1 ( 24 )
2 156. With reference to the future it has to be borne in mind that the re-
3 duction in the number of trees girdled annually since the Revised Working
4 Plan came into operation in 1869, cannot but cause a sensible decrease in ,the
5 annual outturn of the Forests.
6 157. Government Agency System. The produce of the Government For-
7 ests in 1870-71 was considered excessively high, but from the quantity of timber
8 remaining neaped at the close of that year, a more than average outturn was anti-
9 cipated for the following year. This expectation has been fully yealized : the out-
10 turn of the past year, although 3,198 tons less than that of 1870-71, shews an
11 increase of 3,105 tons over that of 1869-70.
12 158. Sleepers. In the absence of a local demand for teak sleepers, and
13 pending the receipt of information relative to size, etc, of sleepers required for
14 the projected Prome Railway, it has not been deemed advisable to issue con-
15 tracts for this class of timber ; the few hundred pieces extracted merely repre-
16 senting neaped timber.
17 Elephants.
18 159. Departmental Elephants. The Department had on
19 hand at the close of the previous year... ..cssssccscsccsccscssscsecesseeee LILI
20 Add number obtaimed during the year:—
21 For Depot and carriage purposes ......cccccccsssseeee 2
22 For loan to Contractors ... ...ccccccscsnccceseecoucecsees 6
23 mores 8
24 119
25 Deduct,
26 Paid for by Forest Contractors ..........cscceseecscees 7
27 Casualties ...... ar Re eee ei ear nano Mere reer yr ee mere eae 11
28 ed 18
29 Balance on 3lst March 1872, ......ccccccees 101
30 Full information regarding cost of keep and feed of elephants of this De-
31 partment and of the Commissariat will be found recorded in Appendix B. The
32 cost of feed was Rupees 99-6-8 for each elephant of the Department.
33 Except in the case of elephants at the Rangoon depot, the abundance of
34 green fodder, obtainable throughout the year, precludes a very heavy outlay on
35 elephants in the matter of feed,
36 There is a considerable decrease in cost of feed compared with that incurred
37 in the previous year ; but thisis attributable chiefly to fewer elephants being
38 retained for depot purposes at Rangoon where it 18 necessary to supply them
39 with larger rations of rice than when employed in ordinary district work.
40 160. Towards the close of the year an epidemic, somewhat similar in
41 type to that noted in Administration Report for 1869-70, broke out again among
42 the elephants both at Toungoo and in the Forests of the Sittang Division, and
43 carried off a large number of these valuable animals, The Department lost two
44 out of four at Toungoo,
45 Subsequent reports shew that the disease has spread to the Western slopes
46 of the Pegu Yoma, and occasioned a great mortality among the contractors’
47 elephants employed in the Bawben District of the Tharrawaddie Division,
48 The information received from the Government Contractors and the Karens,
49 leave no doubt as to the epidemic being one of unexampled severity, occasioning