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2 No. 7 (Plantations), dated Royal Botanical Gardens, 29th June 1872.
3 From—Gerorce Kine, Ese., M.8., Superintendent, Botanical Gardens, Caloutta.
4 To—H. Leens, Esa., Conservator of Forests, Bengal.
5 I wave the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter No. 19, dated 27th ultimo,
6 together with its enclosure. In roply I beg to state it is my opinion, formed after careful
7 personal observation and inquiry on the Sal forests of Kumaon, Gurhwal, and Dehra Dhoon,
8 that the annual recurrence of forest fires is by far the most serious difficulty with which the
9 Forest Department has to contend. These fires at present annually cause to the forests
10 above mentioned an amount of damage which is simply incaloulable.
11 2. The only Sal trees to which fire I believe does positively no harm are those with
12 stems of cousiderable girth, but seedlings, saplings, and young trees, even of the girth of a
13 man’s thigh, all suffer very much; indeed, so serious is the damage that in my opinion the
14 majority of the young Sal trees in those forests will never form good timber, and consequently
15 the day is not very far off when there will be an utter dearth of this most valuable wood,
16 unless new and more rigid fire conservancy arrangements aro sanctioned.
17 3. As regards the opinion expressed by the late Dr. Anderson, that the annual fires
18 kill insects that might be destructive, I would merely say that although I have most
19 carefully looked for such, I never have been able to discover any insect that does any damage
20 to healthy living S&l. I have however not unfrequently seen unhealthy young SAl trees
21 (the bark of which had been charred by repeated forest fires) suffering from what appeared
22 to be the ravagos of an insect; and felled S&l timber, #/ allowed to lie unbarked, is speedily
23 attacked by a borer, but if barked immediately after felling, onjoys perfect immunity.
24 4. I quite admit that it is a common notion held very strongly by all natives interested
25 in grazing, that the annual fires are good for Sél trees of all ages. These fires are speedily
26 followed by a crop of tender green grass, which yields capital grazing for their cattle, and
27 as a fact forest fires are usually raised by graziers. The opinion of such people as to the
28 effect of fire on Sal forests in which they have little or no interest is, I fear, influenced by its
29 good effect on grazing grass, in which they have a great interest, and is, 1 think, unworthy
30 of serious attention.
31 5. It is not at all in accordance with my experience that young Sl trees, of which
32 shoots are burnt down year after year by forest firos, ultimately eee 80 Vigorous as to
33 throw up in a single season shoots tall enough to be beyond the reach of harm from fire. My
34 experience, on the contrary, is that when once by loss of shade a piece of SAl forest has become
35 open enough to admit of the growth of grass (which as sure as it grows is annually burnt),
36 the doom of all the Sal seedlings and saplings in that pieco of forest is from that time fixed,
37 and all hope of its ever producing re a 1s gone unless fire can be excluded. The tonder
38 shoots thrown up by the seedlings or saplings during the rains are regularly burnt during
39 the succeeding cold weather. The plants as a rule begin after a year or two to throw up
40 several shoots instead of a single one, and so dissipate their strength; these shoots go on
41 being annually burnt, and finally the plants die. I could show you many square miles in
42 the S8l forests of the North-Western Provinces where these miserable results are too plainly
43 demonstrated, and I cannot express too strongly my conviction that forest fires and the
44 growth of Sal are incompatible, and that next to fires, buffaloes and goats are the greatest
45 enemics to young Sl forests.
46 141. As an appendix, a translation from the ‘“ Revue des Eaux et Foréts’?
47 18 given, which will be found of some interest as
48 regards supplies of timber from America. It is
49 pee not generally known that waste and steady destruction of forests,
50 itherto considered inexhaustible in those vast regions, have brought them to
51 the verge of ruin in some parts, whilst in others they have entirely disappeared.
52 142. A statement of value of timber imported by sea to Calcutta, prepared
53 by the Collector of Customs, which is attached,
54 hos - curiously enough bears out the statements of the
55 writer in the 'rench article, for it will be observed that Amorica, with the excep-
56 tion of some Mahogany, has during the past few years brought nothing to
57 Calcutta, though previous to 1867 considerable supplies were entercd at this
58 port.
59 143. All tends to show that the greatest cure should be taken of all forests
60 veuutitoncdh ail auiiie (aus. existing, and that protection should be spread
61 necessary. as a shield, not only over reserved forests. Colonel
62 Money, in his prize essay on tea cultivation, estimates
63 that 300 acres of wood are required. fur every 100 acres of tea.
64 Exhaustion of Amcrican forests.
65 Imports of timber by sea to Calcutta.