83 
between 420,000?, and 465,000?., and the highest annnal net profit has been 160,000?. 
In 1871-2 the total revenue of Indian forests was 501,924?., and the expenditure 
354,616?. „ „ , , 
In the part of Bombay, however, where the admimstration of forest lands was com- 
menced in 1846, there is a large and steady revenue, fluctuating, in the last six years, 
between 82,000?. and 123,000?., half of which is net profit. The objects of forest con- 
servancy are not those of an opium monopoly or salt tax. They are to protect the land 
from destructive floods, to ensure supplies of timber and fuel, and to increase the well- 
being of the people. The surplus is a satisfaetory incident in the management of 
forests, and it is a sign of that management being good and efficient; but an immediate 
revenue is not the objeet in forest conservancy. 
Forest conservancy has had to struggle against numerous difficulties, arising from the 
immemorial practices of the natives, as well as from natural causes. The two most 
formidable of these obstacles to progress are jungle fires, and the Clearing and burning 
the jungle for cultivation. A patch of forest is cut down and burnt, and a crop is 
raised in the open space, no ploughing or digging being necessary. In the following year 
the field is abandoned, and another patch of forest undergoes the same wasteful and 
lazy process. The damage done by these fires is incalculable. Millions of seeds and 
seedlings are destroyed, the bark of the trees are scorched, the wood is exposed to the air, 
and the trees become hollow and useless for timber. Thus a large proportion of trees in 
Indian forests are unsound, mainly owing to these fires. Steps have been taken to 
prevent them by isolating the tracts to be preserved, and this destructive System of 
cultivation has been prohibited in Mysore, part of the Madras Presidency, and a valuable 
forest in the Central Provinces. Another difficulty of the Indian forester is to clear the 
valuable timber trees of huge creepers, which completely enclose them with a network of 
branches, destroy their growth, and ultimately kill them. 
In 1865 an Act was passed for the management and preservation of Government 
forests. Forest tracts may be rendered subject to the provisions of this Act by a Govern 
ment notification, provided that no existing rights are affected; and the local govern- 
ments are empowered to make rules, applicable to such tracts, for the preservation of 
trees, safe custody of timber, &c. Forest rules under the provisions of this Act have 
been drawn up for Mysore, Coorg, the Central Provinces, Berar, Oudh,. and Burma. 
There are local rules for the Assam and Chittagong forests, for the Hazaribagh district, 
and for several forests of the Punjab and N. W. Provinces. Forest affairs are not yet 
sufficiently advanced in Bengal for any codified form of rules. The Act does not apply 
to Madras or Bombay, and the Madras Government has always declined to legislate on 
the subject, but Bombay has prepared a draft Forest Act of its own, which is under 
consideration. Meanwhile the main principles of forest conservancy are the definition 
and demarcation of reserved forests, the prevention of jungle fires, the exclusion of 
cattle, the opening of roads, and the cutting and Clearing away of creepers and grass 
round the young trees. 
Great progress has been made in the demarcation of reserved forests, which is the 
most important work in the department in the N. W. Provinces, Oudh, the Punjab, 
the Central Provinces, Bombay, and Sind ; in Madras little progress has been made, 
and no systematic measures have been adopted for securing this great desideratum in 
forest management. . 
The existence of forests and their character mainly depends on climatic conditions of 
temperature and rainfall. In the arid tract of Sind and the. Punjab, forests of babul 
(Acacia Arabica) line the Indus at various points, which in Middle and. Upper Sind are 
mixed with tamarisk and the Euphrates poplar, while jhund or kundi (I rosopis spici- 
gera), an Acacia-like tree, Salvadora, and an arborescent leafless caper (Gapparis 
onhylla), occupy vast tracts in fear of the babül forests. The dry beit of the Punjab 
has woods on the high land between the rivers, called rakhs, also composed mainly of 
Prosopis Gapparis, and Salvadora. The woodlands of a portion of Rajputana are 
mainly composed of a beautiful tree, with small leaves and drooping branches, a species 
of Anogeissus; and the Southern dry beit in Mysore is the region of sandal-wood