Government to reorganize the Staff of the Department on the lines introduced in other provinces.

The revenue, however, showed an upward trend, that of 1889-90 being the highest ever recorded in Bombay (save in 1885-6). For the former year the receipts were Rs.31,37,696 and the surplus Rs.13,67,005. It is on record that great activity was being displayed during the last decade of the century in bringing the forest areas under systematic management. The disastrous famine in the closing years brought about an inevitable decrease in the revenue, the figures for