THE TROPICAL FORESTS.*

THERE is probably no one article of commerce for which the demand is so rapidly exceeding the supply as timber. Vast regions of earth are still described as covered with trees ; but wood is not timber, and unless Africa should afford us new and unworked forests, there is every probability that, within the next centut, timber for ship-build- ing will be all but unprocurable. Cultivation, and the growth of private rights, however favourable to civilization, are very fatal to fine trees, and more especially to those trees which, as they obtain the highest price, so offer the smallest temptations to any planter but the State. It may be affirmed, indeed, that the private owner always cuts sooner or later, and generally when be cuts clears recklessly. As land becomes more valuable, too, the farmer becomes more impa- tient of the tree which yields nothing except a shade, under which no grain will grow to perfection, and he also clears away. Replanting goes on to a very limited extent, and very naturally is almost confined to trees which yield a return within the lives of father and son. Timber from these causes may be said to have disappeared from France, Belgium, the accessible parts of Spain, and Italy. Strict laws alone preserve enough in Scandinavia to keep the forges going without risk of ruin. There is still a considerable supply in Central Europe, but free trade must ultimately drain the Austrian woods, and our American supply, which seems so exhaustless, will not at the present rate outlive the century. Shipbuilders already moan over the exhaustion of their supply of oak, and they will wake, in a decade or two, to the conviction that its substitute, teak, has disappeared even faster. The disproportion between the available supply of this tree and the demand for it is almost incredible, and is only concealed from the mercantile world by the reckless, almost insane devastation • Forests and Gardens of South Baia. By Hugh Cleghorti, M.D. Alien and Co. a supply. In Central India there is some timber which becomes as Planting of course on a vast scale is the only permanent cure for costly as metal before it reaches the coast, and in Madras all cutting, this rapid destruction of the woods, and to this Government, urged except for Government purposes, ought instantly to cease. Dr. on by Dr. Cleghorn, has already turned its attention. A former col- Cleghorn, the conservator, a most efficient and determined forester, lector of Malabar, Mr. Conolly, tried to plant teak, and succeeded describes in this book a state of affairs which speaks volumes. The vo- beyond his expectations, and his plantations have recently been Rune consists of his official reports, and though he would have made a doubled. The rate of planting is now 120,000 trees a year, and the better book by condensing them, striking out all surplusage,—such as system will be widely extended, but it must be remembered that discussions of sale inspectors' characters and salaries,—still its minute- these numbers are immensely in excess of the supply to be ultimately ness and almost painful accuracy will make it invaluable to those who obtained. A most admirable order has moreover been issued, direct- desire not a clever book about forests, but detailed information upon ing the plantation of avenues along all the public roads. Indian

them. roads have always " sides," and the extent of,o.round thus available

everywhere the same story,—reckless denudation of forest land. The is rigidly reserved to that particular tree, the timber thus gained may "immense, almost unbroken, forests which covered the Western be equal at least to one first-class plantation. The teak, however, Ghauts, from near the water-shed to the most elevated ridges," exist takes years to reach its full maturity, and the plantations ought to on the most elevated ridges still. Everywhere else the most valuable be arranged on a much wider scale. Planting 120,000 plants a year trees have been cut away. "The axe of the coffee-planter and the only costs 6001., and there A no imaginable reason why ten times

kumari cultivator have made extensive and often wanton havoc," and that sum should not be expended. The planting ought to be based the demand for the railways in Palghat, the Shevaroy Hills, and the upon the principle of providing a quarter of a million trees a year, North Arcot Hills, has changed the whole face of the country, swept so that the forest department, while feeding steadily all public away the teak as if a blight had fallen on it. "In the Official Road works, and a vastly extended railway system, should be able to Book, published by Major Scott not many years ago, opposite Waliar, maintain itself by its own exports to Europe. we find this remark : ' Dense jungle, beware of elephants;' but in For a department so extended, Dr. Cleghorn's book will become a looking from the staging bungalow, the traveller sees several tentative manual. Besides the history of the forests, which we have summa- lines of rail, each two hundred yards broad, and so extensive a clear- rized, it contains the results of a wide experience, advice in planting ing of the neighbouring forest, that no elephant could easily find a teak, classified lists of woods, and descriptions of all attainable cover. The encircling hills, formerly crowned with timber, are now woods and spars, and we cannot better close this notice than by ex- to a considerable degree laid bare. These changes, so far as I can tracting the description of the furniture woods, scarcely used in learn, have been the gradual result of unrestricted cutting, but much England, and obtainable in Madras in almost any quantity :

aggravated, during the last few years, in connexion with the enormous " 1. Black Ebony (Diospyros melanoxylon), and other species. This well- demand for railway sleepers, and for the department of public works." known and much admired wood (lignum nigrum non variegation 1) is very hard, On the Pulney Hills the green hills have been stripped, and it must heavy, and susceptible of a high polish. It is seldom obtained of great size.

not he forgotten that each of these barbarous names covers what ma

y suited for the best furniture. It can be procured in large quantities, and of be truly called a forest province. The waste is almost as great as the immense size, especially in Wainad; the wood contains much oil, which is devastation. The nomad tribes burn the forest to get easy crops, exhibited in Cl. I. (by the Dangain Local Committee). In large panels it is trees are cut which cannot be carried to market, the axe is applied a liable to split. yard and a half from the ground, and the branches are left to rot. "3. Satin-wood (Sivietenia Chloroxylon) is hard in its character, and, when polished, it is very beautiful, and has a satiny lustre; it is much used for picture- " Gund" only, in Cana seems seems left as a rich forest, and all its trees frames, rivalling the bird's-eye maple of America. It is occasionally used by would hardly keep the market going for twelve months. Wholly in- cabinet-makers for general furniture, but it is liable to split.. dependent of all the vast works going on for Government, the neces- " 4. Sandal-wood (Santalum album) is found in abundance in Mysore and sities of ship-builders, and the never-ending private demand, the railway Canara ; it is chiefly remarkable for its a'reeable fragrance, which is a preserve. would exhaust the teak of a forest in one year for sleepers aloue : tive against insects. It is much used in making work-boxes, walking-sticks, pen- " The establishment of railways causes an immense demand for timber, and

thus, as I remarked last year, entirely changes the features of the districts' •

through which they pass. E.ach sleeper measures three cubic feet; and as one 5 Kiabuca-wood, or Amboyna-wood (Petrospermum indicting). A handsome specimen of this ornamental wood is exhibited by Dr. Sanderson. It is imported mile of single rails requires 1760 sleepers, and these will not, on an average, last from Singapore. It is beautifully mottled, of different tints, evidently produced above eight years at the most, we have an annual demand of at least 220 sleepers by excrescences from the tree. The wood is chiefly used for inlaying, or for per mile, or 22,000 for every hundred miles. The total length of lines within the making desks, snuff-boxes, puzzles, &c. These are exhibited by the Madras presidency, either sanctioned or contemplated, is, I believe, about 1150 miles; so Local Committee."

that, if the above estimate as to duration be correct, at least 253,000 sleepers

(say 35,000 trees) will be required annually. A portion of these will no doubt be All these woods can be used for veneer, and the ebonies are, pro-. procured from England, Ceylon, Bunnell, the Andaman Islands, and Australia ; hably, the most durable of ornamental woods. In Ceylon, chairs but there will still be a regular and heavy drain on the forests of this pre- and immense wardrobes of this wood, after a hundred years' aer- aidency." vice in a tropical climate, remain as perfect as when first manufac- That is to say, the railway wants for sleepers alone five times all the tured, with the carving on them as hard and sharp as if just turned logs the Government officers have been able to collect in all their out from the factory.

depots. This store is only 7355 trees, collected with enormous labour and research. And this demand will go on for ever, for already sleepers have been found useless in two years. As for EAST LYNNE.*

"long spars," they can be obtained only from the Colongad Num- Ix is one great misfortune of the present manufacture of novels bady, and "the prospective supply will not apparently exceed fifteen that the supply of incidents is becoming used up. The combinations years ;" and, indeed, that estimate rests upon the present demand, of ordinary life are, we may fairly presume, inexhaustible, but to in- which is yearly upon the increase. The railway works are only be- teresting combinations there must be some attainable limit, and many ginning in Southern India. Every new road, every new canal, every of our novel writers seem to think it has been reached. Every year native boat, every improvement in civilization, or addition to com- they wander farther afield in search of novelty, and glance more and munication, or advance in prosperity, demands more and ever more more wistfully on the unexhausted store of horrible, exceptional, or teak. No other wood, blackwood excepted, which is scarce and morbid incident. Mr. Sala revels in depicting an English Brined' hardto work, will suit the purpose, for no other will resist the white • Bast Lynne. By Mrs. Henry wow Bentley. completely going on in a few remaining forests. The teak, botanists say, will ant and defy the effects of moisture. Dr. Cleghorn fixes no date, grow all over the southern deltas of Asia; but, as a matter of fact, but, judging from the analogy of Pegu, fifteen years will the principal sources of available supply are within the British do- sweep away the teak forests of Southern India.

minions. Timber is of little use to commerce when beyond the Dr. Cleghornis exerting himself to diminish the mischief, but his

possibility of carriage, or locked up in countries which forbid its ex- efforts, skilful and decisive as they are, will not benefit commerce.

portation. The great teak-growing countries now are Bengal, He is reserving.' all he can as Government forests. Gund in part& Madras, and British Burmah, the last more especially. Bengal may cular is reserved, and the spar-producing district. Waste is severely be pronounced exhausted. Far as the eye can range over a country repressed, contracts, for instance, being void if the tree is cut more 400 miles by 350, stretches one apparently unbroken expanse of than eighteen inches from the ground. The kumari cultivators,

forest, but not five per cent. of that wood is timber in any commercial who burn a district to avoid trouble in cultivation, are eagerly hunted sense, not one per cent. is teak. Here and there on some great out. Cutting is absolutely prohibited wherever Government can

estate, and in the deeper recesses of the Sunderbunds and the hill act, and every department is taught to experiment with every tree slopes, fine trees are still to be found, and the aggregate over rather than use teak. Every department, of course, looks to the so wide a territory of course still swells the returns. But these need of the hour, reads the orders, and reports that teak is indis-

trees are getting few, few to a degree none but experienced pensable. What is Government to do? So fierce is the pressure, foresters will believe, and they are mercilessly cleared away. that Dr. Cleghorn, fully recognizing that his business is to preserve There is no replanting, and no possibility of any; Government the forests, fills his reports with plans for the swift cutting down s quite powerless, and in twenty years the teak-tree will be of more and yet more timber, builds timber channels up pre- as extinct in Bengal Proper as the old pagoda-tree. In British

cipices which would put the Swiss channels to shame, and calls for Burmah the case is even worse. The great forests of the old provinces " elephants ! elephants !" as if he were collecting cows. The Go- were let to speculators, who have simply annihilated them, raked the vernment in their orders on the reports mention with applause land for teak, as one of them said, " with a tooth-comb," and the improved methods of felling, but doubt the possibility of saving the Moulmein supply now comes from the remaining forests on the long spar forest, order a plan for more complete clearance of the Siamese border, which also are pitilessly cleared. In Pegu matters Wynaad forests, and generally seem divided between a passion for timber and a wish to restrict the denudation. In only one instance are not quite so bad, as Pegu. is a new possession; but even there Dr. Brandis, the able conservator, in utter despair, has suggested a do they unequivocally prohibit all cutting whatsoever : the denuda- doubt whether it would not be better to enrich the province by tion of the top ridges is beginning to affect the rainfall, just as it letting the speculators loose, titan to potter on, making half-hearted has done in the Punjab and some districts of Upper India ; and this efforts at protection. In Northern India there is no chance of species of destruction is absolutely prohibited.

a supply. In Central India there is some timber which becomes as Planting of course on a vast scale is the only permanent cure for costly as metal before it reaches the coast, and in Madras all cutting, this rapid destruction of the woods, and to this Government, urged except for Government purposes, ought instantly to cease. Dr. on by Dr. Cleghorn, has already turned its attention. A former col- Cleghorn, the conservator, a most efficient and determined forester, lector of Malabar, Mr. Conolly, tried to plant teak, and succeeded describes in this book a state of affairs which speaks volumes. The vo- beyond his expectations, and his plantations have recently been Rune consists of his official reports, and though he would have made a doubled. The rate of planting is now 120,000 trees a year, and the better book by condensing them, striking out all surplusage,—such as system will be widely extended, but it must be remembered that discussions of sale inspectors' characters and salaries,—still its minute- these numbers are immensely in excess of the supply to be ultimately ness and almost painful accuracy will make it invaluable to those who obtained. A most admirable order has moreover been issued, direct- desire not a clever book about forests, but detailed information upon ing the plantation of avenues along all the public roads. Indian

them. roads have always " sides," and the extent of,o.round thus available On his appointment, Dr. Cleghorn surveyed his charge, and found is equal to hundreds of square miles, and if all that will grow teak

"'l. E. Indian Blackwood (Dalbergia tali/Olio) is an excellent heavy wood, holders, and other small articles of floe ornament, but cannot be procured of a large size.