y mode
of expressing the oil, which made Indian linseed oil unfit for
painting, is followed by remarks on the cultivation of wheat, to which
subsequent events have given great importance. Though many parts, even
of Dinapoor, were fit for the growth of wheat and barley, the natives
produced only a dark variety from bad seed. "For the purpose of making
a trial I sowed Patna wheat on a large quantity of land in the year
1798, the flour produced from which was of a very good quality." The
pulses, tobacco, the egg-plant, the capsicums, the cucumbers, the arum
roots, turmeric, ginger, and sugar-cane, all pass in review in a style
which the non-scientific reader may enjoy and the expert must
appreciate. Improvements in method and the introduction of the best
kinds of plants and vegetables are suggested, notwithstanding "the
poverty, prejudices, and indolence of the natives."

This paper is most remarkable, however, for the true note which its
writer was the first to strike on the subject of forestry. If we
reflect that it was not till 1846 that the Government made the first
attempt at forest conservancy, in order to preserve the timber of
Malabar for the Bombay dockyard; and not till the conquest of Pegu, in
1855, that the Marquis of Dalhousie was led by the Friend of India to
appoint Dietrich Brandis of Bonn to care for the forests of Burma, and
Dr. Cleghorn for those of South India, we shall appreciate the wise
foresight of the missionary-scholar, who, having first made his own
park a model of forest teaching, wrote such words as these early in the
century:--"The cultivation of timber has hitherto, I believe, been
wholly neglected. Several sorts have been planted...all over Bengal,
and would soon furnish a very large share of the timber used in the
country. The sissoo, the Andaman redwood, the teak, the mahogany, the
satin-wood, the chikrasi, the toona, and the sirisha should be
principally chosen. The planting of these trees single, at the
distance of a furlong from each other, would do no injury to the crops
of corn, but would, by cooling the atmosphere, rather be advantageous.
In many places spots now unproductive would be improved by clumps or
small plantations of timber, under which ginger and turmeric might be
cultivated to great advantage. In some situations saul...would
prosper. Indeed the improvements that might be made in this country by
the planting of timber can scarcely be calculated. Teak is at presen