forests, which were to be under the District Officers, who were to be assisted by the Forest Officers in their management. This was ultimately to give rise to considerable difficulties and, although it may have appeared the easiest way out at the start, was, in fact, a serious mistake in policy. In the Central Provinces the troubles existent elsewhere with reference to the rights or privileges to certain forest produce exercised by the villagers did not exist. Such produce was all paid for, since once the settlement had been made, all waste. land, including the forest on it, was admittedly the property of Government. Brandis hoped, as a result of his recommendations, that the area of Reserves would be largely and rapidly increased by merely creating Reserves from the unreserved forests. He did not foresee that here, as elsewhere, the Deputy Commissioners of districts would be unwilling to give up their jurisdiction over the unreserved areas which, once constituted Reserves, passed out of their hands altogether. Even in the case of the new Reserves he advocated he did not appear to consider it possible, owing to the smallness of the Forest Staff, that they could be all intensively managed. There would therefore, in practice, be two classes of Reserves, the one intensively managed and thoroughly protected, the other open to grazing and the removal of minor produce, protected by boundaries but within which even villages might exist. In these latter, said Brandis, it would be necessary to guard against the growth of prescriptive rights. Fortunately perhaps, in view of the defective staff, this state of affairs did not arise, for the above-mentioned reason. The work in the blocks under intensive management would be fire protection, endeavours made to increase lac-production, improvements by sowing and planting, climber-cutting and other operations. Under fire protection it was pointed out that some of the existing Reserves in which fire protection had been commenced were on very poor soil, and the question of continuing fire protection in such areas was seriously considered. But Brandis rightly considered that, at that time, to give up the protection from fire of any forest in which it had been attempted would be wrongly construed by the people as an open acknowledgment that it was unnecessary, and that therefore it should be continued in all areas where it had been started, i.e. in two selected blocks of the Satpura Reserve, in Pandratola, in the Banjar Forest, in Jagmandal, Choharighogarh and Barela, and in Singrampur and Bijeraghogarh. But in future the Inspector

General said that fire protection should only be introduced in those areas" which have good soil and give promise of good timber and other produce, and which offer facilities for the export and utilization of their produce": a rather dangerous precedent to lay down. In spite of the above remarks, Brandis reiterates in his Report that he is not contemplating making two classes of Reserves, but in practice it is difficult to see how they could become anything else since the Officer in charge would inevitably have to concentrate on the areas under intensive (and therefore revenue-making) management. It was this over-concentration on the revenue aspect of the question which in the end vitiated many of the suggestions and hopes of the recommendations made at this period.

As a matter of fact, in 1879 all Government Forests were declared to be reserved, and those which at the time remained under the absolute control of the Conservator of Forests were denominated first-class, whereas those under the Deputy Commissioners were defined as second-class Reserves. Transfers from the second class to the first class were to be carried out.

One of the suggestions made by Brandis was that a small museum of woods, bamboos and other produce should be formed at the headquarters of the Conservator. The lines of this suggestion were ultimately acted upon and are now well known, but he also added that a library should be added which should contain " forest maps, reports of the Province, standard works, which, besides professional scientific subjects, should contain a complete collection of settlement reports and published maps of the Province. The library should be so arranged as to serve as a reading-room for the use of Forest Officers passing through, or staying at, the headquarters of the Conservator. Such an institution in every Province would meet a want which has long been felt by Forest Officers, and would at a small expense facilitate the spread of useful information and stimulate the research into professional questions of great practical importance. And, what is further of great importance, it would enable the Conservator to furnish on the spot a great deal of practical information to persons from Europe, who will doubtless in course of time visit India, in connection with the export of ornamental woods, fibres, gums and other useful forest produce."

It is not overstating the case to say that, had these suggestions been given full effect to, the resources in this respect open to keen Forest Officers would have inevitably resulted in a more

rapid development in the progress of the forests of the country, both sylvicultural, administrative and commercial progressa point to which the attention of the younger Forest Services of the Empire may be drawn.

Brandis comments on the great progress which had undeniably taken place in Forest Administration in the Province since he first visited it in 1863 (I, p. 396). Although the selection of some of the Reserves was open to doubt, yet Doveton had accomplished sound work and, amongst other things, good results had been attained with a minor product in the propagation of lac, which it was even then hoped would prove a valuable item of revenue from the Reserves. He also commented favourably on the very small number of forest offences committed in the Reserves, a very different position to that existing in the neighbouring Presidency of Bombay, even when the differences in conditions were allowed for.

The Inspector-General then dealt at length with a description of the Reserves, already mentioned, which he visited, and made suggestions as to their future management, the necessity of preparing Working Plans or plans of operation and so forth, the details of which cannot be entered into here.

As has been mentioned, Brandis again visited the Central Provinces at the end of 1876 and the early part of 1877. He did not publish a Report, but left a series of papers, several of which Schlich published as an appendix to his Report on a visit in 1882-3. The papers so published were very comprehensive and included interesting Reports on the Bori, Moharli and Ahiri Reserves which, unfortunately, it is impossible to do more than record.

Schlich, then Inspector-General, arrived at Jubbulpur on December 17th, 1882, being met by Doveton, still the Conservator. With the latter he marched through Mandla, Balaghat, Seoni and the Nagpur Districts, seeing the first-class Reserves of these districts and " as many second-class Reserves as came in the way." From Nagpur Schlich went to Warora and thence to Moharli, a first-class Reserve, and then through a series of second-class Reserves to Ahiri, where he examined the Ahiri first-class Reserves "and the adjoining forest lands which had been offered for sale to Government by the Ahiri zemindar." Schlich states that he considered the areas he visited to be fairly representative of the forests in the Central Provinces, and he was also able to supplement his own observations by information from Doveton, who had been

Conservator since 1868. In his Report (1883) the InspectorGeneral arranges his remarks under the six heads: (1) Area and Boundaries, (2) Organization, (3) Protection (especially fire), (4) Cultural Operations, (5) Working of the Forests, (6) Financial Results.

So far as the reservation of forests was concerned, the very thing which Brandis said should not, and would not, occur under his proposals, with which the Conservator of Forests agreed, had taken place. Two classes of Reserves, the so-called first and second class had come into being, with the result that little progress had in fact been made in the important work of reservation and protection in the areas outside the forests originally taken up as Reserves and placed under the sole jurisdiction of the Forest Department.

Briefly, Schlich's 1883 proposals were as follows:

(1) To remove all distinctions between first and second class Reserves, and to place them under one general system of management; or, as an alternative to increase considerably the area of the first class Reserves. It was unfortunate that the alternative was submitted since it led to nothing being done.

(2) To strengthen the Controlling Staff by the additional appointment of one Deputy Conservator; also to increase largely, but gradually, the Executive Staff, by the addition of six Sub-Assistant Conservators and a considerable number of Rangers.

(3) To fix and define authoritatively, as early as possible, the external and internal boundaries of all Government Reserves.

(4) To introduce a more systematic working of the Government Forests, regulated by the provisions of Working Plans; or, where this was not at present feasible, to prepare Annual Plans of Operation for the Reserves of each District.

(5) To extend fire protection by the usual means of isolation and watching; but in addition to endeavour to introduce a more general fire protection, by closing any area burnt against grazing and felling and thereby enlisting the interests of the population in the success of fire protection.

(6) To extend cultural operations on a moderate scale, and lastly,

(7) To introduce additional conservancy measures in forests worked under the Commutation, Licence and Khan Tahsil systems.

Amongst the officers who were serving in the Central Provinces at this time were Colonel Jarrett, Captain Losack, Messrs. Jacob, Rind, Moore, Fowler, Thomas, King and Thompson.

Not the least interesting portion of Schlich's Report is his enumeration of the results of the cultural operations undertaken in the Provinces. It will be remembered that Pearson, after a visit to the Nilambur Teak Plantation (II, p. 230), returned fired with the determination to achieve a similar success. Most of the Provinces under the stimulus of the Government of India, were aiming at similar results, the idea having been gradually accepted previous to this time that the destroyed timber forests would be replaced in this fashion.

It is difficult to say how much money was frittered away in these costly experiments. In the Central Provinces two Scottish Foresters were imported expressly to look after the plantation work. It is scarcely surprising that the great majority of the experiments and efforts made between 1867 and 1880 were either complete or partial failures. What Schlich terms "cheap sowings," though no work that is a failure can be so designated, in which teak and other seed was sown broadcast, were almost without exception complete failures. These were undertaken between 1876 and 1878 on areas in Hoshangabad, Nimar and Betul, about 700 acres being operated on in all. The record of the more regular plantings and sowings-of teak and other species-is, with one or two exceptions, a most melancholy one. These were commenced in 1867 and continued up to the time of Schlich's inspection. The Divisions concerned were Mandla, Saugor, Betul, Bilaspur, Seoni (where good results were obtained with teak on small experimental areas), Chanda and Nimar. Between 1879 and 1882 upwards of 120,000 bamboos were put out in the Saugor Division, of which about one-half were alive in 1883. A small batch of bamboos (Dendrocalamus strictus), planted in 1873 in Garhakota, yielded their first out-turn of good bamboos in 1881-2," so that," says Schlich, " eight years may be taken as the time in which artificially raised bamboos of this species will, under ordinary circumstances, in this locality commence to yield a return."

Although Schlich correctly recognized that "the renewal of the forests must be chiefly effected not by planting, but by protection against fire and grazing," yet he advocated a continuation of the efforts to sow and plant in the case of large existing blanks and where it was desirable to improve the composition of the forests; and he instanced areas in which such work might be undertaken. It is difficult to understand the persistence with which these recommendations to sow and