1 ( 12 )
2 83. The crying want to which I venture to call attention is a regular sur-
3 Great want of survey and vey and a proper working plan for these, the only really
4 working plan, paying and productive forests of the province.
5 84. It is to be observed that tho sketch report on these forests of 1864-65,
6 interesting and valuable as it is, 1s not and does not profess
7 f 1864-65,
8 Report of 1864-6 to be even the outline of a working plan.
9 85. It merely estimates the number of trees available, and, assuming a
10 period of rotation, divides the total number of trees by
11 that period, the quotient being the supposed number of
12 trees that may be annually felled.
13 86. But it cannot be too often or too earnestly repeated that the mere
14 Dividing out the total restriction of the felling to such a number is absolutely no
15 number of trees noguaran- guarantee at all that the supply of wood will be permanent,
16 iat de! allies or, in other words, that the tract first cut will necessarily be
17 fit to cut again by the time the last block of the rotation is arrived at.
18 Caution regarding.
19 87. Unless order of working the forests and the style of working the
20 ‘‘hiebszug,” or “ felling direction-line,” are accurately laid down on true prin-
21 ciples, and accompanied by the necessary works of thinning, forest improvement,
22 restoration and planting, not arranged by guess but on system, and in full know-
23 ledge of climate and other conditions and facts, disappointment only can result
24 from such a method.
25 88. It is necessary to detail a competont officer for two or possibly three sea-
26 Compotent officer required SODS for the special work ; and this done, the Satlej ought to
27 to be temporarily doputed. be officered as the plan would shew to be necessary. Forests
28 cannot be worked without supervision, and to have one
29 Insufficiency of the local Deputy Conservator, as at present, to work vast forests on
30 sa both banks of the river with one Assistant, whose chief
31 work must be the timber-rafting and depdt work 400 miles away, is in point
32 of fact the worst economy, and prevents the realization of legitimate profits.
33 89. The consciousness, in which I am supported by the clear calculation
34 Importance of the anb- Of Mr. Brandis, that these forests might yield a net annual
35 joct, as largo and legitimate profit of a lac of rupees to the benefit of the State and in
36 ll aa fairness to the Raja, who is the landlord, has led me to
37 the digression, for which I must apologize, as the notice of a theoretical point
38 is not generally permitted to an annual record of work and facts,
39 90. The subject of demarcating and preserving sacred groves has every-
40 where received proper attention throughout every division :
41 not only sacred groves, but those whose antiquity, beauty or
42 specially interesting position demands respect, are carefully reserved. The only
43 Little respected by the difficulty is with the people themselves, who too often put
44 people 1m many cases. forward the plea of “ sacred grove” when they do not want
45 Government to have the wood, but show little enough respect for such localities
46 when they want wood for themselves.
47 *Sacred groves, &c,
48 Section I[I.—Forest Ricurs, «kc.
49 91. I have but little to add to what was said in detail in the reports of
50 True principle of settling 1869-70 and 1870-71. These matters do not change.
51 forest mghts. Everywhere there is, I think, progress, as great as possible,
52 in settling the real question upon which all efficient conservancy depends, of strik-
53 ing an even balance between the interests of Government in keeping out graz-
54 ing and other destructive rights on the one hand and the interests of the people
55 on the other, who require to graze, &c., for the support of their cattle and in
56 furtherance of the agricultural work, on which the maintenance of so large a
57 percentage of the population depends. This can only be effected, not by trying
58 to extend a sort of general right to ‘ preserve standing trees, or to extend an
59 indefinite restraint, always irritating from its very indefiniteness, and giving scope
60 for individual acts of oppression, but by clearly separating off certain defined