1 ¢( 9 )
2 afternoon, will go out of itself after sunset, and little or no expen-
3 diture will be required to keep it, within proper limits. ‘rhe
4 successful arrest of the practice of firing forests must be
5 a matter of gradual accomplishment, and many years may
6 clapse before the object in view is completely attained.
7 "2
8 25. There can be no doubt that the prevention of these
9 forest fires is the very esscnce and root of all mcasures of forest
10 conservancy. Yet it is strange how slow evcn some, who possess
11 very considerable practical acquaintance with the forests, are
12 to recognise this fact. It has even been asserted by one of
13 the Commissioners in Bengal that jungle fires actually behefit
14 the forests, as ‘‘they kill insccts.’’ ‘The whole question of the
15 treatment of these fires is, as was explained in last year’s review
16 (paragraphs 85 to 88), one of extreme difficulty. It is absolutely
17 certain that the natural reproduction of healthy forests cannot be
18 expected, as long as the burning of the grass is permitted, while,
19 on account of the grazing, the forest tribes look on all measures of
20 suppression with disfavor, and will continue todo so until they can
21 be educated to know that the grass itself, as well us the forest, will
22 benefit-in quality by the suppression of fires. Measures of this
23 sort are generally best worked through the Civil Officers, who
24 have, as it were, the pulse of the country under their hands, and
25 have the power of judging more correctly than purely executive
26 Forest Oflicers, how far measures of restriction can be tightened
27 without unduly irritating the people, and when it is politic to grant
28 relaxation in measures which in themselves are good, but which
29 cannot be rigidly or too suddenly enforced without creating dis-
30 content.
31 26. The following extract ofa letter from Dr. King, the
32 able Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, contains
33 some valuable and intcresting information on this point, obtained by
34 that officer from personal observations in the forests of Kamaon,
35 Garhwal, and the Din, of which he formerly ‘held charge-
36 Dr. King’s high character asa scientific observer renders, his
37 remarks specially worthy of notice.
38 The only sfl trees to which fire, I believe, does positively no harm, are
39 those with stems of considerable girth, but seedlings, saplings, and young trees,
40 even of the girth of a man’s thigh, all suffer very much ; indeed, go serious is the
41 damage that in my opinion the majority of the young sal trees in those foreats
42 will never form good timber, and consequently the day is not very ‘far off
43 when there will be an utter dearth of this most valuable wood, unless new and
44 more rigid fire conservancy arrangements are sanctioned.
45 As rewards the opinion expressed we the late Dr. Andersen, that
46 the annual fires kill insects that might be destructive, I would mérely sa
47 that, although I have most carefully looked for such, I never have beer able
48 to discover any inscot that does any damage to healthy living sl. I have
49 however not unfrequently seen unhealthy young S&l trees (the bark of which
50 had been charred by repeated forest fires) suffering from what appeured~o be
51 the ravages of an insect; and felled sfl timber, 1/7 allowed to lie undarked, ts
52 speedily attacked by a borer, but if barked immediately after felling, extféys
53 perfect immunity.
54 I quite admit that it is a common notion held very strongly by all
55 natives interested in grazing, that the annua} fires are good for sAl trees of all
56 ugeg. These fires are speedily followed by a crop of tender green grass, which
57 yields capital grazing for their cattle, and as a fact forest fires are usualy
58 raised by graziers. ‘The opinion of such people as to the effect of fire ta
59 sil forests in which they have httle or no interest is, 1 fear, influenced by its
60 good effect on grazing grriss, in which they have a great interest, and is, I
61 think, unworthy of serious attention. :
62 It is not at all in accordance with my experience that young sfl trees
63 of which shoots are burnt down yeanafter year by forest fires, ultimately be-
64 come so vigorous as to throw up in a single season shoots tall enough to be
65 beyond the reach of harm from fire. My experience, on the contrary, is that
66 when onee by loss of shade a picce of sf] forest has become open enough to
67 admit of the growth of grass (which as sure as it grows is annually burnty,
68 Cc