before clearances are made, permission should first be obtained from the Revenue authorities in communication with this department, the locality and extent of the clearance being defined.

(A.) EXTRACT of a LETTER from Captain W. C. ANDERSON, Supt. Revenue Survey, Mahratta Country, 26th July 1859.

"I do not think Kumari is absolutely necessary to the people except near the ghats-say within eight or ten miles at farthest, where the fall of rain is so heavy as to interdict ordinary dry crop cultivation on the same land for several successive years. Where permitted, you will find the people resort to it very extensively, more so than to any other description of cultivation, for several reasons. It requires no stock or agricultural capital. It requires less labour than any other description of cultivation : a month in May or June, in felling, burning, and sowing, and a fortnight for reaping, after the rains, affords a subsistence, such as it is."

(B.) From P. GRANT, Esq., Collector of Malabar, 5th July 1859.

"1. I beg to inform you that Punam and Kumari cultivation are the same.

"2. Punam cultivation is carried on extensively along the slopes on the W. Ghats, and on many of the other lower ranges of hills; but as they are mostly private property, I do not think that anything can be done by Government to put a stop to it.

"3. Once a jungle has been felled and burned, and the land cropped, a period of eight or twelve years is allowed to elapse ere another crop is taken off the same land.

"4. The Punam crop is generally a heavy one, and remunerative to the grower. Say a piece of land yields 100 parahs of paddy, 40 go towards the expenses of cultivation, leaving 60, of which

the Government share, at the rate of 25 per cent., is 12 parahs; the balance, 48 parahs, goes to the grower.

"5. When the crop is supposed to be ready to be cut, the Government officials proceed to estimate it as it stands on the ground; considering the localities in which it is grown, their distance from bazaars, &c., it is natural to conclude that the ryot has many circumstances in his favour.

"6. In accessible parts of the country, the rising value of timber is likely to lead the Jenmis to put a stop to Punam cultivation in many jungles."

Statement exhibiting the Extent of Punam Cultivation and the Revenue thereon during the last Five Faslis (Years).

"1. In this paper Dr Cleghorn replies to the reference made to him in the order of the 1st June 1859, No. 737, on the subject of Kumari cultivation in Canara, and the proper measures to be taking for checking it. The practice referred to is that of felling and burning the timber and jungle on portions of forest, cultivating the ground for a single year or two years, and then leaving it, to repeat the same process on another spot. It is of course very destructive to timber. It prevails in the jungles of the

western coast, but not to its former extent; in Mysore, and in Belgam and Dharwar, it has been almost put an end to; in Canara, also, much has been done during the last ten years to check it, but it is still largely practised; in Malabar, where the forests are private property, there has yet been no interference with it on the part of Government."

"14. Dr Cleghorn gives his opinion, as requested by Government, respecting the several pleas urged in defence of Kumari. It is pleaded that Kumari is necessary to the subsistence of certain tribes; Dr Cleghorn was asked whether permanent clearing and cultivation would not be better for them. He replies decidedly in the affirmative (par. 7); and he describes (par. 13) the degraded condition of the Kumari cutters, who are kept abjectly poor by the coast saukárs and others, who enjoy the greater part of the fruits of their labour. Again, it is urged in defence of Kumari that it diminishes malaria and fever. But here also Dr Cleghorn's opinion is adverse. He declares in very decided terms (par. 10), that while permanent clearings are of unmixed good, the dense thorny scrub which succeeds Kumari cultivation is decidedly more injurious to health than lofty forest open below. In other words, that instead of promoting the healthiness of a locality, Kumari has the opposite effect.

"15. In the order of Government of June 1st, 1859 (No. 737, par. 3), the idea is thrown out that Kumari must be profitable, in order to attract so many persons. It appears from Dr Cleghorn's letter that this is really the case. In par. 13 he gives the details of the cost and returns of one and a half acre of Kumari, as ascertained from the cultivators themselves by Mr Müller, assist. conservator; and there could not be a better source of information on the subject. From this it appears that the value of the crop is Rs. 28, or Rs. 18 an acre. The deductions for clearing and cultivating would indeed reduce this to about Rs. 6 an acre, if really paid out; but in point of fact the cultivator and his family do all the work, so that the only actual expense is the assessment, which in N. Canara is R. 1 an acre, and in S. Canara R. 1"

"19. With regard to Sarkár Kumari, it seems to be a great evil even as respects the interests of the cultivators themselves.

It

appears certainly to retard the improvement of the forest races, and tends to keep them in their present degraded condition. It has been already noticed, that in Mysore the practice of Kumari cutting has been entirely abolished; and that in the jungle districts of Bombay it has been so very nearly. The Government now prohibit Sarkár Kumari, or Kumari cultivation in Government forests, without previous permission. This permission should be given sparingly, and never for spots in the timber forests.

"20. It only remains, lastly, to direct, that the collections on account of abolished Wargadár Kumari held in deposit be now brought to account.

66

"J. D. BOURDILLON,

Secretary to Government.

"To the Conservator of Forests."

NOTE. The documents relating to this system of upland cultivation are very voluminous; but I have endeavoured to select from them every important statement bearing on the subject. The opinion of Sir J. E. Tennent, as given in his great work on Ceylon, vol. ii. p. 463, is worthy of perusal. I would only remark that the "chena cultivation" of Ceylon there described is more careful and varied than the Kumari practised in Mysore and Canara. "Chena" lasts two years, and includes the culture

of chillies, yams, sweet potatoes, cotton, hemp, &c.

H. C.

FIREWOOD.

MEMORANDUM ON THE STRIHARIKOTA JUNGLE.

The banks of Cochrane's Canal are clothed with saline plants (Salsola, Salicornia, and Suada), which, with their succulent cylindric leaves, may be seen in great abundance wherever the salt water or marsh extends their ashes afford soda by incineration. The canal is lined by rows of young trees (Casuarina muricata, Melia azadirach, and Pongamia glabra), and there is a hedge of Parkinsonia aculeata on both sides, thriving as well as can be expected in an exposed situation and on a sterile soil. These valuable improvements have been effected since I last travelled by this canal in 1851. The Palmyra palm (Borassus flabelliformis) grows spontaneously in vast abundance along the narrow strip of land between Pulicat Lake and the sea. Other trees begin to appear at some distance beyond Coromandel (properly Kára-mannil), where the tract of jungle under consideration increases in breadth; but the trees are nowhere of large size, and there is no part which can be designated forest, the general appearance being that of a dense, scrubby jungle. The length of this belt is under forty miles, varying in width from half a mile to eight miles; but it has not been accurately surveyed, and is not so broad as usually represented, or the area has diminished in extent. The fine loose sand blown by the

wind along the flats has a tendency to collect round every obstacle, even a blade of grass; and a succession of mounds are

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