total amount consumed in Burma, India, Europe and other countries during these periods. Hence the total annual consumption of teak. timber had gradually risen from 85,000 tons to 227,149 tons. Of the exports for the five years 1874-5 to 1878-9, an amount of 85,635 tons went to Indian ports and 48,928 tons beyond India. The largest increase had taken place in local consumption, which had risen from 8293 during the first period, when extensive buildings were built at Rangoon after the second Burmese War, and 4864 during the period 1864-5 to 1868-9, to 92,586 during the last period. It was significant that the increased consumption had in no way been aided by diminished prices, teak timber at Rangoon and Moulmein commanding about the same price in 1880 as it fetched twenty years before. Brandis thought that there was every reason to anticipate that the annual consumption would. continue to increase, and added "should it hereafter become. possible to sell teak timber at the Burma ports at lower rates, or should freight diminish, a very large increase in the annual consumption may be anticipated." He then proceeded to discuss the prospects of future supplies, dealing especially with the supplies of foreign timber from Upper Burma. His remarks in this connection need not be followed here because he could not anticipate the near approach of the third Burmese War which was to completely alter the position of these forests and their future method of management.

"

When the first Working Plan was framed to regulate the yield of the forests in Pegu and Tenasserim for the twelve years from 1856 to 1867 the area of teak-producing forests was estimated at 2397 square miles. In 1880 it was not considered that this estimate required material alteration--a wonderful tribute to Brandis' work. It was estimated (based on valuation surveys) that this area had contained 1,855,000 mature teak trees of 6 feet in girth in 1856. From data available in 1856 it was calculated that teak trees in these forests would attain 6 feet girth in sixty-two years, and the maximum number of trees to be girdled annually was fixed at 27,000. The 1868 plan of working for the succeeding five years excluded the Western and Upper Salween Forests, which were leased out with permission to girdle, and the Pandaw and Attaran Forests, which were in the hands of private parties, 416 square miles in all. On the remaining 1981 square miles it was estimated that there were 934,000 mature trees in 1868. From data collected in this year the rate of growth was considered to be much slower than Brandis' figure, and it was put at 160 years to attain 6-feet girth; the number of trees to be girdled annually being fixed at 11,600. From the data available in 1880, Brandis considered that whilst his earlier estimates were too favourable those of 1868 were too unfavourable both as regards rate of growth and the amount of growing stock.

As regards the question of teak production the main points requiring consideration were-what steps had been taken and what steps should be taken to ensure the demarcation of a sufficient area of teak forest to be permanently maintained. And, as demarcation work took time, what measures should be devised to continue the existing system of protecting teak throughout the country.

With reference to species other than teak, it has been already stated that a certain number had been reserved under the Rules, for which payment had to be made if taken out for trade purposes. This measure had proved beneficial to the extent that timbers not included in the list had been extracted in preference to those included. Brandis now considered, however, that the maintenance of so large a number of reserved trees and the system generally was cumbersome and might with advantage be simplified. Free permits had been issued too liberally, several hundred logs having on occasions been given away on a single application, entailing abuse and waste. On the other hand, the necessity of taking out free permits for timber required for home consumption led, and had led, to extortion and peculation. He now proposed that free permits should be dispensed with altogether, and that all timber and other forest produce which was extracted for the purposes of trade should be taxed. There would be no interference with trees cut for clearing ground for cultivation or with people living within five miles of the forest obtaining therefrom produce for their own local requirements, with the exception of teak and such other species as might require protection in specified localities. Revenue from minor produce would continue to be levied as before with the exception of cutch, which should pay Rs.20 per cauldron for the season.

Cutch. The position of the cutch (Acacia Catechu) extraction business is worthy of mention. In Burma the tree is found in the drier parts of the Province and had been very abundant. The heart-wood lasts better than teak and therefore many thousands of young trees were usually cut for house-posts. But the chief product of the tree is cutch or catechu from mature trees. From December to March large settlements of people from beyond the frontier and from British Burma were in the habit of establishing themselves in tracts where mature trees existed and near water. All trees with a sufficiency of heart-wood were cut down and dragged to the settlement. The heart-wood was then cut into chips, boiled with water, the solution then being boiled down and the extract cut into flat shining nearly black cakes, which form the cutch of commerce.

This procedure still obtained at the close of the century. Until 1876 cutch boiling was carried out everywhere in British Burma without any tax or restraint except in the few existing Reserves. A tax of Rs.5 per cauldron was then instituted. It was subsequently raised to Rs.10 in Tharrawaddy. Brandis proposed doubling it for he following reasons: One cauldron in full work for four months required eighty trees. The Government revenue at Rs.10 a cauldron came to 2 annas per tree only. In 1873 cutch sold at Rangoon at Rs.20 per 100 viss (365 lbs.); in 1879 the rate rose to Rs.36 per 100 viss, and there was no prospect of its dropping. Between 1876-7 and 1878-9 the Government revenue amounted to Rs.48,171, representing about 750,000 trees cut down in the upper part of the Irrawaddy Valley. The result of this wholesale destruction was that, save in remote villages, large trees fit to yield cutch had almost disappeared from the Tharrawaddy, Prome, and Thayetmyo Districts outside the Reserves. The Toungnyo Valley in Tharrawaddy had formerly been one of the chief habitats of this tree. Cutch was an important article of the world's trade. In 1879-80 the export of this article from Burma (the chief supplier), Bengal (probably Burman, re-exported), Bombay and Madras amounted to 11,106 tons (of 20 cwts.), valued at Rs.28,13,994, of which only about Rs.1400 worth came from Bombay and Madras.

Brandis did not advocate the retention of the list of fourteen reserved trees (besides teak). He suggested that only thingan and padauk should be reserved in addition to teak, power being given locally to reserve any species suffering from overfelling.

The demarcation work proposed in the Brandis Memorandum of 1876 had been carried out with vigour, and by 1880 it is apparent that 1652 square miles of Reserves had been demarcated and sanctioned in the Pegu Circle, of which 1180 square miles were in the districts of Thayetmyo, Prome, Tharrawaddy and Hanthawaddy. In addition, 388 square miles had been demarcated and sanctioned in the Tenasserim Circle in the Salween and Amherst Districts, making a total of 2040 square miles. Another 1179 square miles had been proposed for reservation in the Pegu Circle, and 643 in the Tenasserim Circle. Brandis' queries as regards the above programme were: (1) whether the above area was sufficient to meet the objects in view and (2) whether the full demarcation of the above area would not tend to impede the extension of cultivation.

The Inspector-General gave detailed reasons for his answers to the above questions. In the first place he pointed out that

the whole of the above area did not contain teak, probably not more than 2000 square miles of it. He quoted figures to show that with proper conservative management this area should in the future, under scientific treatment, be able to provide for a proportion of the market requirements. His second query he answered in the negative, one of his arguments being that the culturable area included in the Reserves would be very small.

The suggestion he had previously made with reference to the Karens and the demarcation question had not been followed. Seaton's idea of demarcating fixed areas, within whose limit the Karens should be at liberty to cut their taungyas, had been adopted and followed in the demarcation work of all the Reserves on the western slopes of the Pegu Yoma in the Tharrawaddy and Prome districts. All sorts of absurd objections were advanced against this settlement of the matter, one, that the areas assigned were too small. Since the total area of Reserves between the Nawing and Thoonzai Forests was 807 square miles and the tract assigned to the Karens amounted to 213 square miles, this argument was fallacious. Brandis advised that the Karen areas should be regarded as separate blocks in the Reserves, the treatment of which could not yet be settled. Mature teak should, however, be girdled on the same principles as adopted in the Reserves.

The steady rise in the forest revenue formed Brandis' best asset in pressing his remarks. For the first three years after he commenced work in Pegu, 1856-7 to 1858-9, there was a small deficit. The mean annual surplus between 1859-60 and 1878-9 had risen from Rs.1,51,744 to Rs.6,17,845. The Inspector-General pointed out, however, that for some years to come heavy outlay would have to be incurred on demarcation work, planting and other operations of improvement, and that therefore the expenses must of necessity increase largely. Moreover, many of the Reserves which were being taken over had been impoverished by reckless fellings and would yield little or nothing for years to come.

Under measures of protection and improvement Brandis considers in some detail the methods by which the proportion of teak in the forests could be increased. The aim was not to form pure teak forests, since the tree thrives best in associated mixtures of bamboos or other trees. He did not think the proposed area of 3474 square miles of teak forests would ever be capable of producing the entire quantity of teak required

by the Province and for export. It might prove necessary to demarcate additional areas, and other permanent sources of teak might become available; but, in any event, it was necessary to increase considerably the proportion of teak in the forests which would be under the charge of the Department. After discussing the necessity of having clearly marked boundary lines round all the Reserves and interior ones round the Karen areas, he comes to the question of fire protection, which he regarded as a specially difficult task in the Burmese Teak Forests. He considered this protection essential and combined with other works of improvement, it would add large quantities to the annual yield of the forests. As yet, fire protection in the forests was in its infancy and required study. The area actually protected in Pegu during the hot weather of 1880 amounted to 54,000 acres at a cost of Rs.7500. Many of the areas thus protected were plantations rather than blocks of forest, and the outlay correspondingly heavy. In Tenasserim 42,200 acres were fire protected at a cost of Rs.1300.

In addition to fire protection, cultural operations were necessary. Teak would have to be sown and planted artificially on a very large scale if the forests were to contribute permanently a large portion of the teak supply of the Province. So far this work had been carried out on three lines: (1) regular plantations, (2) taungya plantations, (3) by sowing. The oldest regular plantations Brandis considers were those started in 1856 and 1857, though, as a matter of fact, older ones had been commenced though without great success in Tenasserim (Vol. I, 189,241-2). The total area planted in Pegu and Tenasserim Circles to 31st March, 1880, was 3389 acres, at a cost of Rs.3,00,689, or at an average rate of Rs.88 per acre. He estimated that these plantations, when mature, should furnish an annual yield, excluding thinnings, of 3300 tons, and some would yield thinnings long before they reached maturity. Brandis proposed that 200 acres a year should be planted by sowing teak with crops of cotton, til seed and vegetables raised for sale (this had been the way in which many of the larger existing plantations had been raised), the sites for new plantations being carefully selected. As regards the second method, by taungya, a description of this and the results attained has been already given in Volume II, pages 568-70. The third method, by sowing, was initiated by Ribbentrop. He had tried two methods: (a) cut and burnt bands in bamboo forest 100 feet wide, over a total of