Besides a monthly journal, the Indian Forester which came into existence in 1875 through Schlich’s initiative, and the annual reports of the various conservators and of the Inspector-General, a small book literature has developed within the last ten or fifteen years.
Descriptive volumes of note are J. S. Gamble’s Manual of Indian Timbers, new edition, 1902; Trees, Shrubs and Woody Climbers of Bombay Presidency by W. A. Talbot, 1902; Ribbentrop’s Forestry in British India, 1900, and the earlier publication of H. R. Morgan, Forestry in Southern India; Brandis’ Indian Forestry and Distribution of Forests in India. Of professional interest are E. E. Fernandez Manual of Indian Silviculture, unfortunately out of print; the same author’s Forest Industries; D’Arcy’s Manual of Forest Working Plans; C. C. Roger’s Manual of Forest Engineering in India, and B. H. Baden-Powell, 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 in these other parts of the British Empire.
CANADA.
Report on the Forest Wealth of Canada, by the Statistician of the Department of Agriculture, 1895.
Reports of Crown Lands Departments, of Bureau of Forestry of Ontario, and of Forestry Branch of the Dominion.
Defebaugh’s History of the Lumber Industry of America, Vol. I, 1906, brings together much information on this phase of the subject.
Hough’s Report on Forestry, Vol. II, 1880, has a compilation of earlier statistics.
An Analysis of Canada’s Timber Wealth, by B. E. Fernow, in Forestry Quarterly, Vol. VI, 1908, attempts a differentiation of commercial forest areas.
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 7 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 North West 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.