1 ( 17 )
2 and 4,628 logs, containing 77,506 cubic feet of timber, were pur-
3 chased at an average price of Rs. 1-1-3 per cubic foot, for the
4 Northern State Railway.
5 46. The following is « return of the timbcg brought to
6 depot in the Punjab during the year under review :—
7 Pieces, or logs. Cubic feet.
8 Satlaj eee eee eve 51,4 7 §5,470
9 Bias eee ins wal 4,128 101,610
10 Ravi ima Bee ae 18,020 282,799
11 Chinfb mere aes ae 21,621 417,639
12 Jhilam een eee eee 10,695 108,7 ] 's'
13 Fuel Iteserve ... — aoe 6,547 62,069
14 Tota. oe 112,858 1,148,302
15 And the following a return of the timber sold :—
16 No. of logs. Cubical contents. Amount.
17 486 P 4
18 Satlsj 2 ; 69,7 36,303
19 3i 3,572 81,551 46,136
20 Ravi 10,274 1,71,459 1,43,889
21 ChinAb «9,468 2,17,090 1,59,088
22 Shilam we = 4,788 89,635 65,224
23 Toran ..._—- 38,583 6,29,468 4,560,640
24 Besides the above sales, 208,587 maunds of fuel, valued at
25 Rs. 63,910-7-9, have been dclivered to the Northern State Rail-
26 way.
27 47. In Bengal, 565 logs have been brought from the
28 Assam Forests to the different depédts by the Forest Department ;
29 each of these logs average about 17 cubic feet. In Chittagong,
30 916 logs, containing 21,656 cubic feet, were brought to depdt.
31 The timber operations in this province are as yet quite in an
32 elementary condition, and the amount realised by sales during the
33 past year did not cover the expenditure.
34 48. In Oudh, 2,423 s&l trees were felled, 1,440 sAl logs and
35 343 sleepers carted to depét, 3,188 more were rafted, and 13,000
36 maunds of fuel were collected for the railway. Besides this
37 timber brought to depdét by departmental agency, 120,000 cubic
38 feet of various kinds, sizes, and qualities of wood were removed
39 by purchasers from the forests. There is a marked improvement
40 in the quality of timber brought from the forests, the result of
41 more care in selection and logging. The general results of the
42 timber operations in this province during the past year are
43 satisfactory, the expenditure amounting to £4,895, and the receipts
44 from timber sales to £9,392.
45 49. In the Central Provinces, the departmental operations,
46 owing to the large stock of timber in hand, have been confined
47 within the narrowest limits. In the Jabalpur Division, work
48 has been confined to bringing the material already in stock
49 to more accessible depdéts. In the Baitul Forests of the Western
50 Division, about 900 trees have been felled for sleepers on the Holkar
51 State Railway. But the exhausted condition of most of the
52 Government Forests in these provinces must be an effectual
53 barricr against carrying on timber operations on such a svale
54 as would render them as remunerative as they should be. The
55 Bori Forest is capable of mecting a small demand, but this forest
56 will be the better for being left untouched for a few years longer.
57 A few thousand sleepers were brought to Jabalpur from the
58 sil forests of the Maikal range for the Great Indian Penin-
59 sular Railway, but the cost of transport was so great that the
60 price realized by the sale of the slecpers barely covered their
61 expenses, and unless a demand were to arise, sufficiently large
62 to repay tho cost of constructing a tramway from the forests to
63 the Narbada River, a distance of some fifty miles, it is feared
64 that the timber of these vast forests will be practically unavailable.