Burma : A Handbook of Practical Information - Khamkoo

224 BURIVIA
colli wf.itlier approaches-, to be followed by a general
shedding of all leaves, both on trees and bamboo, in
March, as the hot weather grips the country; thus March
and April is the winter of this type. Everything is bare
of any green, and it is then that jungle fires sweep through
the forest, burning up all debris, and effectually preventing
the formation of any humus such as exists in the evergreen
of Burma, and is so well known a feature of forests
in temperate climes.
These mixed deciduous forests cover vast areas in
Burma, perhaps 20 per cent, of the province, and contain
most of the trees of economic and commercial importance,
forming the huge forest wealth of Burma, such
as teak (^Teclona grandis), Padauk (Plerocarpus indica
and Macrocarpd), and Pyinkado {Xylia dolabrijormis).
These are famous. There are many other species which
are of value for many different and varied purposes.
Conservation.— It has been often said that the English
have little historical knowledge and a short political
memoiy, but since the days when William the Conqueror
created in Hampshire, for purposes of sport, the first
Reserved Forest under IWtish rule, the Anglo-Saxon,
wherever he has gone, h:.s remembered the tales of the
cruelty with which this reservation was accompanied, and
has displayed an unfortunate antagonism to forest conservancy.
Thus we find that, while such backward countries
as Russia scientifically exploit their forest wealth.
Great Britain and her colonies have been content to let
disafforestation go on unchecked ; while at home no in-
terest can be evoked in such questions as the reafforestation
of waste lands useless for other purposes, or in the
supply of timber brought from abroad, which could be
cheaper raised in the country itself.
It has remained for India to show that forests may be
maintained under the Union Jack, both as a benefit to
agriculture and to the people, and at the same time can
be made to yield a gigantic revenue to the State. The
necessity of getting and keeping up a supply of teak (T.
grandis) for naval purposes first turned the attention of
Government to the question, the more readily because,
owing to ovci felling in Bombay, it was seen that even