Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/676

658 K. F.. RA1V(?ASWAMI AIYA1VGA? of nearly $5 per cent in the fuel. And if an All- India average is sought, it should be put even higher than the upper of the two limits I have indicated, in view of (1) the larger demands of the colder regions, and (2) to balance the extravagant uses of fuel in the vicinity of abundant reserves, for as is well known, cheapness of fuel means s larger con- sumption of it,, and often greater wastefulness in its use too. ? Applying this low rating to British India and the Madras Presidency (excluding Native States), the total daily demand of put down as roughly of, wood-fuel, in the fuel for domestic equivalent year 1907-8 purposes may be to 720 million lbs. (a typical year) when the population was about 289 millions. implies about 120 million tons of firewood equivalent, per year, for the entire population This or its of British India. The total out-turn of fuel from Government Forests in 1907-8 was (Pearson's Commer- cial (?uide to the ?Forest Products of India, p. 7) only 169? million cubic feet, which at the usual forest conversion rate for fuel vi?., 80 cubic feet is only s little over 2 million tons. That the fuel worked from Government per ton, is to say Forests will meet the average rate of consumption per head were put down as low as a pound per day, the total demand for fuel which could not have exceeded 5 per cent that year. the year is fairly typical. Let us consider the Madras. In 1911, i?s case of population 414 lakhs. The fuel worked from ? I have noticed that wooded, are extravs4Pmt t&e less-wooded parts of the Presidency of was returned as the proportion of the Forests met And the Forest areas the women of the M?l?b?r Coast, whioh is w?il. in the use of fuel ?s eomparecl with the women of South India. only less than 2 per cent of the dema.nd, even if all of it were for only domestic consumpfionl Even if