 section 24 of a brief history of forestry. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org recording by Shashank Jagmurla. A brief history of forestry by Bernhard Fernell, Great Britain and her colonies, India. While neglected of her forest interests at home, Great Britain has developed in her possessions in the East Indies a foresting policy and under the lead of German influence has established their one of the largest if not most efficient forest departments in the world. Contrary to a frequently expressed idea that the conditions and problems of India are comparable to the conditions and problems of the United States so that the example of Great Britain in India rather than that of any European country might serve us in the United States the right of things that the very opposite is true. Not only are the natural conditions for the most part different India being mainly tropical with an entirely different flora and different conditions of growth but industrial, cultural, social and political conditions are also entirely different all of which entails difference in methods of procedure. There are to be sure a few points of similarity the large size of country under one government and that in the hands of an English speaking race the fact that the fire scourge as with us but from different reasons is still the greatest problem that there are added regions and deserts not over 10 percent and irrigation problems and flood dangers to deal with and finally the long delay in establishing a definite forest policy although this policy was inaugurated over 40 years ago India has not yet and well by the nature of things not soon pass out of the first stage of development which we may confidently expect to pass through much more rapidly due to the conditions in which we resemble Europe more closely. The greater part of India namely 62 percent of the 1,773,000 square miles is under British administration and is people by a subject race of nearly 240 million without a voice in their government which is carried on by a small handful of the conquerors about 100,000 Englishmen are living in India while the balance around 700,000 square miles with 53 million people is divided among a large number of more or less independent native states very different in their civilization from us. industrially the difference will appear from the statement that about 70% of the population is engaged in agricultural pursuits hence there is no active wood market as with us except for domestic purposes and as the words like those of the most tropical forest are mainly cabinet words even the export trade is insignificant amounting to hardly three million dollars while minor forest products lack kutch and gambia myrobelin and cowchurch etc represent about 12 million dollars. Climatically as is to be expected on such a large territory great variation exists which is increased by differences in altitude from the sea level to the tops of the Himalayas the climate is of course largely tropical with a rainfall which varies from the heaviest known of 600 inches to almost none at all. Nevertheless in spite of these differences from our condition much maybe learn from Indian experience in the matter of organization both to follow and to avoid and the fact that this can be done without the need of a foreign language will be attractive to most Americans. The British like other nations gained a foothold in India for trading purposes during the 17th century this they extended during the 18th century especially after they had attained the ascendancy by Clive's subjection in 1757 of the Great Mughal one of the most powerful native princess by conquest and amicable arrangement the territory of British influence was gradually increased through the agency of the East India Company until in 1858 the British government in India was formally established by royal proclamation and in 1877 it was declared an empire as stated native princess till control under British influence and restrictions over one-third of the country or a territory of nearly 700,000 square miles divided into 13 feuditary states the total area under direct British control and government is 1,087,000 square miles of which 25% which is 280,000 square miles is probably forested hand-waste some 232,000 square miles or nearly 150 million acres of which are so far declared government property the British territory is divided into three presidencies Madras Bombay and Bengal and nine provinces each with a separate government under a governor or commissioner with a council and all subject to control by the resident governor general or viceroy and his council and he in turn is responsible to the secretary of state at home there is however little centralization of government function the provincial governments being to a large degree at least semi-autonomous like the states in the united states and considerable variation exists in the conduct of affairs the difficulties in introducing something like a uniform for this policy were indeed not small and much credit is due to the wisdom and tact of the three German foresters who in succession filled the difficult position of head of the imperial forest department and organized the service Brandes, Schlitzch and Ribbentrop 1. Forest conditions in the tropics rainfall conditions more than any other factor determine forest conditions the rains of India depend on extraordinary sievens or monsoons and the distribution is regulated by the topography of land and relative position of any district with regard to the mountains and the vapor laden air currents the successive rainfall characterizes the coastline along the Arabian sea to about latitude 20 degrees north and still more along the coast of lower Burma and to a lesser extent also the delta of the Ganges and the southern slopes of the Himalayas a moderately humid climate if gorged by annual rainfall prevails over the plateau occupying the larger part of the peninsular and the lower Ganges valley while a rainfall of less than 15 inches occur over the arid regions of the lower Indus the rainfall so unevenly distributed territorially is moreover as unevenly distributed through the year in most districts the principal rains are experienced in summer the rainy season being followed by a long dry season but on the eastern coast the summer rains are slight and the principal rainy season is delayed into October and November while in northern India and the Himalayas also winter rains occur a regular and of short duration even where a relatively large rainfall prevails the climate is dry on account of the high temperature hence some 30 million acres of the cultivated acreage which comprises 225 million acres in all depend on irrigation over half of this irrigated area lying in the tropical zone roughly speaking at least four climatic zones with many subtypes may be recognized the truly tropic intensely hot and wet over 75 inch rainfall prevailing on the plains and table lands of the lower half of the peninsular the hot and dry below 15 inch rainfall climate of the northwestern Indus plain and plateau the moderately warm and dry to humid 30 to 75 inch rainfall climate of the Ganges plain and central plateau and the temperate to alpine humid climate of the Himalaya mountain with snow and ice and winter and moderate heat in summer in keeping with this great diversity of climate both as to temperature and humidity there is a great variation in the character and the development of the forest cover at least six types can be recognized namely the evergreen forest found along the west coast in Burma under Man islands and the sub Himalaya zone which is composed of broadleaved species with a dense undergrowth of small trees and tangled lianas vines but few shrubs as is characteristic of most tropical forest the deciduous forest mainly in the interior of central India with saal teak and iron word as characteristic trees the arid region forest found in the Punjab in Rai Patana and in Sindh of varying composition from the open shrub forests of the latter province composed of Achaikias tamarisk and mesquite to the denser more diversified dry low tree forest of the former the alpine coniferous forest of the Himalayas and of the mountains of Afghanistan Baluchistan and Burma composed of pine deodar juniper with oak walnut boxwood approaching our own forest types in addition there may be segregated the coast forest of small extent composed of trees which like the mangrove will bear salt water the overflow forest along rivers and river forests in the desert regions of which latter large areas exist the natural differences in the forest cover are emphasized by the action of man who for many centuries has waged war against the forest clearing it permanently or temporarily for agriculture purposes or else merely burning it over to improve grazing facilities or for purposes of the chase statistics except of government properties are somewhat doubtful apparently the forestry area of the whole of India comprises somewhat over 40% of the land area the government forests settled and unsettled represent at present about 24% of the area under British rule 149 million acres not over 20% being under cultivation leaving about 56% either natural desert waste or grazing lands the great forests of India are in Burma extensive woodcloth the foothills of the Himalayas and are scattered in smaller bodies throughout the more humid portions of the country while the dry northwestern territories are practically treeless wastes large areas of densely settled districts are so completely void of forest that millions of people regularly burn cow dung as fuel while equally large districts are still impenetrable while words where for want of market it hardly pays to cut even the best of timbers the great mass of forests in India are stocked with hardwoods which in these tropical countries are largely evergreen or nearly so although the large areas of dry forest are deciduous by seasons only a small portion of the forest area is covered by conifers both pine and seda these pine forests being generally restricted to higher altitudes in the Himalayas the hardwoods most of which in India truly deserve this name belong to a great variety of plant families some of the most important being leguminosae verbanosae dipterocarpae compretaceae rubyaceae ebinaceae euphorbiae martaceae and others and a relatively small portion represented by cupula fere and other families familiar to us the most important valuable species are teak, saal and deodar in the greater part of India the hardwood forest consists not of a few species as with us but is made up like most tropical forest of a great variety of trees unlike in their habit their growth and their product and if our hardwoods offer on this account considerable difficulties to profitable exploitation the case is far more complicated in India several thousand species entering into the composition in addition to the large variety of timber trees there is a multitude of shrubs twining and climbing plants and in many forest districts also a growth of giant grasses bamboos attaining a height of 30 to 120 feet which is ready to take possession of clearings these bamboos valuable as they are in many ways prevent often for years the growth of any seedling trees and thus form a serious obstacle to the regeneration of the valuable timber the growth of timber is generally quite rapid although to attain commercial size teak requires usually a rotation of 150 years but in spite of their rapid growth and the large areas now in forest capable of reforestation India is not likely at least within reasonable time to raise more timber than it needs in most parts of India the use of ordinary soft woods such as pine seems very restricted for only durable words those resisting both fungi and insects of which the white ants are especially destructive can be employed in the more permanent structures and are therefore acceptable in all Indian markets at present teak is the most important hardwood timber while the diodar a true sedder is the most extensively used conifer teak occurs in all moist regions of India except the Himalayas grows usually mixed with other kinds single or in clumps is girdle two or three years before felling is generally logged in a primitive way commonly hewn in the woods and shipped usually floated as timber round or hewn and rarely sawn in size in 1905 to 1906 the cut in the state forest area was 240 million cubic feet timber 25% and fuel of which 20% was given to grantees or those holding rights of user free of charge and less than 2% was exported in addition over 200 million bamboos and nearly two million dollars worth of byproducts such as lack couch couch couch camber my rebalance were secured to property conditions prior to the british occupation the native rulers or rajas laid claim to a certain proportion of the produce from all cultivators of the soil they also reserved absolute right to the forests and to all unseated or wastelands although usually the people were allowed to supply their needs from these the english government by right of conquest fell higher to these rights as well as to the properties but without care in asserting its rights the unimpended use of unguarded forest property led to the assertion of rights of user by the people and search who are also sometimes granted by the government joint village communities in some parts that is settlements which occupy contiguous areas claimed and occupied large areas of forest and waste as comments and in general the original property rights of the government became uncertain the necessity of bringing order into this question led to various so-called settlements by which the rights were defined properties delimited and payment in kind changed into cash payments after attempts to regulate these matters by local rulers the first general indian forest act passed in 1865 modified by the forest act of 1878 laid down the basis upon which the rights of forest property were to be settled these acts divide the forests into three classes namely those in which the right of the state is absolute those in which the state has property rights but which are burdened with prescripted or granted rights of user and those which are private property but on which the state reserves the right to cut certain kinds of tree for government use teak sandalwood and in some parts the odar these being considered royal trees the forest act being throughout applicable only at the choice and under the construction of the provincial governments modified acts applicable to different parts of the empire and different in details were passed from time to time in many different local rules were issued by the provincial governments but all agree in fixing one definite policy namely declaration or demarcation of government forests after an inquiry into all existing rights and division of the declared government forests into three classes reserves or permanent state forests protected forests and unclassed the latter two still open to change in ownership and adjustment in rights of user etc the absolute in relative areas of government property therefore are continuously changing in 1900 the reserve forests comprised 81 400 square miles or 8.6 percent of the total territory controlled by the British government the protected forest 8800 square miles and the demarcated but unclassified area 117 000 square miles these figures had in 1904 changed to 91 567 for permanent reserves 58 million acres 9865 were protected and 131 269 for unclassed showing the rapid change now taking place in the status of classification the name of b.h. baden pavel had one time conservator of the panjab and acting inspector general of forests during 1872 to 1874 is closely connected with placing this forest legislation on a sound basis the object of this legislation was mainly to settle the question of ownership and rights hence reserved forests are not necessarily set aside for forest purposes like the forest reservations in the united states although ultimately this will probably be their condition rights of users were under this legislation regulated or commuted in some parts even on the reserved forest areas there are still retained rights to cut tongas i.e. to make partial clearings for temporary agricultural use under the restriction of not destroying teak trees over 18 inches in diameter and with the right of the cultivators to supply the domestic needs under obligation to cut out fire traces burning the brush and instituting similar protective measures the title to the forest property having been secured its permanent demarcation and a survey of the same were the next steps the first having gradually been nearly accomplished the latter being still far in areas the area of private and communal forests is not precisely known but including wasteland and lands of uncertain conditions there are at least five hundred thousand square miles so owned including those of feuditory rulers within the provinces of these some five hundred square miles or more of forest are leased to the government and under its control and in some cases forest administrators are instituted by the rajas themselves in the act of 1878 there was a clause calling for protection of private forest property against trespass and encroachment but this remained a dead letter by later legislation the government is entitled to exercise control over private forests and lands if it appears necessary for the public wheel or if the treatment which such forests have received from their owners affect the public welfare or safety injuriously but in such cases the owner can require the government to expropriate the land in question the forest act also provided that the government may assign to village communities from the reserve forest area so-called village forests and make rules for their protection use and management how far this policy has been applied does not appear there are still areas the ownership of which is not settled and rights which are still in doubt the work of the so-called forest settlements still going on several thousand square miles being annually changed in status and several thousand dollars annually spent to quiet rights of user three development of forest policy through the long history of India that preceded the arrival of the Mohammedans in the 10th to 12th centuries it appears that the forest area was only slowly encroached upon by the Hindu civilization even when the invaders nomads by habit drove many of the native race into the jungle to ache out a precarious existence owing to the remarkable recuperative powers of a tropical nature the impression made was not permanent although much forest growth was then destroyed cleared or mutilated changes took place only slowly it has been claimed that in consequence of the destruction which was incident to the nomadic life of the Mohammedans and the shifting agriculture of the aborigines climatic changes were produced but the proof for this assertion has remained questionable when in the 18th century the British entered India in rivalry with the French and other European nations it was of course only for purposes of exploitation and for a long time after the British had attained the ascendancy and had subjected most of the territory now ruled by them not much concern was had about the forests they furnished but small values accepting in one particular namely supplies of teak for naval purposes in the beginning of the 19th century the government became concerned regarding the supplies which under the rough exploitation threatened to become exhausted the first step towards securing some conservative management dates back to 1806 when captain Watson was sent to India as conservator of forests to look after the interests of the East India Company in this direction his inability to compromise with those who had secured timber privileges led to his removal and an abandonment of the office in 1823 in effective sporadic efforts at administration by the provincial governments then followed in 1839 to 1840 the government of the Bombay presidency stopped the cutting of teak trees on government property in 1834 M. Connolly collector of Malabar in the Madras presidency began to plant teak on a large scale at Nilambur in 1847 Dr. Gibson was appointed conservator of forests in Bombay from 1848 to 1856 lieutenant now general CSI James Michael conducted the government timber operations in the Annamalai teak forests Madras and made the first recorded attempts to protect Indian forests from injury by annual jungle fires in 1856 Dr. Hugh Clegghorn was appointed conservator of forests in Madras he checked the destructive practices of temporary cultivation in the government forests of that presidency a measure which at first was strongly opposed by the people but his well-known desire to promote native interests inspired the rulers of the country with confidence and finally his measures were successful various attempts at some kind of regulation of the exploitation by lumbermen were also made by the general government after various examinations and reports and in 1847 even a small and ineffective forest department was organized the annexation of the province of Pegu in the lower Burma in 1852 introduced a new complication and proved the turning point in forestry matters in this province the right to cut teak had been reserved by the native princes and hence became a right of the crown but private lumbermen began to cut this timber and after an investigation and report it was decided to take definite steps to regulate the use of these valuable teak forests at least Lord Dalhousie the then governor general upon the basis of the report of the superintendent of forests at Pegu Dr. Mick Leyland in 1855 laid down in statements like manner an outline of a permanent forest policy for the government and introduced the first professional advisor in 1856 a German forester from Hesse Dietrich Brandes afterward Sir was installed as superintendent of forests for Pegu with white powers under contract for 10 years at a liberal salary and pension after retirement the only possible check that could at first be applied was to force the lumbermen to make contracts limit the diameter to which the exploitation was to be allowed and mark the trees to be filled this was done naturally not without a large amount of friction the result of this experiment in forest conservancy as the English are pleased to call it was so satisfactory that in 1862 it was decided to organize a forest department for all India Brandes was interested with the organization and in 1864 he was appointed head of the new department under the secretary of public works with the title of inspector general acting as advisor of the various provincial governments the forest of India during the next 20 years during which Brandes held office were province by province brought under the regime of the imperial forest department although the provincial governments retained full and independent administrative powers the first problem was to settle ownership conditions which was done in the manner described before by the act of 1865 and by later acts the discontent which was created by this act came very near wrecking the whole enterprise and much difference of opinion between the local and general governments existed the government of madras going so far as to declare the impossibility of establishing state property in view of the acknowledged rights of the villagers over waste lands the general policy however finally prevailed and an increasingly harmonious cooperation of the provincial governments has allowed the development of an efficient forest service various provincial legislation was considered passed and repeated until in 1878 the Indian forest act seven settled the policy at least for the majority of the provinces madras and Burma and some minor districts still declining to extend its provisions to their forests the Burma government enacted however similar legislation in 1881 and the madras government in 1882 and much later the other outstanding governments followed 1886 to 1891 so that while the detail of application varies not inconsiderably the general policy regarding forest property of the state is the same throughout the empire whatever of uniformity exists had to be secured mainly by persuasive means the forest acts as stated on a previous page contains certain provisions regarding formation of village forests and control of private forest property but no interference with private forest property has been attempted although in some parts this is more important and larger than the state holdings most of the owners merely exploit their property but some of the larger more enlightened native princes have established forest administrations imitating the example of the imperial government those of Mysore and Kashmir and Hyderabad have placed this administration under an imperial forest officer for log for this purpose and derived handsome revenues the Kashmir forests of about 2,500 square miles yielding around $180,000 those of Mysore near 2,000 square miles over $330,000 this largely derived from sales of sandalwood those of the nizam of Hyderabad with 5200 square miles in reserves and 4400 in protective forests deriving a revenue of $75,000 seven times the what it was 10 years before for forest organization and administration the condition of affairs in the forest department can briefly be summarized as follows for the year 1909 total area under government control 241,774 square miles namely reserved 94,561 protected 8,835 unclassed 138,378 officials in 1905 higher grades 312 lower grades 1663 guards 8533 the controlling staff was in 1909 increased by 34 a number in all other grades increased rounded off expenditure 4,500,000 revenues 8,225,000 net proceeds 3,675,000 45% of gross variation in the value of the repeat makes comparison with earlier years uncertain in spite of the many difficulties a poor market no market at all for a large number of birds wild unsurveyed and practically unknown woodlands requiring unusual and costly methods of organization and protection the forestry department has succeeded without curtailing the timber output of India in so regulating forest exploitation as to ensure not only a permanence in the output but also to improve the woodlands by favoring the valuable species it has prepared for an increase of output for the future and at the same time has yielded the government a steadily growing revenue which bids fair to rank before long among the important sources of income in 1865 the net revenue was only 360,000 dollars it had about doubled by 1875 and more than tripled by 1885 and since then has more than quadrupled while in the period of 1870 to 1874 the expense of the administration was still 70% of the gross income it has gradually been reduced to near 45% while the outrun in material has in the last five years increased by 35% over the preceding quin quininium at first the department and its operations as well as its finances were imperial the local governments having no control over its officers or over the revenue derived but in 1882 decentralization was affected the local governments obtaining a direct interest in the revenues as a result the financial interest overruled the conservative policy and over cutting was the consequence in 1884 the general government recognized the need of a change after some struggle the imperial department was placed at least in charge of preparing the working plants and pressure for their execution if not direct enforcement can be brought through appeal to the general government by the inspector general which however has never been necessary to use the organization of the forest service passed through various stages and arrangement in the different provinces is even now not quite uniform the forest service then is peculiarly organized as regards division of responsibilities and relationships between the imperial and the provincial governments the autonomy of the latter being geliously guarded it is divided into the imperial and the provincial service the former consisting of the higher grade officials entirely recruited from england the latter the executor service being an administrative functions independent of the former an inspector general directly under the secretary of revenue and agriculture for some time under the home department is the head of the service and acts as professional advisor both of the imperial and the provincial governments but this head of the service is sure of most of executive functions on administrative matters being reserved to the provincial authorities the inspector general has charged only of the forest school administration of forest surveys and of the making of working plans which later after approval by the provincial government are in their execution inspected and critically supervised by him but without power to enforce them or to give direction directly to the conservators in charge at least in madras and barma he also watches over and reports on the progress of all forestry matters in the empire peculiarities and great variety are also found in other official relations and in the appointing power the general and provincial governments exercising certain rights in this respect the controlling staff 57 officers in 1869 now about 300 under the inspector general consists of conservators deputy conservators and assistant conservators the conservators now some 20 so far as they are not directly acting as assistants in the inspector general's office are the heads of the provincial departments and conservatorships and in that capacity directly subordinate to the local government which in madras and bombay also has their appointment each is in charge either of the entire forest business of the province or of a circle forming part of a province and the administration unit in india these are therefore the most influential and most responsible agents in introducing forestry practices conservatorships are divided into divisions each in charge of a divisional forest officer a member of either the imperial or the provincial controlling staff but these have to acknowledge subordination to the chief civil officer the collector of the district in which they are located in order to harmonize the financial and forestry interests about 80 percent of the controlling staff in the imperial service are appointed by the secretary of state from graduates formerly from the forest school at cooper's hill college now oxford the remaining 20 percent from englishmen in the provincial service the member of which have passed through the dehra dune forest school and through the lower branches of the service in addition to the superior staff a subordinate staff of extra deputy conservators and extra assistant conservators form the provincial service which is mainly recruited from the natives the districts are divided into ranges for which an executive service is organized of rangers over 400 who are now selected from graduates of the forest school in dehra dune deputy rangers and foresters a lower grade some 1700 and guards having their separate beats over 8500 form the protective service mostly or all recruited from the better class of natives five forest treatment with the irregular distribution of forests the peculiarities of indian government affairs and population and the wild and difficult forest conditions themselves it is but natural that the work thus far has been chiefly one of organization survey and protection in the protection against unlawful felling or timber stealing and grazing the government of india has shown itself fully equal to the occasion by a liberal policy of supplying villagers in proximity of the forests with fuel building materials pasture etc at reduced prices or gratis over one million five hundred thousand dollars worth is thus disposed of annually the incentive to timber stealing being thereby materially reduced a reasonable unjust permit system for grazing where again the needs of the neighboring villages are most carefully considered not only brings the government a yearly revenue of over eight hundred thousand dollars but enables the people to pasture about 14 million head of animals in the state forests without doing any material damage to tree growth 31% of the total forest area is open to grazing the work of preventing and fighting fires can with the means available not be carried on over the entire forest area of which large tracts are not even crossed by a footpath and in a land where the regular firing of the words has become the custom of centuries and where in addition intensely hot and dry weather together with a most luxuriant growth of giant grasses render these jungle fires practically unmanageable each year however additional territory is brought under protection in 1902 nearly 37 000 square miles or nearly 40% of the area and reserve but only 12% of the total government forest area were under protection at a cost of four dollar per square mile or less than one percent per acre half of what it was 10 years before and over 2% of the gross revenue nearly 5000 fires occurred to be sure which burnt over three million acres that is to say over 90% of the area the protection was effective for nearly half the fires the cause remains unknown danger from fire has however become less in protected areas because of the changes in herbage and moisture conditions yet it costs still about 2% of the gross revenue to protect the area and the figures just cited shows that this expenditure is only partially effective in 1909 the protected area has increased to 43 000 square miles the cost to five dollars the efficiency to 94 percent the first successful attempt to deal with forest fires were made in 1864 by major later colonel G. F. Pearson who was then conservator of forests in the central provinces and who devised a system of clearing fire lines or fire traces surrounding the areas to be protected which were cut and burnt over early in the season a system now in vogue in all India in the jungle forests the traces must be brought the grass often taller than an elephant must be cut and burned before the grass on either side of the fire lane is dry enough to burn this protection forms the most important duty of the forest officials a trying one as it has to be carried on during the hot season a separate branch of the forest service carried on the work of surveying and mapping the forest area instead of the regular survey of India with the result of cheapening the cost some 74 000 square miles had been mapped on the scale of four inch to the mile the standard some smaller areas on smaller scale at the rate of 25 per square mile in 1908 however this work was handed over to the survey silviculture silviculture practices are naturally but little developed protection against fire grazing overcutting has been the first requisite the unregulated selection system with a diameter limit which brandis introduced still prevails mostly all the beginnings of a compartment and group system in converting miscarried selection forest of diodar pine and sal have been made or rather of an improved selection method which seeks to secure reproduction in groups clear cutting with seed trees held over is practiced in the coniferous mountain forest copis and copis with standards reserves of sprouts is a natural condition over large areas especially with teak and sal even improvements cuttings or sowing on barren hillsides with remarkable success are not absent the attempts at securing reproduction especially in the truly tropic forests have often miscarried inferior species filling the openings girdling of inferior species to favor the better classes has hardly had the desired result in the deciduous forest the same difficulty of undesirable aftergrowth is experienced deteriorating the composition except in the case of the gregarious salt tree shori arabesta the treatment of which for reproduction has after many failures been well established other gregarious species can also be satisfactorily reproduced the curled and burned over forests of which there are many rehabilitated in a manner by merely removing the old over mature and defective timber with comparative success in some parts the larger gregarious bamboos are a serious obstacle to reproduction here the only chance for reproduction exists when they flower and die killing the bamboos by cutting the annual shoots proved a failure but burning over the whole area and sowing seems to be followed by success in other parts as in the large teak forests of barma as well as of other provinces the useless kinds of trees are girdled huge climbers are cut off and a steady vod is which against all species detrimental to teak regeneration with satisfactory results with teak even planting on a larger scale is resorted to especially by means of tongue gas that is plantations where the native is allowed to burn down a piece of woods use it for a few years as field though it is never really cleared on condition of planting it with teak being paid a certain sum for every hundred trees found in a thrifty condition at the time of giving up his land similarly the department has expanded large sums in attempting to establish forests in part of the added region of balochistan and on the whole during 1894 to 1895 about 150 000 dollars were expended on cultural operations which up to that time involved about 76 000 acres of regular plantation and 36 000 acres tongue gas mostly teak making a total of 112 000 acres besides numerous large areas where the work consisted merely in aiding natural reproduction but in 1909 the plantations seem to have been reduced to 59 000 acres probably through failures the tongue gas however increased to 84 000 acres and the budget for plantings and other cultural measures formed a little over two percent of the gross revenues we see then that though the forests of india are now and will continue for some time to be little more than wild words with some production and a reasonable system of exploitation in place of a mere robbing or culling system yet the work of actual improvements steadily increases in amount in perfection in disposing of its timber the government of india employs various methods in some of the forest districts the people pay merely a small tax and get out of the woods what and as much as they need in other cases the logger pays for what he removes the amount he fails being neither limited in quantity nor quality the prevalent systems however are the permit system when a permit is issued indicating the amount to be cut and the price to be paid for the same and the contract system when the work is more or less under the control of government officers and the material remains government property until paid for to a limited extent the governments carry on their own timber exploitation working plants only a relatively small part of the total forest area each year however increasing is as yet worked under plants in 1885 only 109 square miles in 1899 20 000 square miles and in 1903 nearly 30 000 square miles about 13 percent of the total or 30 percent of the reserved area were operated under working plants and each year about 4 000 square miles are added so that now 1909 over half the reserved area is under working plants only gradually was the character of these plants brought into practical form and their execution in spirit at least enforced the conservators having the right to deviate from the plants a map prepared by the survey branch naturally forms the basis of the plan the form of the plan is prescribed by the provincial regulations and the preparation is also carried on by the provincial service under advice and supervision of the imperial department the strip valuation survey which brandis introduced covering sometimes as much as 30 percent of the area is employed in determining number of trees and sizes growing stock and cut modeled after the european practice except that little perhaps too little money is spent on the elaboration especially on determining the proper amount of cut that the cut is controlled at all is the most important result six education and literature in 1866 Sir Dietrich Brandes selected as assistance to young men who had been trained in the forest schools of Germany in turn his successes and at the same time arrangements were made for the training of young Englishmen in the forest schools of France in Germany at the end of 1875 the professional education was entirely transferred to Nancy the present force of conservators is composed largely of these men for some reason the training of men in Germany and France became unpopular and this objection finally led in 1884 to the establishment of a chair of forestry at cooper's hill college for engineering in england at first the course of study extended over 26 months during 22 of which the candidates prosecuted their studies at the college the remaining four months being spent under suitable supervision in selected british and continental forests in 1905 this department was transferred to university and the course extended to three years one year to be spent in continental forests at present this time may however be reduced to two years and the vacations in continental forests this is a government affair and probationers receive stipends from the government Mr. Brandes as early as 1869 saw also the necessity of providing the means of giving the natives of India some sort of technical education in forestry the first step in this direction was to place natives selected once under one or two officers of the imperial service who were deemed fit to instruct them and in this way a few good men were turned out another experiment after the german pattern was made by apprenticing likely young men under some forester for a year or two and then sending them to an engineering school for theoretical instruction this was also a failure after much hard work the Indian forest school at Dehradun was established in 1878 the forests between the Jumna and the Ganges river were set aside at training grounds formed into a special forest circle and placed under the control of the director of the school these forests have been subjected to regular systems of management based on european experience and excellent results have been obtained the first course of systematic theoretical instruction was opened on the first of july 1881 in 1884 the school was made an imperial institution by the government of India and the inspector general of forests was charged with its supervision under a board of control consisting of the inspector general the director and the three conservators but the assistant inspector general as secretary this board meets once a year at Dehradun conducts the examination and looks into all of the workings of the school very carefully there were two courses one in which the teaching was given in english for rangers the other in which the instruction was given in the vernacular for foresters courses extending over 24 months in 1906 the school was raised to the rank of a college and the course in the vernacular abolished the graduates may aspire to the rank of division officers the training of low-grade officers is left to the provinces the bombay presidency had for some time their own forest school in connection with the engineering college at poona but this is now abandoned another school however is located at Tharavadi with a two-year course in Burmese and one in madras with a one-year course so that the education of lower-grade officials is well attended to forest experiment and investigations have never been systematically instituted being left to individual initiative but lately 1909 provision has been made in this direction in connection with the Dehradun school by the establishment of an imperial research institute besides the monthly journal the Indian Forester which came into existence in 1875 through Schlitz initiative and the annual reports of the various conservators and of the inspector general a small book literature has developed within the last 10 or 15 years descriptive volumes of notes are j. s gambles manual of indian timbers new edition 1902 trees shrubs and woody climbers of bombay presidency by w. a. talbert 1902 ribbon drops forestry in british india 1900 and the earlier publication of h. r. morgan forestry in southern india brandis's indian forestry and distribution of forests in india of professional interests are e. e. fernandez manual of indian silviculture unfortunately out of print the same authors forest industries drc's manual of forest working plans cc rogers manual of forest engineering in india and b. h. bedan pavel forest law the influence of the development of the indian forest service on the forest policy of other british colonies and of the home country has been considerable and is growing indian forest officers being detailed to assist in developing forest policies and these are the parts of the british empire and a section 24 section 25 of a brief history of forestry this is a libervox recording all libervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libervox.org recording by laurence trask mount vernon ohio interface audio dot com a brief history of forestry by bernard fernauer section 25 canada the largest single colony of great britain and the most important as regards forest supplies both as to quantity and character canada has been for a long time supplying the mother country with a large proportion of her imports although in size larger than the united states its land area being estimated at over 3,600,000 square miles canada has so far attained only one fifteenth of the population of her neighbor namely less than seven million although now rapidly growing much of her territory is still unknown and will remain for a long time unavailable for civilization owing to its inhospitable climate indeed as yet not one third of its territory may be considered opened up to civilization and not much more than 100,000 square miles can be said to be occupied one half improved in farms and two-thirds of this in crops much of the northern country remains unorganized and the vast northwest territory 2,656,000 square miles between hudson's bay and the rocky mountains as well as labrador are for the most part uninhabited except by indians and a few military and trading posts the central interior region dotted with lakes and intricate river systems is a continuation of the forestless arid and subarid plains and prairies of the country west of the mississippi river toward the north changing by steps into lowlands studded with open tree growth and barren tundra frozen all the year a million square miles answering to this last description the pacific slope is a rough and lofty mountain country the extension of the rockies and coast ranges with a variable in part humid and temperate in part dry and rigorous climate more or less heavily wooded about 600,000 square miles with the frasier river in the south forming the most important drainage basin the atlantic portion south of the plateau like bare or scantily wooded hudson bay and labrador country with a climate somewhat similar to northeastern germany is formed by the slopes of the watersheds of the great lakes and their mighty outlet the saint laurence river and its gulf the slopes rising gradually northward to the low range of the height of the land a plateau with low hills not over 1500 feet elevation which cuts it off from the northern country and forms the limit of commercial forest this region the bulk of square miles with 93,000 square miles in the maritime provinces around 250 million acres in all represents outside of british columbia the true forest region of canada and at the same time the center of canadian civilization although the cabot brothers discovered cape britain and labrador in 1497 and 1500 the first settlement of canadian territory was not made until 1541 by french colonists after the first captain general of canada jack cartier the discoverer and explorer of the saint laurence in 1534 had taken possession of the country for francis one but not much progress in colonizing was made until champlain's arrival in the first years of the next century kebek was founded as early as 1608 and montreal in 1611 but ottawa dates its first beginnings not farther back than 1800 the northern country around hudson's bay was under the name of rupert's land after prince rupert the head of the enterprise undefined in limits granted by charles the second in 1670 to the hudson's bay company a powerful fur trading corporation which had not only a commercial monopoly but except for occasional interference by the french held absolute governmental sway over the country through 200 years its jurisdiction at one time extending to the pacific coast friction and warfare with the english resulted in the latter acquiring by the treaty of utrecht in 1713 newfoundland and settling their rights on hudson's bay the final conquest of new france by the english ended french rule in 1763 but the french colonists remained peacefully and their descendants formed today at least in kebek the predominating influence indeed in 1774 by the so-called kebek act the first permanent system of self-government was established much on the lines of the french feudal system and the french civil law was retained at first under english rule the territory then including the states of Ohio indiana illinois michigan wisconsin and minnesota formed one colony but after the war of the revolution in 1791 the territory remaining english was divided into two separately governed provinces upper and lower or west and east canada they were reunited in 1840 and continued so until 1867 when the so-called union or british north america act affected the present organization of the dominion of canada a federal union comprising only the provinces of ontario kebek new brunswick and nova scotia after various combinations and subdivisions all of the british possessions in north america except newfoundland and its dependencies and labrador came into the union and in 1882 the union was completed with the then seven provinces those mentioned with prince edward island manitoba and british colombia and all the organized and unorganized territory in the same year four territories isanobia saskatchewan alberta and atabasca in 1895 the territory of ungava in labrador and in 1898 that of yukon were organized with a view of their eventual elevation into provinces the relations of the federation being quite similar to that of the states and territories in the united states in 1905 the western territories were organized into two provinces saskatchewan and alberta the government although practically much like a republic and largely independent of the home country is theoretically a limited monarchy the king being represented by a governor general appointed by the king and a privy council selected by the governor the letter also appoints now 81 senators for life to form the upper house of the parliament or legislative body well the lower house of commons is elected by the people besides this imperial government each province has its own separate government with a lieutenant governor appointed by the governor general and an elected legislature this autonomy being somewhat similar to that of the states of the united states and the division of functions between federal and provincial governments being also similar although the home government retains the veto power the supreme jurisdiction and various other powers although apparently by the appointment of officials its influence is guarded practically the party management has exercised and great britain prevails and independence from imperial influence and from home government is continually increasing in regard to the crown lands including forests this division as well as this relationship becomes important each provincial government except those of the three middle provinces administers the crown lands within its boundaries in its own way yet on similar lines while the dominion government controls only the lands located outside of the provinces together with those of the middle provinces and the so-called railway belt in british columbia these latter lands were mostly acquired by purchase from the hudson's bay company the company relinquishing its territorial rights in 1868 and the transfer being completed in 1870 upon payment of 300 000 pounds one forest conditions the forest area has at various times and by various authorities been roughly estimated as between one and a quarter of over one and three-quarter million square miles which would make the forest percent at least over 32 but this includes the open woodlands of the northern territory and of the prairies which while of great importance to the local settlers are for the most part probably or surely not of commercial value commercially valuable forests actually or prospectively are found almost only in british columbia and in the old provinces the two forest regions separated just as in the united states by a forestless region except that north of the prairie region a continuous belt of open woodland extends to near the mouth of the mackenzie river a careful examination of the sources of information has led the writer to the conclusion that less than 350 000 square miles or around 200 million acres would cover fully the commercially valuable forest land although the wooded area of the provinces in which the commercial timber occurs is stated officially as around 450 million acres two fifths of which is to be found in british columbia indeed although we are accustomed to look upon canada as a great forest country it really possesses about 60 percent less commercial forest than the united states and about one quarter of the mature timber of that country it will be understood that all such statistics are merely rough estimates the data being slim and eaked out by conjectures based on geographical conditions which predicate the character of the country most unreasonable speculations and calculations as to the amount of timber standing and value have been made on impossible assumptions as an instance one statistician by mere mathematical figuring namely deducting the known crop and pasture area from the total land area would make the forest area of kebek alone over 209 million acres this includes the country north of the height of land of 163 million acres which by another mathematical calculation is made to be able to furnish over 65 billion feet of lumber besides over 600 million cords of pulpwood and 370 million railroad ties but under present conditions owing to topography and character of the timber it cannot be utilized and its commercial value is altogether problematic this calculation would leave as really or potentially available forest land south of the height of land 46 million acres in addition to over 5 million on farms it is claimed that this forest area might still produce some 100 billion feet of coniferous and 1.5 billion feet of hardwoods or 2,500 feet to the acre the chief of the provincial forest service lately made the forest area of the province 131 million acres including 2 million acres of wasteland while by the change of standards and by local needs forest areas may become commercially valuable which were not so considered before and thereby the above figures may be eventually increased from the standpoint of valuable lumber supply for the world trade the above named area may be assumed to set the limit for the present a computation based on slender information has placed the country with open woodlands in the central region as exceeding 280 000 square miles the director of forestry estimated that 150 000 square miles of this area might contain nearly 200 billion feet merchantable lumber the southeastern territory south of the height of land was originally all densely wooded from it a farm area of around 25 million acres has been cut out less than 7 percent of the land area included especially the southwestern half of ontario between the great lakes which contains the most fertile land is densely settled as also the shores of the st. Lawrence a large part of the remaining forest area is cut over and called especially for pine the amount of white pine remaining according to estimates made in 1895 would now be less than 20 billion feet extensive areas have been turned into semi-barons by repeated fires the statistician of the dominion in his report made in that year comes to the conclusion that the first quality pine has nearly disappeared and that we are within measurable distance of time when the exception of spruce as to wood and of british columbia as to provinces canada shall cease to be a wood exporting country the composition in general is the same as that of the northern forest in the united states hardwoods birch maple and elm prevailing with conifers mixed the latter especially spruce becoming occasionally pure the nearly pure hardwood forest of the southern ontario peninsula has been almost entirely supplanted by farms and here even for domestic fuel coal imported from the united states is largely substituted for wood although white pine the most important staple is found in all parts of this forest region the best and largest supplies are now confined to the northern region north of georgian bay unopened spruce and furland still abound especially in kebek on the gas bay peninsula and northward spruce forums also the largest share in the composition of the new brunswick novus kosher and newfoundland forest the pine and the first two provinces having practically been cut out extensive almost pure balsam fur forest fit for polpoid still covers the plateau of cape britain while prince edward island is to the extent 60 cleared for agricultural use much of this eastern forest area is not only called of its best timber but burnt over and thereby deteriorated in its composition the inferior balsam fur appearing in largest number in the reproduction north of the height of land in numgava and westward spruce continues to timber line but outside of narrow belts following the river valleys only an open stand branchy and stunted hardly fit even for pulp for the most part with birch and aspen intermixed this open spruce forest interspersed among musk eggs continues more or less to the northern tundra and across the continent to within a few miles of the mouth of the mackenzie river and the arctic ocean the white spruce being the most northern species in the interior northern prairie belt groves of aspen dense and well developed skirt the water courses and form an important wood supply the forests of british columbia partake of the character of the pacific forest of the united states the coast range along the coast for about 200 miles being stocked with conifers of magnificent development douglas fur giant arbivide hemlock bull pine and a few others the rocky mountain range also of coniferous growth pine and larch but of inferior character large areas being covered with alpine fur abyss labia scarpa and lodgepole pine important as soil cover and for local use in the mining districts but lacking in commercial value if much of the forest area in the settled provinces is burnt over and damaged by forest fire much more extensive destruction is wrought in this northern forest by fires sweeping annually over millions of acres unchecked many of them said to be started by lightning about 50 percent of this country is said to be fire swept among the large notable forest fires the great miramichi fire in new brunswick in 1825 destroyed more than 6,000 square miles in a few hours in 1880 the loss by forest fires in the ottawa valley alone was still estimated at five million dollars annually in 1909 reports indicate over half a million acres burnt over in that year the river systems of eastern canada with the mighty st laurence permitting seagoing vessels to come up to montreal have been most potent factors in the development of the lumber industry and export trade without the need of railroads yet although as a consequence this trade was early developed to a relatively large figure it has not grown at as a rapid rate as might have been expected and today with an export in excess of imports of less than 40 million dollars is considerably below that of the united states the small export trade of earlier times having been stimulated by exempting canadian timber from paying duties in the home country or at least allowing it a preferential tariff had by 1820 grown to 15 million cubic feet all squared timber and sent to england in 1830 it had crept up to only 20 million cubic feet but by 1850 it amounted to over 50 million cubic feet two fifths of which was sawed material the 2632 mills being reported by the census 1851 as having cut 776 million feet bm by 1867 when the dominion was formed the total export of forest products had advanced in value to 18 million the next decade with a climax year in 1873 of 26 million saw an increase to 20 million dollars in the average the proportion of sawn material being nearly three times that of hewn wood and the entire cut of ontario going to the united states at that time it was computed that the waste of value in shipping square timber amounted for the province of ontario alone still to over 350 000 annually at present sawed lumber deals boards planks etc form 70 percent of the total export in the last 20 years a steady increase in exports at an average rate of about three percent per annum is noted the total in 1903 culminating at nearly 41 million but in the following year sinking to 36.7 million in 1910 the total export amounted to 53 million against which an import of nearly 16 million is to be offset nearly double what it was three years before adding wood manufacturers the net export must be increased by some 36 million the bulk of the export goes of course to the united states but while exports of forest products thus increased absolutely relatively to other exports they have considerably declined i.e the lumber industry has not grown proportionately to other developments for a while in 1868 forest products form 34 percent of the total export in 1904 they represented only about half that figure the same conclusion namely that the lumber business has not increased rapidly in the last 25 years may be derived from the report of the decennial census well for 1890 the total cut amounted to over 5 billion feet and its value to nearly 80 million in 1900 the cut or at least the census report fell below 4 billion and its value to 53 million in 1909 the total lumber cut was reported as 3.8 billion feet bm and its value 62.8 million a measure of the depletion of the great staple white pine is found in the statement that from 1865 to 1893 the average size of pieces decreased by one quarter to one third and that in 1863 over 23 million cubic feet were exported from Quebec as against 1.5 million feet in 1904 well the price had more than quadrupled in that period spruce has here taken the place of pine and ontario is now the main producer of pine yet in 1909 the white pine cut in amount almost equaled that of spruce and in value exceeded it by 40 spruce and especially pulpwood forms an ever-increasing item in cut and export export of pulpwood having increased seven fold in the last decade to nearly 2 million and of wood pulp to over 4 million a notable economic improvement has taken place during the last 10 or 15 years in that the proportion of raw materials exported especially logs and square timber has decreased in favor of manufacturers while originally the home country took the bulk of exports of forest products the cut of ontario has been always duty or no duty sent almost entirely to the united states in the last six or eight years the export to the united states has been doubled amounting now to about half of the total export and as the state's return of its own forest products largely in the form of manufacturers to the extent of about six million dollars worth a balance of trade for the canadian forest product of 12 million dollars is left to ownership when the french took possession of the country all the land belonged to the king and could be held by others only under feudal tenure i.e. as a gift under obligation of counter service the whole country was placed as a thief under the rule of the hundred associates a company which also exercised a trading and colonizing monopoly but made no success and was dissolved in 1663 it was then that Richelieu introduced the system of a signarial tenure the land being divided into portions of from 100 to 500 square miles usually with a small amount of riverfront and given outright to younger noblemen favorites of the court and clerics who were however obligated to sub-grant to colonists thereby becoming so many immigration agents these not only treated their colonists as tenants exacting rent and service but exercised nearly absolute jurisdiction within their domains the colonists becoming virtually serfs or retainers of the seniors this condition continued until 1854 when an adjustment of rights was formulated by this ignore tenures act and the government aided the habitants to secure their freedom by indemnifying the seniors or else by paying rent which was done mostly under english rule the granting of lands without however the signural rights was continued in 1784 such grants were made along the saint laurence and the bay of quinté to veterans of the loyalist army some 20 000 in lots of 200 acres for privates up to 5000 acres for field officers in 1791 every seventh section was ordered to be set aside as clergy reserves for the support of the protestant church a measure which created much friction and formed especially in the roman catholic province of kebek a chief grievance starting the pepua new rebellion of 1837 some 3 300 000 acres were gradually withdrawn for this purpose and as far as possible leased to secure an income some of these lands were sold after 1827 and finally in 1853 a statute was passed to sell the remainder and turn over the proceeds to municipalities for educational purposes and local improvement extensive grants and sales were made to lumbermen and speculators in this manner by the granting of 13 000 acres to an american philemon right in 1800 the great lumber industry of ottawa was started and in 1836 another american syndicate secured about a million acres of grants out of the 50 million acres granted an aid of railroad construction some portion must also have been in timber by all these methods as well as by small grants and sales to settlers a large area of uncertain extent has become private property in novaskosha nearly the entire government domain has passed by grant and sale into private hands some six million acres one half in small holdings of the lands remaining in the crown at least two thirds is on barons similarly in prince edward island the 800 square miles of woodland remaining are almost wholly owned privately the 14 000 acres of state land being like most of the private property stripped of its value in new brunswick over 1.6 million acres mostly woodland containing over 10 billion feet was granted to the railway company and another million acres or so is in other private possession a liberal disposal of lands having been continued until 1883 when about seven and a quarter million acres of timber and wasteland remained to the crown in kebek some six million acres are estimated as privately owned mostly in woodlots on farms in ontario the private woodland area of commercial character may be over five million acres besides the large grants which were and still are probably to the greatest extent in timberlands the farms in the various provinces according to the census of 1901 have from 22 to 57 percent in woodlots or altogether probably in the neighborhood of 30 million acres the total area privately owned may then be placed at not to exceed say 40 million acres and the largest part of the forest area is still crown lands the government of the different provinces and the dominion government in the territory and in the middle provinces administering them and deriving the revenue they're from this condition has prevailed since 1837 when the home government gave up its claim to land and revenues the provincial ownership extends over about 500 000 square miles the dominion government owns an area of 20 000 square miles in the railway belt of british columbia 20 miles on each side of the railway for 500 miles which contains good timber and some 722 000 square miles of land in the middle provinces which contains practically only timbers suitable for local use three administration of timberlands in the development of ownership conditions the realization of the valuable assets and timber growth had not been overlooked by the home government care of supplies for naval construction giving as in the united states the first incentive to a conservative forest policy even under the early french rule the grants of land were made under reservation of the oak timber fit for naval use as is evidenced from a land grant made in 1683 this reservation led to considerable friction as it hampered the colonists and making their clearings on the best lands later the reservation was extended to include other timber needed for military purposes and when the british occupation began these established rights of the crown were not only continued but reservations of larger areas for the timber were ordered notably around and north of lake champlain in 1763 and again in 1775 the home government ordered reservations to be set aside in every township but the great timber wealth seemed so inexhaustible that the governors paid little attention to the wise instructions of the home government for the creation of reservations and whatever regulations regarding the cutting of timber were made failed to be strictly enforced in 1789 the policy of reserving to the crown all the timber as far as not granted and giving licenses to cut was inaugurated but not until 1826 was even the revenue feature strongly enough realized to attempt systematically to secure the benefit of it namely by allowing anyone to cut timber such as was not required for the navy who would pay a fixed rate for what was cut a surveyor general of woods and forests being appointed to collect the timber dues with the aid of qualified colors 1811 there was even an attempt made to prevent waste by doubling the rate of timber dues on all trees cut which would not square more than eight inches this restriction probably remained a dead letter for lack of supervision lumberman however found it cheaper to buy the land making only part payment and after cutting the best timber forfeiting the land contractors who had the monopoly for cutting the timber for the royal navy cut also for their own account corruption and graft pervaded the administration which enriched its followers with the revenues obtained from the timber licenses and otherwise the strong hand which in the absence of a strong government lumberman were driven to use in order to protect themselves from piracy by their neighbors or else to perpetrate such brought about many bloody conflicts the general maladministration of the so-called family compact besides other grievances caused the revolution of 1837 which although readily put down led to the union of the provinces of upper and lower canada in 1841 and to reform of the abuses it was then that after the new governor general lord durham's admirable report on the situation the home government turned over the administration in part at least and revenues of the crown lands to the several provincial governments at that time a new brunswick where a thriving export trade had been early established the dues on two million dollars worth of production were involved and in kebec and ontario the income amounted to between two hundred thousand and three hundred thousand dollars but even then the immediate revenue and not any concern for its continuation animated the administration of the public or crown forests the freehand sales for nominal sums were changed into licenses to cut and in order to secure larger returns these were by and by put up at auction for competitive bids the premium or bonus being paid for the limits i.e a limited territory on which the holder or a licensee had the exclusive right to cut in addition to the fixed dues or charges per unit for the timber actually cut later to discourage the holding of timber limits for a rise of prices an annual cut of first one thousand then five hundred feet per square mile of holdings was required to still further accelerate the use of the licenses to cut the crown timber act of 1849 limited the license to one year and provided for an eventual limit in size of the grants all these provisions forced to more rapid cutting and overproduction and depression in the lumber market was the result the supply in 1847 being 44 million feet to meet an export of 19 million new rules were promulgated in 1851 introducing a ground rent system a set price being paid per square mile of limit and doubling the ground rent for unused limits each year needless to say the impractability of this geometric progression in ground rents became visible in a few years the final present system in the disposal of timber limits varying in detail were gradually perfected in varying manner by the several provincial governments but they agree in general principles in that they grant limits for a certain time some by the year others by periods usually 21 years during which certain conditions as to establishment of mills and amount of manufacturer without waste must be fulfilled and a ground rent a bonus and timber dues for all timber cut are to be paid by the limit holder details and prices varying and being changed from time to time a diameter limit below which trees are not to be cut also mostly prevails lately sales by the thousand feet bm have been inaugurated in ontario and sale by the mile is to be abandoned as a rule licenses become negotiable and can be transferred upon paying a small fee per square mile the governments reserving absolute rights to change conditions of this contract at any time the interest of the licensee is to cut as fast as he can other unsatisfactory conditions leading in the same direction a department of crown lands in the dominion government and in each province in Nova Scotia the attorney general acting as head administers the lands scalers or colors attend to the measuring of the cut the revenue derived by this system by all the provinces amounts now to around four point five million dollars per year ontario leading with about twenty thousand square miles now under license mostly pine producing in 1910 one million eight hundred and thirty five thousand dollars the yearly average for the decade ending 1910 was one and three quarter million dollars and some forty one million dollars have altogether accrued since 1867 Quebec with over seventy thousand square miles under license mostly in spruce producing only about seven hundred thousand dollars nearly thirty million dollars having accrued during the forty three years or at the rate of four hundred and eighteen dollars per square mile two-thirds of which from dues since land settlement is as in the united states obtainable by homestead and other entries a good many fraudulent applications under guise of settlement have curtailed the revenue until now closer scrutiny of the fitness of land for settlement is made the retention of the lands by the government is naturally a feature which would permit and should have earlier induced conservative forestry methods but the immediate revenue interest has had and still has a more potent influence than considerations of the future for development of forest policy the impetus to introduce conservative features seems to have largely come through the influence of the forestry movement in the united states and although voices of prominent canadiens like that of james and william little and sir henry jolly deal open air have been heard before in advocacy of a more far-seeing policy the meeting of the american forestry congress at montreal in eighteen eighty two may be set as the date of the inception of this movement in canada the definite result of that meeting was the inauguration of forest fire legislation in the various provinces in the province of ontario the fire act of eighteen seventy eight which had until then remained a dead letter was improved in eighteen eighty five by inaugurating a fire ranger system in which limit holders pay one half the cost of the rangers the force of firefighters thirty seven in the first year was gradually increased until in nineteen ten nearly one thousand were employed at a cost of three hundred thousand dollars in that year a change was made the whole service including inspection being charged against the limit holder in new brunswick a fire law was passed in eighteen eighty five followed in eighteen ninety seven by the introduction of the ontario ranger system in eighteen eighty three nova scotia passed a forest fire law which like that of new brunswick remained ineffective for lack of machinery this was not provided until nineteen oh four and since then has worked most satisfactorily recently a forest survey of this province was made kebek also enacted fire legislation in eighteen eighty three but did not provide means to carry it into effect until eighteen eighty nine since it first only five thousand dollars annually was allowed for its execution and by nineteen oh one to two not more than seven thousand two hundred and twenty six dollars was expended for fire protection over an area of forty million acres its effectiveness may be doubted but in nineteen oh five a special forest protection branch with a superintendent and a ranger system after the ontario pattern was organized and the service has become more effective the need for more organized effort and advice led to the establishment of special bureaus of forestry in ontario a clerk of forestry was established in the department of agriculture in eighteen eighty three and in eighteen ninety five he was replaced by a clerk in the crown lands department later named director of forestry mr. thomas southward this office later was changed to a bureau of forestry and colonization and a technically educated man was appointed as provincial forester with a view of developing a forest management at least in the reserves this movement however soon collapsed for lack of appreciation the office was transferred back to the department of agriculture which does not control any timberlands the forester resigned and the bureau was finally in nineteen oh seven restricted to the colonization work the forestry part being deliberately abandoned meanwhile the province of kebek pursued a more enlightened course to control the cut a color's office was established in eighteen forty two which however only checked the square timber then the principal material in eighteen seventy three after various feudal attempts to secure better supervision a core of forest rangers was created but as they worked without organization the results were only partial until in eighteen eighty nine they were placed under seven chiefs or superintendents in eighteen ninety seven the number of superintendents were reduced to one but having to work with incompetent men political appointees this improvement in headship did not produce much result in nineteen oh seven a reorganization took place by introducing two professional foresters educated at government's expense at american colleges of forestry who upon their return were employed to supply the technical supervision of cutting unlicensed lands and otherwise to forward forestry reforms in nineteen ten the logical sequence occurred by placing the entire forest service except the protection against fire under one of these technical men as chief with the other one as his assistant and a core of three civil engineers forty forest rangers and six scalers besides twenty student assistants the first organized provincial forest service in canada administered under the superintendent of woods and forests in the department of crown lands in eighteen ninety eight the dominion government had also recognized the need of more technical administration by instituting a forestry branch in the department of the interior under a superintendent with a view of developing improved methods at first manned without technical advisors who were indeed not in existence gradually the professional element was introduced and the scope of the branch enlarged the irrigation interest of the country being added under the able guidance of the present director whose task under the political conditions surrounding is not an easy one this department may in a few years also become fully organized with technical men of whom there are now seventeen employed besides student assistants these various government agencies and other propaganda produced at least the important result of committing the governments to see the propriety of setting aside permanent forest reserves the first movement in this direction was made in eighteen ninety three and in eighteen ninety five the first dominion reservations were made by executive order through the minister of the interior these to be sure were located in the thinly timbered parts of the province of manitoba the turtle mountains and riding mountain mainly for the protection of water supply several other similar reserves were set aside by the minister but to give more stability to these reservations an act of parliament was passed in nineteen oh six declaring their permanence and placing them three million three hundred and eighty thousand acres under the administration of the superintendent of forestry there are so far some twenty six dominion forest reserves created or in the act of creation compromising an area of over twenty five thousand square miles the forestry branch is making a brave beginning to survey and manage these reserves under forestry principles of the provinces ontario was the first to recognize the principle of reservations in eighteen ninety three when a partially cut over partially licensed territory of over one million acres was set aside as the algonquin national park in the pissing district but the first definite establishment of a forest reserve policy dates from the forest reserve act passed in eighteen ninety eight which authorizes the executive as in the united states to withdraw lands for reserves some eight reserves and two parks have so far been established and the reserved area amounts to around twenty thousand square miles of management on forestry lines on these reserves there is far little to be heard except an effort to keep fires out gebec has followed this example of ontario first by setting aside the lauren tides park in the saguenay region one million six hundred and thirty four thousand acres which like algonquin park was more in the nature of a game preserve during nineteen oh six and seven however under a law authorizing the lieutenant governor to set aside forest reserves over one hundred million acres were placed in reserve apparently however no administration of this preserve in the forestry sense is as yet attempted british columbia which until lately was only concerned in disposing of the well-timbered crown lands after having disposed of the best parts has placed under reservation the balance and the forest commission of inquiry has been constituted to devise further measures in the interest of forestry its report appearing in nineteen eleven gives a very clear statement of conditions in the province and the promise of active organization of a better service of other attempts to foster forestry interest may be mentioned a law in kebec passed in eighteen eighty two providing a bonus of twelve dollars per acre for tree planting which seems to have remained without effect another providing for a diameter limit of twelve inches on the stump for pine and nine inches for other kinds these dimensions are now varied inaugurated in eighteen eighty eight may have preserved some young growth on the limits although since pulpwood is now the main product and supervision has been inefficient not much may be expected from such laws indeed the chief of the forest service reports that sixty percent of the regeneration is of the inferior balsam fur in ontario a very competent commission was created in eighteen ninety seven with a noted lumberman mr. Bertram as president to formulate methods of reform but the able report remained barren of results the dominion has been active encouraging the dominion has been active in encouraging tree planting in the prairies the agricultural experiment station at ottawa not only set out object lessons by planting some twenty acres of sample plots but for a number of years distributed plant material to settlers this work was later taken over by the forestry branch and increased to a larger scale some eighty-five acres being in nursery and the distribution having grown to fifteen million seedlings in nineteen ten ontario under the direction of its department of agriculture and in cooperation with the agricultural college at gulf has lately embarked in two movements of amelioration namely establishing a state nursery from which plant material at cost with advice as to its use is given to farmers and purchasing and reforesting wastelands in the agricultural section tariff legislation is another means which is in the hands of the dominion government to be used for encouraging forest conservancy it has however so far not been used directly for such purpose fiscal and commercial policies being uppermost but the provinces have in this respect helped themselves by encouraging manufacture rather than export of raw materials ontario leading in this matter by prohibiting export of unmanufactured logs from crownlands in eighteen ninety eight other provinces impose an export duty on pulpit cut on crownlands as does also ontario at present writing a reciprocity agreement with the united states is under contemplation which would admit wood products from canada free of duty an arrangement which whatever its commercial advantages bodes no good for conservative forest policy meanwhile private limit holders here and there had begun to see the need of conservative methods and by nineteen oh eight at least two large paper and pulp concerns had placed foresters in charge of their logging operations five education until nineteen hundred associated effort to advance forestry in canada had relied on the international american forestry association in that year largely through the officials of the dominion forestry branch mr e steward the canadian forestry association was formed this association has grown more and more vigorous and having escaped the period of sentimentalism which in the united states retarded the movement so long could at once accentuate the economic point of view and bring the lumberman into sympathy with their effort in nineteen oh five a quarterly magazine the canadian forestry journal was started by the association making its work of instruction and propaganda more effective the technical literature as yet slightly developed is found mainly in bulletins of the forestry branch a most promising convention held in january nineteen oh six with the premiere of the dominion presiding participated by prominent officials and businessmen seemed to foreshadow the time when a real rational forest management at least in some parts of the dominion would be inaugurated but it can hardly be said that the expectations were realized and another such convention was held in nineteen eleven which may perhaps be followed by better results in nineteen oh nine following the precedent of the united states a conservation commission was appointed for the dominion under federal support manned by the leading officials and prominent representative men from all provinces and here the forestry interests may find at least educational advancement the first two years of the existence of this commission have however produced little advancement while the ontario government had directly discredited the forestry movement by abolishing its bureau of forestry indirectly it laid the foundation for a sure future in nineteen oh seven by establishing in its provincial university at toronto a faculty of forestry with full equipment a year later the province of new brunswick also established a chair of forestry in its university while sometime earlier the gulf agricultural college had introduced the subject of farm forestry in its curricula the latest development in educational direction is the forest school organized in nineteen by the government of kebec in connection with its forest service for the purpose of educating its own agents end of section twenty five recording by lauren strask mount vernon ohio interface audio dot com a brief section twenty six of a brief history of forestry this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox dot org recording by betty b a brief history of forestry by bernard fernell great britain and her colonies newfoundland and other british possessions and colonies newfoundland newfoundland probably the first discovery of america by the norsemen remained a mere fishing station until modern times and except for the open coast unknown as regards the wooded interior which was supposed to be largely barren it became a possession of great britain in 1713 development did not begin until 1880 when the first railroad was built and has progressed more rapidly since the newfoundland railway traversing the entire island was opened in 1898 it was found that while the shores and a considerable part of the west and south coast are barren or poorly timbered and on the interior plateau large moss barons exist there are extensive timber areas of mixed growth white and red pine balsam and spruce with white birch a lumber industry which by 1904 had grown up to probably not less than 100 million feet is rapidly extending over the whole island and an extensive paper pulp industry is preparing to establish itself on timber limits under a license system similar to that applied in other parts of canada some 5000 square miles are now under license forest fires have repeatedly devastated large areas especially in 1904 the experience of that year led to the enactment of a forest fire law but without any agency to make it effective no forest policy exists except the commercial restriction of the license system a forestry association has lately been formed other british possessions and colonies under the influence of the indian forest service or stimulated by a success some of the other british colonial governments in africa and australia have attempted and sometimes succeeded in establishing a forest policy of east indian territories selan the nearest neighbor to india with over 25 000 square miles of which 42 percent wooded mostly with second growth forest of small value attempted long ago an organization with the aid of indian foresters but by 1900 had of over 10 000 square miles only 431 in reserves in addition to nearly 1800 acres planted one conservator and eight assistant conservators produce a net revenue of less than 30 dollars they're being in import of 250 000 necessary to eke out the wood requirements of the 3.5 million people the straits settlement an area of 1526 square miles had by 1900 a reserved state forest area of 138 square miles under an experienced indian forest officer good up percha rubber and gums are here the most valuable products the federated melee states with 26 350 square miles and heavily wooded after a report by the indian inspector general had begun to reserve forest areas some 100 000 acres having been set aside which are administered by the conservator of the straight settlements reserves the government of the island of cyprus also employs a forest officer and guards to look after its 700 square miles of forest in africa during the last few years small forest departments have been established by the governments of the sudan east africa nigeria transvaal orange river and natal mostly for the purpose of planting on the treeless plains the government of moritius had made attempts at conservancy for many years but without notable success the most successful attempt in africa so far is reported from cape colony which as early as 1819 had a superintendent of lands and woods and in 1876 a department of forests and plantations neither of which have left much of record in 1881 a new forest department under a french forest officer was started which is grown until now it's consists of one conservator de hutchins 22 assistant conservators 84 european foresters and a few native guards in 1888 the needed legislation was had for regulating the working of the nearly half million acres of forest area which in 1902 was declared inalienable government property since the wood imports amount to over two million and a quarter dollars annually the need of conservative use is appreciated especially as climatic conditions are unfavorable to reproduction some 24 000 acres have been planted during 22 years at a cost of one million five hundred thousand dollars the first plantations beginning to yield a substantial revenue and it is believed that another 40 000 acres of such plantations would supply all the timber needed in the colony tree planting by private landowners and municipalities is encouraged by furnishing advice roddus and plant material at low cost and to municipalities in addition government aid is extended to the extent of half the cost of planting the seven australian colonies are very variously situated regarding timber supplies three of them queens land western and south australia being poorly wooded the others more or less heavily forested especially Tasmania with 65 percent and new zealand with 31 percent generally speaking the forest areas are confined to the coast in narrower and wider belts the interior being forestless or with scrubby growth this portion is large enough to reduce the total forest percent to less than 6.5 the mountains and hill ranges facing the eastern southern and western coasts are especially heavily wooded with magnificent eucalyptus jarra and carry while the quarry pine is the most valuable tree in new zealand the one successful attempted a forest policy was made by the almost forestless colony of south australia which in 1882 reserved its scanty forest area of 217 000 acres and started to plant now 13 000 acres planted employing a conservator and six foresters in the other colonies at various times unsuccessful beginnings were made and there exist in queensland new south wales and victoria so-called forest branches or departments but mostly without power or equipment and no intelligent conception of forest policy seems practically to exist in queensland since 1897 the governor and council may reserve forest lands and regulate the cutting by diameter limit one and a half million acres have been reserved but no staff for administration exists in new south wales six million acres were withdrawn from settlement but it is mostly used for pasture and withdrawal may be revoked at any time no effective system of control exists in victoria five and a half million acres have been declared reserves under act of 1890 nearly half the forest area there exists a forest department of one conservator two inspectors and 25 foresters but no plan of management four state nurseries of doubtful value seems the whole result the other colonies still merely exploit their forest resources under loosely managed licensed systems without even an inefficient attempt at intelligent treatment