網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

work by the Department had made this historical parallel a possibility.

Of miscellaneous timbers 7293 cubic feet from North Malabar and 19,171 cubic feet from South Coimbatore were supplied for the construction of piles, bridges and landing stages in Mesopotamia. 2062 cubic feet of Grewia tiliæfolia logs were supplied to the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills Co., Ltd., for the manufacture of tent poles for military use. In the latter part of 1918 the Munitions Board asked for the supply of Poonspar and Aini timbers for aircraft construction. The work was put in hand and a certain quantity of timber cut, but the Armistice rendered the supply unnecessary. Irregularity in supplying wagons was said to have contributed to the delay in meeting the demands of the Military Department-but Madras were not alone in this world-wide War trouble.

Burma teak having been commandeered by Government, a demand arose for sâl timber, and requisitions were made on the Gumsur sâl forests (cf. II, p. 115) in Ganjam for broadand narrow-gauge sleepers, sâl scantlings, and other building materials, and bamboos. Considerable amounts of tan stuffs were collected in the forests of the following kinds: Cassia auriculata, 44,694 candies (1 candy=500 lbs.); Anogeissus latifolia bark, 10,655 candies; A. latifolia leaf (sumac), 1258 candies; Zizyphus xylopyra, 297 candies, and Acacia decurrens, 13 candies; or about 57,000 candies in all.

As regards forage, about 5385 tons of hay were supplied between 1917-20, and 23,989 tons were removed directly by the Military Department between August, 1914, and June, 1919. The Department also undertook to supply 1500 tons during 1919-20. A considerable number of Forest Officers of subordinate rank were transferred to assist the work of the Military Grass Farms Department.

THE FOREST RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Captain H. Trotter, Economist, has kindly given the following résumé of some of the work done by the Economic Branch in connection with timbers required for special purposes during the Great War:

"I have been through most of the files that were accessible, but to get a complete record of the work done during this period would take a very long time. I fancy, however, that this list is more or less what Professor Stebbing

requires." Mr. R. S. Pearson, who was in charge of the branch during the period, has added some remarks to the list.

(1) Strength tests on the glue joints of the Surma Valley ply wood for air-craft purposes.

(2) Strength tests on various samples of glues submitted by the Director of Aeronautics.

(3) Strength tests on various Indian timbers for using in aeroplane construction. These tests covered some thirty species and represented about a year's continuous work.

(4) Investigation on various waste products for papermaking.

(5) An investigation of the oil from the seeds of Aleurites cordata at the request of the Indian Munitions Board.

(6) An investigation as to suitable substitutes for walnut for air-craft construction, propeller blades and rifle butts, at the request of the Indian Munitions Board. Pearson adds the following: "Item 6 covered a large series of tests at the Ishapore Rifle Factory. It may be noted that the result of this enquiry was that all rifle stocks made in India in the latter half of the War were made of Indian grown timber as against imported. A considerable amount of work in passing and selecting timber for air-craft work had to be carried out.

(7) Some experiments on the treatment of bamboos with hot oil to prevent insect attack at the request of the Indian Munitions Board.

(8) An enquiry into the amount of charcoal available for the troops in India.

(9) Modified seasoning experiments on some twenty-five Indian timbers carried out at the request of the Indian Munitions Board."

CHAPTER XX

THE PROGRESS MADE IN MODERN METHODS OF EXPLOITATION AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF COMMUNICATIONS AND BUILDINGS, 1901-25

T

HE various methods of exploitation in use in the forests have been discussed in previous chapters of this history. It has been shown that excessive damage and waste accompanied the native methods as also the unchecked fellings of the earlier British timber contractors. With the inauguration of the Forest Service departmental working came into force and persisted in many parts for far too long a period, at the expense of progress in sylviculture and other professional operations. In Chapter XVI (Vol. II) the gradual evolution of exploitation methods was described. By the end of the century departmental working was the exception rather than the rule, timber trees being chiefly sold standing to the contractor, after selection by the Department, and worked out by the purchaser; other produce was sold on permit. But little progress had been made to place new species of timbers on the markets, the creosoted pine sleeper was still regarded as impracticable, new methods of extraction were viewed by superior officers with disfavour, the complacent attitude taken up being only too accurately portrayed by Ribbentrop in 1899 in the extract given on page 517 (Vol. II).

The work of the twentieth century has taught the present Indian Forester many things; but perhaps in no direction has it been of greater value than in displaying once for all in India the close connection between sylviculture (and the Working Plan) and the exploitation of a forest area. Secondly, it has demonstrated the necessity of having an Exploitation Officer in charge of the work where the extraction of regulated and large amounts of timber from considerable tracts of forests is in question. Finally, a result to some extent the outcome of the demand during the War, of the practicability of obtaining

a sale for many species which were unsaleable towards the close of last century (II, 510). To a considerable extent, and for the purpose of demonstrating the value of the timbers of these accessory species, departmental working came back. But this departmental working was very different from the old. It was associated with the Forest Engineer and the employment of up-to-date equipment, as will be described; moreover, in some cases it dealt with great areas of forest previously deemed inaccessible and unexploitable as, e.g. the evergreen forests in the Palghat in Madras, some of the teak areas in North Kanara and so forth. The full appreciation of the value of good adequately graded forest roads is also apparent in some Provinces, whilst the utility of the forest tramway is now thoroughly appreciated. Exploitation operations of considerable interest are being undertaken in various Provinces which will be referred to in this chapter, together with the progress in communications and buildings. The inauguration of the Utilization Circle and its rather chequered career in several Provinces will be reviewed, as also the present position of the Forest Engineer.

The thought may arise, perhaps, that the pendulum has swung back and that the Department has returned once again to departmental operations. But I think it will be realized that in some Provinces, at least, the recognition exists that the Exploitation Officer or Forest Engineer is essential and that all machinery and so forth required in connection with exploitation should be under his sole charge together with the staff necessary for its service and maintenance. More than ever nowadays it is necessary that the Divisional Officer should be free to devote himself to the requirements of the forests in his charge and that, above all, he should have the time, which is indispensable, to give to the sylvicultural needs of the growing stock. The thorough recognition of the fact that exploitation without efficient sylvicultural tending may result in diminishing the forest capital, is essential alike in the forest division as at the headquarters of the Government. It is an impossibility for the Divisional Officer to undertake both exploitation and the sylvicultural improvement of his crop in areas of the size of many forest divisions in India. Modern exploitation demands the extraction of all species of timbers of any commercial value in the felling areas and not merely, as in the old days, of one or two species. It is this new position which has compelled departmental working of the forests in order to demonstrate

that financial success is possible. To this may be attributed the apparent swing of the pendulum. Half a century ago the infant Department undertook departmental working in order to put an end to the wasteful exploitation methods in force; to-day it is carrying out schemes to demonstrate the possibility of working out mixed tropical or semi-tropical forests comprising many different species of timbers of a high technical value for which previously there was no market. This, perhaps, expresses the new position in the briefest manner. In order to make plain the great transformation, for it may be considered a transformation, which is taking place in the exploitation of the forests qua forests, as against the former practice, it has been deemed advisable to deal with the subject Province by Province, instancing only some of the most noteworthy of the new exploitation works. The problem has been to some extent complicated by the formation in some Provinces of the Utilization Circles, two of which have been (it may be hoped temporarily) discontinued. The Utilization Circle is so intimately connected with exploitation that though from one point of view it might be regarded as of sufficient importance to have merited a chapter to itself a careful marshalling of the facts rendered it evident that the review of its origin and development inevitably fell under exploitation.

The order in which the Provinces are dealt with under the heads here reviewed is that in which the writer visited them during his recent tour. It may be recorded that the development in exploitation in recent years, as this chapter will exhibit, is as remarkable as some of the other notable advances made by the Department during the present century, and it is all the more noteworthy since it is being correlated, as already indicated, with a close attention to the well-being of the future growing stock of the forest areas, whilst attempts are being made to place the financial part of the extraction work on a system of commercial accounting. The exploitation work carried out with difficulty during the War, owing to the want of technical engineering knowledge, machinery, etc., in the Department, led the Government of India to suggest the inauguration of a Forest Engineer Branch with a cadre of its own, to be attached to the Forest Department. The proposal was sanctioned by the Secretary of State, and seventeen probationers, mostly selected from men possessing a previous engineering training with service in the Royal Engineers during the War, were selected, as already detailed in a previous

« 上一頁繼續 »