D IS 4 5 XI Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924073919494 ™W«SII> LIBB«R' 3 1924 073 919 494 Production Note Cornell University Library produced this volume to replace the irreparably deteriorated original . It was scanned using Xerox software and equipment at 600 dots per inch resolution and compressed prior to storage using ITU Group 4 compression. The digital data were used to create Cornell's replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39. 48-1992. The production of this volume was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Digital file copyright by Cornell University Library 1996. Scanned as part of the A. R. Mann Library project to preserve and enhance access to the Core Historical Literature of the Agricultural Sciences. Titles included in this collection are listed in the volumes published by the Cornell University Press in the series THE LITERATURE OF THE AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, 1991-1996, Wallace C. Olsen, series editor. FOLDOUT (after plate number 3) original dimensions: 6.4" width by 9.7" height. £>tate Collese of Agriculture at Cornell tHniberSttp 3tiiaca, ^. p. Hitirarp PHEPAHATION OF FOREST WORKING-PLANS IN INDIA W. E. D'AEOY. lesjub fr0in: tht ©ffite of Ou insvutox (ieiuval at Sa^tetg, moxkiwa-l^hnis ,S«tw«. 2nd Edition Ebvised. CALCUTTA : OFFICE OF THE SUPEEINTENDENT OF GOVERNMENT FEINTING, INDIA. 1895. §t,icc Om Siu'pec, INTRODUCTION. TT is sought in these notes to explain, in a practical manner, the form in w^hich working-plans, such as are at present required for the State forests of India, should be compiled, so that it may he possible to apply and to control them. The discussion of calculations and theories which are inapplicable in the actual condition of Indian Forestry has, as far as possible, been avoided. The only means by which Local Governments have hitherto, as a rule, attempted to secure a supply of forest- produce for the use of the agricultural population, has been by burdening forest lands with rights under settlements. Hence we find, in Northern India especially, many cases in which Government has voluntarily rendered itself helpless to prevent the destruction of the forest property it desires to preserve. Such mistakes will cease to be made when it is realised that the purpose with which each forest should be managed can be prescribed by means of working-plans. But, in order that the vast areas under the control of the Forest Department in India may be brought under the pro- visions of working-plans within a measurable distance of time, it is necessary that the agency of subordinate ofiScers should be more largely utilised than has hitherto been the custom in the collection of the data on which these plans are based ; and that this may be feasible, some such instructions as the present are obviously required. • 11 The writer desires to acknowledge the aid he has derived from the work on Amenagement, recently published by Monsieur Puton, Directeur de Vtcole nationale forestiere in Trance. He is also indebted to the courtesy of Monsieur Bartet, Inspecteur des forSts, in charge of the station de recherches at the Nancy Forest School, for copies of several working-plans in force in France. These plans, as well as several of the plans compiled by officers in India, have been largely utilised; as have also Mr. Fernandez's translation of Monsieur Broillard's Jmenagement, and an excellent Short Treatise on the Measurement of Timber Crops which ap- peared in the Forester in 1889. W. E. D'ARCY. February 1891. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. These notes, which were written by the author when Assistant Inspector Genera] of Forests and Superintendent of Working-plans, were professedly intended primarily for nse by subordinate Forest Officers, and have in practice amply fulfilled the object for which they were compiled. It may, indeed, be confidently stated that no professional work of the kind has had in India such widespread and beneficial results in systematising forest organisation. The scope of the book precluded the discussion of certain higher branches of forest science well known in Europe.* Moreover, in pre- sent circumstances in India, simplicity is of the first import- * Those who wish to pursue the subieot in all its branches may be referred to the Manual of Forestry by W, Sohlich, Ph. D,, Bradbury Agnew & Co., London. Ill ance in the preparation of plans for forests which are only now heing brought under systematic working ; and accord- ingly in these notes theoretical considerations, which might in practice defeat that object, have either been omitted or been assigned a place altogether subordinate to that occupied by a brief exposition of such principles and methods of working as are more immediately applicable in this country. The book is in much request, and the opportunity has been taken, in preparing the present edition, to revise the whole, leaving the substance as far as possible unaltered. The suggestions contained in the work are, however, merely intended as an aid in the preparation of working- plans and are not issued as a code of official instructions. Office of Inspectoe Geneeal op Foeests, Simla ; August 1895. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.— PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. Working-plan. Paob Meaning of the term " forest organisation "...... 1 " working-plan " if,. The Forest Capital or Producing Stock. Meaning of the term : constitution of the pioduoing stock .... 2 „ „ when the age-classes are irregularly distributed . , 4 Information afforded by the number of trees of each age-class . . . ih. Chief points to be remembered with regard to the forest capital ... 5 Normal forest ...... .....7 Abnormal forest ..... ..... iJ. The JEsrploitable Age. Meaning of the term . Calculation of the exploitable age Exploitable age for State forests 8 9 10 Increment. Meaning of the term .......... 12 Increments of isolated trees and crops ....... 13 Fossihilitt/. Meaning of the term . . ... ..... 13 Methods of prescribing the possibility 14 Sustained yield 15 Revenue and Interest. Meaning of the terms 15 Revenue— the net value of the produce 16 Relation of revenue to area ih. Interest . • ■ ■'•' Other technical terms i definitions. Necessity for defiining such terms 17 11 Definitions : various terms Method of treatment, permanent methods, temporary methods, method of clearances ...•••■•"*' Eegeneration fellings hy the selection method, " storeyed " forest method, method of successive regeneration fellings Group method, pastoral method, simple coppice, selection coppice Coppice with standards, hranch-coppioe or pollard method, irregular treat- ment, provisional treatment, conversions ...... Transformations, restorations, thinnings, cleanings, weeding, working-circle Block, compartment .....••••• Coupe • • 18—22 22 22—23 23—24 24—25 25—26 26—27 27 CHAPTER II.— PRELIMINAEY WORK. Seconnaissanee of the area. Selection of the area to he dealt with Information to he collected . Choice of the method of treatment. Snh-division of the area into portions requiring difFerent treatment Choice of the method to be applied ..... Formation of the worJcing-eircles. Bales regarding the selection of circles ..... Analysis and description of the crop. Bub-division of the area ...... Detailed description of each sub-division The situation ....... The soil .... .... The crop Stock maps ....... Valttatign surveys. Surveys : when required ; methods in use . Choice of a method Method of sample plots ; selection of the plots Size-classes of trees enumerated . . . . 28 29 31 32 ib. 36 38 ib. 39 ib. 40 42 44 ib. 45 46 tit 111 Pies Ennmeration of trees « . . 47 Recording the results of enumeration 50 Calculating the volwme of material. Type-trees and form-factors 51 Measrirement of trees and logs. General rules . . . • . 52 CalcvJation of the exploitable age. General rules 58 CHAPTER m.-THE WORKING-PLAN, Preliminary explanations. Arrangement followed . 62 Manner in which the possibility is preecribed .... . ib. General and special plans . ib. Provisional working scheme . 63 Preparatory period . ib Prescribing the fellings ........ . 64 Period for which fellings are prescribed . ib. Area operated on ........ . . 65 Balancing the production ....... . 66 Locating the fellings ........ . 67 Nature of the fellings ........ . ib. Material to be removed : possibility . . ib. Method of simple coppice. General plan . 68 Exploitable age , . ib. Period for which the fellings are prescribed ib. Area to be operated on ib. Order to be followed in the fellings 69 Nature of the fellings ib. Possibility ib. Conversion of irregular forest into coppice 71 Supplementary regulations : belts of trees ib. Works of improvement . » 72 Coppicc'Selection method. General plan ^ 72 IV JBranch- coppice method. General plan . . Modification of the method Method of coppice with standards. The general plan .....••• Eeservation of standards ....•• Supplementary regulations ...... Conversion of irregular high forest into coppice -with standards Transformation of simple coppice into coppice with standards Methods of clearances. General plan . . . . ' ... Clean fellings with artificial regeneration .... ' Storeyed " forest method. General plan Selection method. General plan ....».«. Limitation of the fellings : various methods Limitation by cultural rules ...... Cases in which fellings may be limited by cultural rules Limitation determined by the rate of growth )i „ by an enumeration of the trees ,, „ by the productive capacity of the soil » ), by relative proportion „ » by proportionate volume Length of the felling rotation . . The fellings .■ . Bestoration of aa incomplete oi'op . Method of successive regeneration fellings. General description .... Possibility : volumetric method ,, : mixed method The fellings Modifications of the mixed method . Application of the method to irregular crops Page 73 ib. The group method. General description 73 74 76 ib. 77 77 78 78 81 ib. 82 83 ib. 84 88 90 93 95 96 ib. 97 98 99 102 103 ib. 105 Pastoral treatment. Areas to which applicable Application of method . Supplementary provisions of working scheme. Subjects to be dealt with Improvement fellings . Sowings and plantings Begnlation of grazing . „ of lights in wood Extraction of dead or fallen trees Works of improvement other than cultural Forecast of financial results 105 106 108 ib. ib. ib. 112 t6. 113 ib. CHAPTER IV.— THE WORKING-PLAN EEPOET. General remarks ........... 115 Arrangement of subjects ......... thear^aVaU 29 Information to be collected — The area to be dealt with having been decided upon, the next step in the preparation of the plan is to explore the locality so as to gain a general knowledge of the configuration of the country, the distribu- tion and composition of the forests, the marketable products they contain, the best mode of disposing of those products ; as well as of all other facts likely to be useful in determining the future plan of management. The heads of examination and enquiry may be summarised as follows : — GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF TRACT. Name and situation of the area dealt with.— Civil District, Porest Division, etc. Configuration of the country.— Flat, hilly or plateau ; alti- tude ; prevailing aspects, etc. Rock and soil. — Geological formation ; underlying rock ; general characters of the soil and their effect on forest growth. Climate. — Temperature, mean and extreme, with its ePfect on the forest growth; rainfall, periods of drought, and rain ; prevailing winds, storms; other climatic influences on forest treatment. Population. — Numbers and condition ; agricultural cus- toms or requirements which infl.uence the system of forest management. THE COMPOSITION AND CONDITION OF THE FORESTS. Distribution and area.— The distribution of the forest; total area and areas under tree-growth, grass, streams, etc., in each class of forest ; enclosures within the boundaries ; maps avaiU able, their degree of accuracy, etc. Boundaries and boundary marks.— Nature and state of re- pair of the marks used ; enclosures and their boundaries; whether a revision of the boundaries is required or not. Legal position of the forests— Brief history of the acquisi- tion by Government and settlement (where there has been one) of the forest ; Act and section of the Act under which gazetted, etc. Rights.— Their origin and general character ; statement of the areas burdened with rights and free from them; 30 summary of rights to produce ; privileges or other conceasions granted at the will [and pleasure of Government ; adequacy of the forest resources to provide for the exercise of re- corded rights or of admitted privileges ; actual effect, of such exercise upon the crops. General description of the forest crop.— Composition and con- dition of the crop ; types of forest and areas occupied by each ; origfn of the crop ; the principal species and their relative proportion and importance, habitat, mode of repro- duction, size attained and rate of growth ; density of the crop, blanks, and glades ; state of the reproduction ; principal products yielded ; grass and olber minor products, etc. Injuries to which the forests are liable — Causes of injurv ; fire&, grazing, offences of common occurrence ; the best means of regulating or combating the causes of injury. FUTURE SYLVICULTUEAL TREATMENT. Of all the subjects to he considered that which it is de- sirable to bear constantly in mind when passing from crop to crop is the method of treatment which will probably be found most suitable. For a correct general apprehension in this respect, acquired sufficiently early in the enquiry, may show, for instance, that the existing condition of the forest is such that its exploitation should, for the present, be very simply regulated, say by area -and by a few short cultural rules only. Owing to the neglect of this precaution, work, such as the detailed enumeration of stock, which has subse- quently proved wholly unnecessary for the proper attain- ment of the object in view, has sometimes been carried out in India, thus delaying the completion of the plan while rendering it needlessly lengthy, complicated and costly. SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT. Systems of management.— Past systems of management ; their defects ; changes introduced and their results ; manage- ment in force and its results ; regulation of fires, grazing, rights, etc. Works of improvement undertaken.— Nature of works ; their object; results attained. 31 Revemie and expenditure — A summary of the revenue and expenditure for the preceding 10 years to be compiled, if the information is available, for each class of forest. UTILISATION OF PRODUCTS. Marketable products.— Yield of timber, fuel, minor pro- duce, etc. ; quantities consumed in past years in Govern- ment works, by purchasers, by right-holders and by free grantees ; value of products consumed. Extraction of the produce.— Export roads or rivers leading from forests to centres of consumption ; their adequacy and state of repair ; manner and cost of extraction; road and river improvements required. Markets — Distance, size and importance of principal cen- tres of consumption ; produce consumed at each centre and ruling prices obtained. Net value of produce — Net value in the forest of each class of produce. MISCELLANEOUS FACTS. The forest staff.— Strength of staff and its adequacy. Labour supply. — Abundance or reverse of the labour sup- ply ; seasons when available ; cost of labour. The working.plans officer will find-it convenient to record the information collected on all the ahove points from day to day in a bound book, with a few blank pages nnder each heading. It will be seen that a good deal of the information required must be obtained from the exieting forest records relating to previous management. The working-plans officer should go on the ground fully supplied wiih this inform- ation. Maps. — The map used in preparing the working-plan should be on a sufficiently large scale for the distinct indi- cation of the limits of each block (or compartment where compartments have been formed) and coupe (fig. iv). A scale of 4 inches to 1 mile, in which an area of 40 acres covers one square inch of the map, is the largest scale generally required in India. Where a map on a larger scale is necessary, in order for instance to delineate graphically the situation, composition and condition of a crop which is to be subjected to special cultural treatment, an enlarge- ment of the 4-inch map will be sufficiently accurate — quite as 32 accurate as any description of the crop that can be made. In such a case it is not a map, in the ordinary sense, but a 'picture that is wanted. The map used should show, in addition to the boundaries and boundary marks of the forest, the natural features of tbe country, hills, crests of ridges, valleys, water-courses, etc. ; as well as all roads, paths, fire- lines and the like. In the absence of such a map a suffi- ciently accurate plan may sometimes be compiled from exist- ing village maps. In default of this it will generally be advisable, before attempting to frame a working -plan, to make a rapid survey or a sketch map of the area on such a scale and with such accuracy as may be deemed necessary. The cost of preparing maps, bnsed on a trignnomettical survey, on the scale of 4 inches to a mile ranges from about EoO to BlOO a square mile. Tbe money yield of even the timber-producing forests in India would not generally justify a higher expenditure od surveys. Maps on a scale uf 8 inches or 12 inches to a mile, such as have sometimes been recommended, would cost, if the details were filled in with a pro- portionate degree of care, some hundreds of rupees per square mile. Of this fact those who recommended such maps were probably unaware. Indeed, in Europe, large scale maps are, as a rule, solely used as legal documents, in connection with the record of the boundaries and not in connection with forest exploitation. CHOICE OF THE METHOD OF TREATMENT TO BE APPLIED. Sub-division of area into portions requiring different treat- ment.— It is important that the general management to be applied to each part of the forest requiring different treat- ment should be determined at the outset ; because the nature of the subsequent operations, such as the enumera- tion of the stock, etc., to be carried out depends on this. The decision arrived at on this point, as well as on the connected question of working-circles can, if necessary, be afterwards rectified when the detailed examination of the forest is made. Choice o£ the method to be applied.— The treatment to be adopted depends on economic and administrative as well as on sylvicultural conditions ; and the choice of the treatment is generally restricted by easily ascertained facts of which the nature may be gathered from the following remarks with regard to each of the principal methods. Non-coniferous forests, to which the simple coppice method is applied, can only furnish wood of small size, for the most part merely fit for fuel. Where the demand for firewood is sufficient, and other circumstances justify the application of 33 the method, it may be adopted. It is exceedingly easy to apply and to work. ^ The coppice selection method has hitherto only been applied in India to bamboo forests. There do not appear to be any good grounds for extending its application to other Kinds of crops. The branch coppice method must not, of course, be ap- plied in areas set aside for the production of timber ; but it IS useful under certain circumstances, for instance where fodder is more valuable than timber, and where a regular supply of small fuel and leaf fodder must be furnished by forests worked for local use. The method may also in some cases be employed in connection with the management of pasture lands. The method of coppice with standards is admirably adapted to the circumstances prevailing very generally in the plains of India, and ought to be more largely made use of than is actually the case. It meets, generally better than any other method, domestic requirements in small fuel, and at the same time furnishes a considerable quantity of timber of large dimensions suitable for the manufacture of imple- ments and furniture. As compared with tree-growth in high forest, the reserved stems increase in girth more rapidly ; and many species essentially light-loving accom- modate themselves readily to this treatment. In a country where a fluctuating demand is the rule, the method has also this advantage that the standard trees can be felled in greater or lesser number as is required, or may be allowed to grow to a larger size without disorganising the working. The working-plan itself is, moreover, exceedingly simple in its arrangement, easy both to understand and to apply. As regeneration is principally obtained by means of coppice, the method can only be applied to broad-leaved species. The whole of the produce must, as a rule, be saleable to make the application of the method profitable. * Toungya cultivation, it need hardly be said, should * Teak toungya cultivation in Burma meaus a combination of arboricultural operations with shifting cultivation as practised by wild tribes, who cut and burn the existing vege- tation in order to raise one or two crops of cereals or other food crops or cotton. When these crops are sown, small teak seedlings are planted by the cultivators at the same time, usually at a distance of six feet by six feet. They are carefully weeded for a few years ; and the result is that a much more valuable tree-crop springs up than that which originally had possession of the ground. Cultivation of this kind, but in which the subsequent artificial rearing of young trees is generally wanting, is called jTiim in Bengal and Assam ; lehil and Tcordli in the North- West Himalaya; heixar in the Central Provinces; and Icumri, podu, etc., in South India, Similar cultivation is or was practised in some European countries. D 34 only be permitted where there are forest tribes who lire by lovngya or jhum clearing. It is rather a manner of organ- ising the cultivation of cereal crops, so as to do the least harm to the forest, than a method of forest treatnaent ; but it can be turned to useful account in enriching the forests by having the areas planted up with valuable species of trees where the necessity for such cultivation exists. It may possibly be hereafter combined with forest treatment so as to form a regular method. Where the whole crop is saleable, and in climates where natural reproduction is assured, the method of clearing or clean felling adjacent areas may be applied in certain cases for the sake of its extreme simplicity and the order it intro- duces in the fellings. It should not, however, be made use of where the working-circle and, consequently, the coupes are very large ; as it leaves reproduction to chance, and the larger the coupes the smaller this chance. Like the preceding, the method of clean felling with artificial reproduction requires the whole crop to be sale- able. The climate should also be one in which artificial re-stocking can be undertaken with certainty of success, and labour should be abundant and cheap. The application of the method should not, as a rule, be attempted under other circumstances or where reproduction can be secured by natural means. As in other clearance methods, th£ strip method of clear- ances can only be applied where the entire crop is saleable. A special objection to the strip method is, however, the «ost of laying out the position of the fellings on the ground. Unless this is .well done and the strips are permanently marked off in advance there is apt to be confusion ; and in any case the work demands a good deal of time and attention from the staff. The method is unsuited to badly stocked areas and hilly or broken ground. It has the further objec- tion of extending the felling work over a larger area than would be the case under other methods. The "storeped" forest method is adapted to coniferous tracts where the coppice method cannot be applied or where the uncovering of the soil would foster a dense undero-rowth. It is exact and well-defined, and it leads by an easily^underl stood system to the correct constitution of the capital. It also has the advantage of furnishing wood of all classes and sizes. It is a question, however, whether the method could 35 te adapted to a mixed crop in which only one or two sj)ecies are saleable. The selection method of working, formerly represented as Ijarbarous and unscientific, is the only method which can at present be applied in exploiting the great majority of our Indian mixed forests in which only a few species are sale- able. The prescriptions necessary in order to apply it are simple, and it is well suited to the restoration, without the aid of expensive works of artificial reboisement, of the irregular and ruined forests so frequently met with in India. It adapts itself to almost any system of culture and to the special requirements of any crop or species. For instance, the cover can be removed from the seedlings by successive fellings undertaken gradually or at once, as in the regular method or in the group method. Its drawbacks are first, that, as only a portion of the material standing in the coupe is felled, a large area has to be worked over at each opera- tion, and the extraction of the produce is expensive ; but this must always be the case where only some of the component species of a crop are saleable. On the other hand the sylviculturist can do but little towards fostering the growth ; the timber is of poorer quality than that grown on areas treated by the regular method ; much damage to young growth is often caused by the fellings ; the accurate calculation of the possibility, is impossible, and in India tlie danger from Are is greater. A forest, treated by the method of successive fellings, should contain in compact blocks a properly graduated series of crops of different ages, mature high forest, pole crops, thickets, etc., each class occupying nearly the same extent of ground. Such a condition does not at present exist in any forest in India, and can only be induced by subiecting the area to transformation fellings during a lengthy period. But the chief drawbacks in India to the employment of the method are that it is complicated and that to apply it successfully a staff of thoroughly competent foresters is required. Different classes of fellings, each requiring to be executed with skill, must be carried out simultaneously in different parts of the area treated : principal reffeneration fellings in one locality, selection fellings in another weedings in a third and thmnmgs m a fourth. It also fails in one of the chief objects of a working-plan in that it does not tend (unless the modified method is adopted) to introduce order into the fellings. The regeuer- d2 36 ation fellings are prescribed by volume of material, a process which alone involves a laborious and costly calculation of the contents of the crop extending over a large area, and the fellings are carried out in this area wherever required. The method can only be employed where all the produce of the forest is saleable, and it is also unsuitable wliere repro- duction is very slow or difficult to obtain, as at high elevations and in vei'y dry climates. In fairly moist climates in the plains it might be applied where the demand for the produce is sufficiently great and profitable. The ahove remarks apply also to the modification of the method of successive fellings known as group method. It will be seen that in determining the method of treat- ment the chief points to be noticed are — (1) The produce in demand. (2) The composition, condition and sylvicultural re- quirements of the crop. FOEMATION OP THE WORKING-CIRCLES. Rules regarding the selection of circles.— The reconnaissance completed and the general method of treatment adapted to each section of the forest area determined, the working-circles., subject to such modifications as a more detailed exam- ination of the crops may subsequently prove necessary, are decided upon. The most important rule to bear in mind is that all the crops included in one working-circle must be susceptible of the same method of treatment. Each working-circle forms a separate centre of supply and a unit of administration, and may, where possible, constitute a separate charge. Very often, as for instance where there are large forest masses — such as the teak forests of Burma or the deodar forests of the Himalayas — subjected to the same method of treatment, the formation of working-circles depends entirely on administrative facts and presents no difficulty. But where there is a local demand for the produce, requiring a continuous supply near at hand in several different centres of consumption, or where the nature of the crop varies very much from place to place, it will be necessary to form a number of comparatively small working-circles each of which can- not constitute a separate charge. This is especially the case 37 with regard to coppice forests, the principal product of wliicli, fuel, cannot, owing to the expense, be carried to a long dis- tance, or wbere, as in the Thana forests of Bombay and in the Central Provinces, the people must be provided on a great scale with fire-wood and small building timber. Local grazing rights or privileges also play an important part in determining the areas to be formed into separate circles; as the closings and openings of blocks to grazing often deter- mine the cultural treatment. Whatever boundaries are adopted should, as far as possible, be natural features and not artificial lines cut througl» the forest. Water-partings (in the hills), roads, boundaries of forests or of forest blocks form the most convenient limits of working- circles from all points of view. Where the size of working-circles cannot be determined by the circumstances already described no very definite rules can be laid down. If small, the number of separate circles, and consequently of separate fellings or other oper- ations, becomes inconveniently great, and the work of a given year is correspondingly scattered. This may be ob- jectionable from an administrative point of view. The size is obviously closely connected with the average area of the annual coupes, which in its turn usually depends on the demand for the produce. As a general rule, more produce than is saleable should not be felled, though this consideration may be sometimes disregarded when it is sought to improve the growth or to restore the forest to its original condition. If the circles are too large, the area to be exploited in one place or at each operation may be inconveniently extensive, and the distance to which the material must be conveyed too great; or more produce may have to be felled than can be consumed in the centre of consumption to which it must be transported if it is to be utilised at all. A middle course should, therefore, be chosen. Generally speaking, where all the produce of the fellings is saleable, the working-circles would be comparatively small. Where, however, only one or two species, which grow scattered in a mixed crop are exploited, the size of the working-circles is necessarily very large. It should be remembered that where equality of yield from year to year is desired, such equality can be better secured by forming a number of small, rather than a few large, circles. Although each working-circle is subjected to a single 38 series of principal fellings, one or more separata series of minor operations in connection TFitli the method of treat- ment adopted naay he carried aut in, the same working- cii'cle. For instance, in a circle worked by the method of suceesEiTe fellings and thinnings, provi^i(>nal selpctiou fallings might be carried on in one block, thinnings in Hnother, and so on. But, in this case the principal or regeneration fellings would) in time, pass over the whole aiea, and the minor operations would have ihe common object of leading on the crops until they reached maturity and could be regenerated in turn by successive fellings under one and the same method of treat- ment. Ill some cases, as for instance in exploiting bamboos or cut<;h trees in the teak forests in Burma, a series of operations under one plan of irork (for cntch} may have to be carried out in a number of wocking-circles overlying those formed nnder other plans (for teak). ANALYSIS AND DESCRIPTION OF THE CROP. Sub-division of the area — ^In order to deserihe, which is the next step, the composition and condition of the forest crop, it is necessary to sub-divide the area of each working- circle into smaller areas or blocks bounded by natural limits, and possibly into compartments. The size of the blocks is important ; but no precise rules, can be laid down with regard to this subject which depends on the nature of the work and on the minuteness indicated by the treatment. To a certain extent the size will be of course decided by existing facts. The different portions of the forest having natural limits vary in extent, and the various kinds of crops may be found over large areas or small. But by grouping or by sub-dividing, as the case may be, the existing divisions extremes can always be avoided. If the divisions are small they may be too numerous, and the result is confusion in the plan and a tedious number of separate descriptions. On the other hand if too large, the inventory of the forest is vague and unsatisfactory. Detailed description of each sub-diyision. — The work of de- s^ibing the areas into which the forest is sub-divided should proceed simultaneously with the sub-division itself. The minuteness of the description depends, as does the sub- division of the area, on the method of treatment adopted and, on the object in view. The most desirable record may, therefore, vary from a broad general indication of the state of the crop in each block, accompanied by the results of such envmeration siirveys as have been carried out, to a detailed and separate 39 acooirat of the situation, and of the soil and stock found in each compartment into which the hlocks hare been differentiated. The work requires trained observation and a good deal of physical exercise, but. does not call for any involved process of leasoning. It is necessary, however, that the attenlion of the working-plans officer shmild be continnously sustained BO that no important facts may esonpf him. He should not, theretore, attempt more at one time than oaa be accomplished without over-fatigue. The situation. — The situation includes the relative position and elevation as well as the aspect and slope. As regards elevation, the absolute height above sea-level should be noted generally for the forest; but the height relative to the surrounding country, together with the absence or presence of sheltering land, is of more importance as regards particular blocks or compartments and should be noted. Thus the upper portion of a slope near the top of a ridge may require very different cultural treatment from the lower portion towards, the bottom of the underlying valley, although the difference of level above the sea may be slight. The aspect should always be stated where it is well defined ; but in hilly ground a single block often faces several points of the compass. The slope may be stated in a single word. A slope is said to be gentle when the inclination is not greater than about 1 in 6 ; it is steep when more than 1 in 6 but not greater than 2 in 3 ; it is very steep when more than 2 in 3, and becomes precipitous when it reaches 1 in 1. The soil The more important facts with regard to the soil may be expressed in a few words descriptive of its surface, its composition, its physical state, its depth and its fertility. The fertility or productive value of the soil, as regards the species which has to be considered, may gene- rally be summed up by such terms as "good" or "very good," " bad " or " very bad," as the case may be. With regard to its surface, the soil may he quite bare and hard, or covered with a layer of leaves, or with vegetable mould apt for the reception of seed. Or it may be car- peted with moss or grass or over-grown with^ bushes. The physical character of the soil — its looseness and the size of the particles forming it— are, however, of greater impor- tance as regards forest vegetation than the chemical compo- sition. The soil may be formed of stiff clay, loose sand or agglomerations of stones and boulders ; while its hygrosco- picity may vary from marshy to dry. But of all the proper- 40 ties of the soil depth is perhaps the most important and is that which is most likely to vary. Depth of soil is at once manifested by the appearance of the trees. If shallovr, the boles are generally short and the crowns low ; while the contrary is the case in soils of from 12 to 20 inches and over in depth. The nature of the underlying rock and sub-soil is often of great importance. Very little is known as yet of the influence exerted by different soils on the growth and prodnetion of the various species of Indian forest trees : it is not often therefore that a description of the chemical characters of the eoil can be of much sei'vice. But when a detailed plan is prepared, the nature of the soil in each compart- ment should be noted, and the relative proportions of clay, sand and lime should be roughly ascertained. By noting such particulars many valuable indications can be deduced, especially when a complete record of the production lias been kept for a number of years. Small portions of the soil it is wished to examine should be taken, from several different spots in the nursery or compartment under observation, and should be mixed together. A small portion should then be reduced to powder in a mortar and the vegetable detritus removed by heating. The residue should then be treated with dilute hydrochloric acid, and the insoluble portion, consisting of clay and sand, separated by filtration from the soluble portion, (calcium, iron, etc.). The clay can then be separated from the heavier sand by decanting several times with the aid of a syphon, and the relative proportion of each determined by weighing. If, when the hydrochloric acid is first added, there is a brisk eServesoence, the soil is calcareous. The quantity of lime present can be roughly ascertained by deducting the weight of' the insoluble clay and sand from the weight of the mass before it was treated with . the acid. The crop. — The composition and condition of tfie standing crop must necessarily be examined and recorded with the greatest care. The detail depends, as already explained, on various circumstances ; but, where a complete inventory is required, the following points should be considered, viz. : — (1) General character of the crop. (2) Component species, or difEerent types of crop, and their relative propor- tions. (3) Age ; density; state of growth ; proportion of unsound trees. (4) Natural reproduction ; presence or absence of seedlings or stool shoots. (5) Origin and past management. (61 Most suitable future treatment. The character of the crop. — Where it has been found necessary to divide each block into fairly homogeneous units or compartments the character of the growth should be explained by its descriptive name in a single word or term, such as "thicket," " irregular mature seedling forest." Where, however, the sub-divisions are not artificial and the crop is irregular a more lengthy description becomes necessary. With respect to the component species of trees, the princi- pal, and sometimes the secondary species, as well as where necessary their numbers or relative proportions, need alone be mentioned; but this should always be done in the most- 41 simple manner possible. Frequently it is suflBcient to state whether species other than principal are abundant or rare. Numerical ratios may be misleading, for instance where there are a large number of injured or unsound trees, or where the species are very irregularly distributed. Species of minor importance need only be mentioned collectively if they are abundant or rare, or are characteristic of the soil or state of growth, or if they are confined to certain compart- ments. Where there is more than one stage of growth, as in coppice with standards, each stage should be separately described. As regards age, if the crop is composed of two or more distinct classes the respective ages of each should be given. If the crop is irregular, the dominant age should be slated. The density of a crop is described by stating whether the leaf canopy is complete or not, close, open, varying, etc. The state of growth can generally be explained in a few words, such as " active" or " slow ;" but the condition of the crop, and such facts as the proportion of unsound trees, the probable time during which the trees will continue in good condition, etc., sometimes require to be specially explained. It may occasionally be possible to note the origin of the crop. As a rule forest history cannot be traced very far back ; - but in any case it is expedient to mention what operations have been last carried out. Where fires, grazing, etc., have caused serious damage which has left its traces in the crop, this should be stated and the effect noted. Generally there is peculiar to each crop, as to each forest, some special characteristic which, if not observed and noted, will render the descriptions of compartments, however lengthy and care- fully drawn otherwise, deceptive. Lastly it is useful to note the probable future treat- ment or the cultural operations that might usefully be executed in the immediate future. It does not necessarily foUovrthat such operations will be carried out. This will depend on various considerations which will be discussed in connection with the organisation of a forest considered as a whole. But such notes are of great use when the time comes for preparing the plan. As an example of a description of a block, the following is given : — Name. — Dalnnr. . Area.-Sl^ aoies, of which 6 acres blank, and 10 acres unproductive rock. 42 Sitmetioiii—Oa the- western flank of tie great Maura ridge. Aapeote generally- westerly, but on minor spurs some areas face to north and south. Gradients steep, in places precipitoug. Elevation from 6,500 to 8,000 feet ; sheltered from east. Soil. — Rich loam well covered with mould j generally deep and suited to deodar, except near summit where underlying rook of blai-k limestone crops out. Sfoch — Irregular mixed crop. In tlie upper part, kharsu oak with a few blue pine,, spruce, maples, and rarelv deodnr. Lower down dec dar becoities the chief tree associated with spruce and silver firs. All ages are represented, but most ot the trees are mature or (especially in the higher and less accessible places) over-mature. Tlie density is varying, good on whole ; but numerous small blanks occiur. The repro- duction is fair; many small thickets of deodar with scattered seedlings of spruce and other species. The aggregate area fully stocked with deodar is about 200 acres. The- only treatment in the past has been protection from fire. The best trees in the most accessible places were felled some years ago. The enumeration, gave — " Unsound over-mature deodar Sound deodar >f n » » over 2' diameter H'to 2' „ 1' to IV „ below 1' „ „ spruce over 2' „ 208 trees. 509 „ 693 „ 372 „ 2,608 „ 309 ., Remarks. — The removal of the over-mature and exploitable trees is urgently re- qnired in the interests of the younger stages of growth. There-stocking of the blanks may be left to nature. Stock maps. — Detailed descriptions of forest crops are tedi- ous to write, and, in the case of a large area, bulky when written. Moreover, it is doubtful if any one ever derives much benefit from even the best descriptions that can be compiled for the large areas dealt with. The working-plans oflBcer, with the aid of the map and area statements, forms his working circles and determines the method of treatment more from the picture which an inspection of the various crops has left in his mind than from any written description ; while, as regards oflBcers who, personally unacquainted with the areas to which the plans relate, have to scrutinise the descriptions, their minds are incapable of grasping all the de- tails and of forming a mental picture from such a mass of writ- ing as usually accompanies an Indian working-plan dealing, as it often does, with a large area. It is, therefore, a question whether it would not be better, in some cases, to abolish these written descriptions and to replace them — apart from the broad general description of the forest or of eachtype of forest a& a whole-^y dock maps. To prepare such maps it will, in most cases, be sufficient to distinguish each class of forest by a flat wash of distinct colour and to indicate the age by tone, the darker the tone the older 43 the crop. Or a system of ruled lines may be used, different species being represented by different colours, density,, com- pleteness and age by the closeness and length of the lines, and seedlings by small dots. In the Sevue des Eaux et ForSls for the 10th June 1890, Monsieur Marcel Yolmerange writes as follows on the subject : — " One of the most troublesome portions of a working-plans report is the deacrip. tion of tbe compartments. This requires as much minute cave on the part of the writer as it does steady attention on the part of tlie reader; and, after all, it is extremely difficult, from a perusal of it, to gather any idea of the forest in its entirety. A graphic repi-esentation of the nature and composition of the forest would pi'o- hably give a better general idea of its condition and contents and could be prepared with far less trouble. Such a method would consist in indicating on a sketch map by conventional signs the principal f uctors of the crop, different colours being used to show the species of trees, for example : — Seedling crop , . , .oooooo Thicket of saplings . . • 8 g g 8 8 8 § Pole crop . . . .+ + + + + + Young high forest ... X X X X x Mature high forest ... — — — — Over-mature or decaying high forest ^ =: = = Complete crops might be indicated by a continuous line. These conventional signs, or such others as might be preferred, could be used in various combinations, and would thus enable the composition of the forest in each compartment to be sliown with whatever degree of accuracy or detail might be desir- able ; while a general idea of the forest as a whole could be gained from a simple in- spection of tbe map. In Older to complete the description, a brief account would be sufficient to explain the nature of the soil, unless it was thought practicable, and not too ditticult, also to record the quality of soil by a similar method of signs and colours. It would also prove interesting, after the lapse of a certain number of years, to make, using similar signs, a new map, which, by comparison with the old map, would at once indicate the alterations and improvements in the condition of the crops and would facilitate the determination of the changes required in the treatment." Colonel Wilmer, of the Survey of India Department, in surveying the forests of the Central Provinces instituted some years ago such a system as the above at the in- stance of Mr. MHcUenzie, the Chief Commissioner. Colonel Wilmer flescnbed as follows Lis system, which has since been officially prescribed for all Indian forest surveys : " The classification of forests and soils was adopted and carried on at the same time as the original detail survey was made, the former by the colour' of lines used, for shading, and the latter by the direction of the lines. The classification was shown on tracing cloth by symbols as follows : — The forests were divided into five classes, vie, .— 1. Forest where teak abounds without bamboo .... Carmine. 2. Ditto, ditto ditto with bamboo 3. Miscellaneous forests .... 4. Grass lands . . . . • 5. Cultivation . . • • • Soils were divided into fouE classes, vis. ■■ — 1. Very good and rich Lines draion vertieallp 2. Medium ^"^ ^or''''"*f9- 3- Very dry ^- "^Sf^'j^r, 4. Unproductive ^"^ ^Jt/"-^ Blue. Brown. Green. Tellow.. 44 Each Siib-Suivejor kept an outline trace of his daily work on a piece of tracing cloth, and also made notes of the nature of the soil and class of forests that he met with. At the end of a few days, when suflBcient detail survey Jiad been completed, he coloured up the portions and marked them with lines according to the fixed sym- bols. This trace the Snb-Surveyor kept going until his work was done, and it was examined at the saiue time as the topographical detail. Some differences of opinion were found at the adjoining edp;es as regards nature of soil, more especially between the ' medium ' and ' very dry ; ' but these were reconciled. On compiling the different Plane Table Sections into Standard Sheets, it was found that laying colour on to the tracing cloth spoilt it and rendered it opaque. The plan of drawing in the lines in their proper colour and direction was then adopted, and was found to answer all purposes, whilst the tracing cloth was kei)t clear and smooth." In recording the nature of forest growth and soils the maps should be on a sufficiently large scale. Eor such work great accuracy of topographical detail is not required, and therefore existing maps or enlargements of them will usually serve the purpose. VALUATION SURVEYS. When required : methods in use.— In many cases, when for instance the possibility is expressed by area, a good de- scription of the crop is all that is requisite. But when the possihility is expressed by number of trees or by volume, as in the regular and selection methods, an enumeration or estimate of the number of trees is necessary. In the method of successive fellings the enumeration must also be accompani- ed by an estimate of the cubic contents of each tree, in order to prescribe the principal fellings. In such cases the analysis of the crop is not complete until the enumeration has been carried out. The material in the standing crop may be ascertained accurately by complete survey, that is to say, by counting and measuring the individual trees over the whole area. Or it may he estimated, more or less accurately as desired, by counting, the stoclc on sample plots of known extent or on lines of known width run through the crop ; after which, by means of simple proportion, the number of trees in the whole area can be deduced. Choice of a method.— The circumstances of each case must decide which of these methods should be adopted. Obvious- Iv the most correct is to count and measure each tree in the 45 crop. But this involves the expenditure of so much time and labour that, except where a very accurate plan is required and is justified by the high revenue expected from the forest, it is generally best not to employ it. It may, however, suitably be used when, as frequently happens, only one or two species irregularly distributed in a mixed crop are saleable, and when the plan is to provide for the work- ing of those species only. In such cases the cost is not unduly high and the results obtained from countings over sampre areas are unsatisfactory. The chief considerations which should determine the method to be adopted may be summed up as follows : — ■ The purpose of the survey and the degree of accuracy de- manded in the plan. — It may be only necessary to ascertain the average production per acre, so as to calculate the yield in the manner described in the selection method. It is usually unprofitable to attempt to calculate the material on the ground with extreme accuracy ; and, in any case, even complete enumeration and cubing of each individual tree might not ensure accuracy. The nature of the crop.— Enumeration by sample plots should be avoided in the case of very irregular and open crops, or in crops containing only scattered trees for enu- meration as in the case of selection-worked areas in which only one or two species sparsely distributed in a mixed crop are exploitable. Again the method is unsuited to the case of very small areas ; as there would be difficulty in selecting plots representative of the whole. Method of sample plots : selection of the plots. — Where the conditions are such that the method of survey by sample plots is justifiable separate plots should be marked off in each distinct type of growth. They should he chosen so as to represent fairly the average conditions of the crop or parti- cular type of growth of which a pattern is taken. Linear Survey.— In some cases it may be more conveni- ent to use sample lines taken at regular intervals through the forest. Where the crops are mixed and variable, the position of the lines should be traced on the map on which the limits of the different types of forest are shown, and the results should be calculated separately for each crop through which the lines run. The width of the lines should be fixed so as to be convenient for purposes of calculation. Thus a line 1 chain broad would represent 0-1 acre per chain-length ; and. if the type of forest ihrough which the line led was found to measure, say, 6 acres, while 46 the ietigjjh of line ■was, «iy, "9 ohains, the iramter of trees could at once be f onnd &s follows :— rnmber of trees in crop of 6 acres ^^ 6 acree number counted on 1* chains of Hue "" 0*9 acres The following rules* should also be ohserved in the case of sample plots. Their application to linear surveys need not he discussed. (1) No sample plot should be selected on the edge of a crop ; for a trae average will seldom be found there. (2) On slopes presenting a wide range of elevation, or in crops offering a great variety of aspects and soils, several sample plots judiciously dis- tributed should be selected. (3) The form of the plots should be regular : in gene- ral the best shape is that of a long rectangle. (4) The aggregate area of the sample plots should not be less than 5 per cent, of the total area of the crop or type of growth of which they are chosen as the pattern. (5) In mature crops no sample plot should usually be less than from 3 to 6 acres in extent ; and in no case should the area be less than one acre, except, perhaps, in young uniform crops. (6) In crops of considereble extent several plots should be taken and not one of largre size. Size-classes of the trees enumerated. — Whether the trees are counted over the whole area or only on portions of it the number to be measured is so great that it is not practicable to record the correct diameter of each individual stem. Trees of more or less the same sizes are, therefore, grouped together in girth or diameter classes. Where, as often happen;;, timber is sold by, and tables are prepared for, girth measureinente, the classification might with advantage be by girths ; the calipers used being marked bo as to indicate girths not diameters. The range of girth or diameter included in each class * NoTB.— These rales, and Biiich of what follows in this chapter, have been extracted from the " Treatise on the mensuration of timber ard timber crops," cnmpiled from the German hyMt. P, 3, Carter, asd obtaioable at the office of tha Sapexinteadent, Goveriiment Printing, India, 47 should vary with the degriee of accuracy sought and the size attained by the trees themselves. In very accurate surveys^ differences of diameters as low as from 1 to 2 inches for large trees and from ^ an inch to 1 inch for small trees is some- times taken ; but such minute work is out of place in India where a variation of 6 inches in diameter can usually be employed with advantage. Theoretically, the height ought also to he taken into account in making this classification ; as height even more tban diameter is influenced by the local factors of production. But this is impracticable in most cases, and diameter-classes alone are sufficient. Where, however, heights should be recorded, they can be estimated by eye or with the aid of instruments specially constructed for the purpose. Hitherto in India the classification usually adopted has been the grouping together of all trees whose diameters do not differ by more than 6 inches. Thus trees having a diameter of 6 inches (or a girth of 1^ feet) and under form one class ; those of from 6 inches to 12 inches in diameter, or from Ig to 3 feet in girth, another ; those of from 12 to 18 inches in diameter, or from 3 feet to 4^ feet in girth, a third ; and so on. It would, perhaps, be more logical to classify according to the exploitable size of each principal species. In most mature forests of the sort generally met with there are three natural classes of stems more or less easily recognisable, viz.: — (1) exploitabte trees of and above the exploitable dimensions ; (2) medinm-aged trees ranging from the minimnm exploitable diameter down to, say, two-thirds of that size ; and (3) yonng and suppressed stems the diameters of which are less than two-thirds of the exploitable size. It is possible that the adoption of some such anifoim sjstem would be advantageous. The enumeration of the trees.— The enumeration and mea- surement of the trees is usually performed by parties consisting each of one recorder and from 4 to 8 measurers, the latter being provided with calipers for measuring the diameters of the stems. The form of calipers in common use consists of a graduated rule (A A), atone end of which is a fixed arm(B B), and on and around which slides another arm (0 C). To enable this arm to move freely, the hole (a, b, 0, d) is made oblique but in such a manner that, as soon as the arm (0 C) comes in contact with the log or tree to b© 48 measured, the arm assumes a position at right angles to the scale which it touches at the edges (c) and (b). Instead of being graduated in the ordinary way, the rule (A A), in calipers intended to be used by illiterate workmen, may, with advantage, be painted in different colours at inter- vals equal to the differences between diameter or girth classes, so that each colour corresponds to a class. It has also been found a wise precaution to attach to the trees measured paper labels of the same colours. Thus, snpposin^ there were four classes of trees, the colours mi>;ht be — Class I, diameters above 2 feet, corresponding colour, white. „ II, „ 1^ to 2 „ „ „ green. „ III, „ 1 to 1| „ „ „ red. ,, „ blue. ., IV. i to 1 Where trees of different species are separately recorded the shapes as well as the colour of the labels may vary. Thus species A may be marked with square tickets, species B with triangular tickets, species C with round tickets ; and so on. Each enumeratirg party consists of one recorder and of as msiiiy gangemen and coolies as are necessary. The recorder is provided with a pencil and with a blank book ruled in columns for the required number of diameter classes. The columns may be sub-divided so as to show separately sound and unsound trees and kinds of trees to be separately recorded. The vertical columns are headed by the names of the colours on the beam of the gauge which correspond to the diameter classes, and each gaugeman is provided with a bag, coutaining io separate pockets the tickets of different kinds and shapes, and with a gauge or calipers. The gauge- men advance in line and measure each tree at breast-height from the ground. After a tree is measured the gaugeman calls out its native name, the colour denoting its diameter class, and, in the case of the highest classes, whether it is sound or unsound. The recorder then makes the necessary entry in his book, noting each group of ten trees separately. This record can suitably be made by two vertical rows of four dots, each row crossed diagonally by lines from corner to corner, as in the example on page 60. 49 Tliesomidness or otherwise of a tree cannot always be determined, f»ad mnny trees which are unsound at the base may be sound throughout the greater part of the stem. 1'rees are generally classed as unsound if they are notieeably decayed or hol- low in the stem ; if they have half-dead crowns, or arc stage-headed ; or if they give back a kul'ow round when struck with an axe by a man standing on the ground. Where tlie enumeration is to be complete, and net by linear survey or sample plots, the record should be prepared separately for compact areas not exceeding a few hundred acres in extent. Eorthe purpose of checking the enumera- tion certain areas or plots should he selected for re-survey,, and the officer in charge should be present during at least one day's recording in each plot and should add the record made by himself to that made before his arrival. By keep- ing a careful account of the number of tickets issued and of the number returned, the balance that has been expended of each kind is known, and these numbers afford an addi- tional rough check on the number of each kind of tree- But, unless the countings are actually verified, tickets may be either accidentally lost or intentionally made away with,, and the record may be completed accordingly so as to lead to the belief that a large amount of work had been accom- plished. Constant and careful supervision by a trustworthy person is, in fact, the only means by which reUable results can be secured. It is usually the custom to blaze with an axe the trees measured. This, however, for obvious reasons, should not be done so as to injure the stems in the manner usual with native workmen. Where water is available, the trees may be marked with whitewash, made loith rice water so as to render it adherent ; but ordinarily a light blaze on the bark of each tree will suffice. In crops consisting of fairly regularly shaped -and not very large trees the mpasurement of a single diameter mav suffice, especially if the crop is traversed by the enumerating party ia various directions. But otherwise the mean of two diame- ters, taken more or less at right-angles to one another, should be recorded. Althoogh a matte- of petty detail, it is necessary to observe that the cahpers should be properly applied to the trunk of the tree and the diameter read off before the instrument is removed. The diameters should be all measured at breast-height, and on hill-sides this height should be taken on the upper side of the stem. Breast-height has been assumed to be 4i feet ; but, as the boles of trees do not taper either regularly or very rapidly, it is not necessary that this height should be exactly measured before the calipers are applied- Sufficient accuracy is attained if the measurer is careful to hold the calipers horizon- tally at the height of liis chest, and if the diameter is measured at any height between 4 and 5 feet and at a place where the stem is free from excrescences and branches. When a tree divides into two or three main stems, near the pomt at which the calipers would ordinarily be applied, each stem should be measured separately. Where the enumeration is to be complete, the survey should, if possible, be effect- ed over successive nairow strips, each strip being gone over once and in a direction E 60 opposite to that in which the immediately preceding strip has been ^nrvayed On Bteep slopes it is convenient to run the strips honzontaUy and to begin at the bottom of the slope. The number of measnrere that can keep one recorder f nlly employed depends on the density of the forest, on the nature of the ground and on whether all or only certain classes of the trees composing the crop are to be measured, me number di measurers for each recorder may then, according to circumstances, range from a to 6, or even 7 or 8. As the survey progresses, the trees measured are im- mediately marked. The mark should be made on the side towards the area still re- maining to be surveyed; so that, when the next strip is being examined tLe "en can at once recognise up to what point the strip just completed extends. The duty ot the recorder is to see that all the trees are measured, that the calipers are properly applied, the diameters read before the calipers are removed, and the mark made on the correct side of each tree measured. He should also note the distinction drawn by the measurers between sound and unsound trees; and he should keep his men, as tar as may be, in sight and in line. When a division into height classes is necessary, he has also to measure, or to estimate by eye, the height class of each tree as it is gauged. Recording the results of the enumeration.— The following is a sample of a convenient form of a field-book for enumera- tion surveys, in which the classes include a range of diameters and the forest is very irregular. Some of its advantages are:— (i) it requires very little ruling, (ii) it may he easily prepared from day to day by the recorder himself, and (iii) as the width of its different columns can, for that reason, be varied to suit the composition of the crop to be surveyed, a whole day's work, comprising the record of several thousand trees, can be compressed into a single opening of the book- Forest. Block. Compartment. DiAMEIEBS. Total number of trees. Species. 6 inches to 12 inches. 12 inches to 18 inches. 18 inches to 24 inches. 24 inches and over. Bemases. SM . ^arn- mifi DG • • 68 Sain . w :• m m • • 19 Miscellaneous ^' m • SO The numbers of trees are shown by dots and strokes. Each group, representing ten trees, consists of two upright rows of four dots each, joined by two diagonal lines which represent, respectively, the ninth and tenth trees. Thus, 5^ = 10, iii=z9, ::=8, || = 7;l: =6; andso on. CALCULATION OF THE VOLUME OP MATERIAL. Type-trees and form-factors.— The number of trees in each size-class having been ascertained, either by counting and measuring each individual tree in the whole area or by means of sample plots or lines, the volume of material in each class and, consequently, in the whole crop, may be calculated when required by means of type-trees, as follows :— We may assume that, on an average, in one and the same crop, trees of the same diameter and height have the same cubical contents. For all practical purposes, therefore, we may assume, without any great error, that if we select trees that are representative of each size-class, ascertain their contents and multiply this figure by the number of trees in the class each represents, the sum gives the volume of material in the whole crop. Such trees are called type- trees, and may be selected either by eye, by taking an average-tree, fairly representative of the crop or class as re- gards size, or, more accurately, as follows : — Calculate, with the aid of tables, the sectional areas at the base, where measured, of all the trees in the size-class and total the whole. Divide this figure by the total number of trees in the size-class, and the quotient will be the basal area of the type-tree required. Calculate the diameter corresponding to this basal area ; fell several trees of this diameter and ascertain their contents by actual measure- ment. The mean of their aggregate contents multiplied by the total number of trees in the size-class will give the total volume of material in that size-class. Proceeding in the same way with each size-class, the sum of the volumes obtain* ed gives the total volume of material in the whole crop. By hasal area is meant the area of the section of the stem of a tree measured on a plane at right-angles to the axis of the stem and at breast-height, or, as usually taken, at 4^ feet from the ground. This area is approximately equal to one-fonrth the square of the mean of the longest and shortest diameters of the tree at this height multiplied by 3'1416.* For the mean diameter is {- ^t^ )> where D and d are respectively the greatest and least diameters of the stem. Hy form-factor is meant the proportion which the true contents or volume of a tree bears to a cylinder having thf same basal area and heiglit. The volume obtained by multiplying "the basal area by the height of a tree is of course that of a cylinder ; but, as trees taper, the true contents of the stem are something less than this. If a=basal area of the trunk at breast-height, ^=tlie height of the bole or length of stem taken, then the volume (C) of an ideal cylinder whose basal area is a and height *Vaiue of T s » 62 h, is a h, and ve Iiave tVie follotring formala Tvith regard to the oonstant or redneiog f cactiun called tiie form-factor (f) and the true volame (c') of the stem : — ,,'=/(C) (C) = ah; c'=/aAvf = ^=-(^ The value of/ is determined by felling a sufficient number of trees and by ascertaining practically the value of -j^ , that is to say, the relation which subsists between the ideal cylinder and the true volume of the stem. With the above explanation we may proceed to prove the rules with regard to the selection of type-trees as follows :— Let C=:the total volnme of all the trees in a size-class. A=:the sum of the basal areas of all the stems. H=:the average height of the tree. i'=:the average form-factor of all the trees. n=the number of trees in the size-class. c'=tlie contents of the type-tree. a=the basal area of the type-tree. h=the height of the type-tree. f=the form-factor of the type-tree. We require to find a, the basal area of the type-tree representing the size-elass. By supposition C=A H F, and c' = a h f : also o' = — . D It follows that o' = ^-^ and, therefore, that a h f = *-iI. Therefore, as- suming that h f = H P, a = -I or, expressed in words, that the sum of the basal areas of all the trees in the class divided by the number of trees in that class egvals tie basal area of the type-tree. As the basal area = ^ ( P+^ \ '. it follows that the mean diameter of the tree sjnght (— ^) is equal to the square root of the basal area of the type-tree, as calcn- 'ated above, divided by one-fontth the value of %, or the mean diameter — -*' • This, in practice, would be found from a table. THE MEASUREMENT OF TREES AND LOGS. General rules.— The following directions in regard to measuring trees are taken (with some considerable omis- sions) from the treatise on the measurement of timber and timber crops already referred to, The heights of standing trees are ascertained by means of special instruments, designed for that purpose and known as dendrometers and hypsometers. These instruments are of two kinds — (i) those which give the height without calculation, their construction being based on the principle of similar triangles ; and 63 (ii) those which give the angles made with a horizontal line by the lines of sight to the top and base of the tree. "For measuring lengths graduated rules or tapes may be used. "Where great accuracy is required, the length of a felled tree or log should be measured parallel to its axis and not on its sloping surface. The sectional area of a log or tree can very rarely indeed be obtained directly. In nearly every case the girth or diameter must be mea- sured, and the area of the section determined as if the section were a circle. Area of section=-^^-^ (diameter)^. Girths are measured with tapes. It is convenient to employ tapes graduated on both sides, one side for reading the girth and the other for reading the corresponding diameter. The zero end of the tape should be furnished with a sharp metal point, which can be easily fixed in the bark of the tree, so that one person may be able to measure any stem, no matter how thick. As a circle encloses a greater area than any other plane figure of equal perimeter, and as the sectional outline of trees is seldom quite circular, the contents of a log or tree calculated directly from the girth will usually be in excess of the true contents. Unless the contour of the log is circular, it is impossible to obtain by girth measurement the circumference of the circle which encloses the same space as the section whose area is required. Irregularities of outline, due to fluting, bark, etc., cannot be overcome in measurements of girth, whereas they can more or less successfully be allowed for in measuring diameters. Experiments made in Baden prove that girth measurement yields a result from six to ten per cent, greater than that obtained by means of diameter measurement. It is, however, obvious that, in cubing logs which depart from the cylindrical form, the measurement of the girth is more to be relied on than the measurement of a single diameter. When the contents of a log are to be deduced from diameter mea- surement, that diameter should be sought which, considered as the diameter of a circle, gives a result as nearly as practic- able equal to the area of the section measured. When the section is elliptiform, the mean of the longest and shortest dia- meters should be taken. The mean of these diameters D and d is -^ and the area of the section is then assumed to be JLx ^?5^. Now, as the real area of the ellipse is Z. Dd. the 4 * u mode of measurement recommended gives an exciss of __.^5n?."^*. that is to say, an excess equal to the area of a circle whose diameter is equal to half the difference of the two measured diameters. Save in very exceptional cases this difference is small enough to he negligible. The area of sections of irregular contour can be determined from the mean of three diameters ; but the result thus obtained will generally be found to he somewhat too hij^h. Diameters are measured with calipers such as the in- strument already described at page 47. This instrument, it will have been noticed, resembles in all its essential parts a shoemaker's measure. In measuring logs and trees the following general rules should be borne in mind : — (i) Diameters, in experiments and in accurate valuations, are to be preferred to girths, (ii) In the case of stems of elliptical or oval shape take the mean of the largest and smallest diameters, (iii) In the case of all large stems measure at least two diameters, (iv) In the case of stems of irregular shape measure several diameters and avoid all protuberances, etc. (v) Measure diameters and girths always in a plane at right angles to the axis of the stem, (vi) If the place of measurement falls on an irregular part of the stem, measure the diameter or girth, as the case may be, at equal distances above and below the irregularity and take the mean of the two measurements, (vii) Moss, etc., thick enough to vitiate the measure- ment of the stem, should be removed, (viii) If a very accurate measurement of an irregular section is required, transfer its outline to tracing paper and compute its area with a planimeter or acre-comb, (ix) Pelled trees should be divided in the usual way, that is to say into logs and smaller pieces, and should then be measured, (x) Never be without tables showing at a glance the areas of circles for given diameters and girths. Several formulae, approaching more or less to accuracy, have been devised for the determination of the contents of round timber; but only two are of practical utility. They are — (1) volume of contents of log = half the sum of the areas of the top and bottom sections x the length ; (2) contents = area of mid-section x length. 55 Botb formulae contain an error, the extent of which is proportionate to the amount of difference between- the area at the top and base, respectively, of the log, that is to say, to its degree of taper ; and this error increases as the square of that difference. The second formula always gives too small a result, the first too great, the error of defect in the one case being one-half the error of excess in the other. The second formula has also another advantage for which it is to be preferred. The ordinary modes of measurement and calculation give, as a rule, too high a figure for the sectional area concerned in each case. This excess is partly compen- sated by the employment of the second;formula ; whereas the use of the first would only exaggerate it. In order still further to diminish error long logs should be measured in two or more sections, the number of the sections increasing, i.e., their length diminishing, with the taper of each log. The contents of logs of regular shape and not exceeding 20 feet in length may, however, be deduced from their sectional area in the middle. Longer logs, even if of regular shape, should be cubed in two or three sections. All large round logs should be measured singly. If the logs are stacked so that they cannot be conveniently measured in the middle, the mean of the sectional areas at the base and at the top must be taken. The mean sectional area should not, under any circumstances, be deduced from the mean of the diameters at the two extremities respectively, or an error of from 10 to 15 per cent, may result. Poles are seldom cubed singly ; but nearly always in stacks, built up of poles of one and the same length and of approximately the same diameter. Their solid contents are generally ascer- tained" by inspection from special tables. Straight and regularly-shaped branches are measured in the same way as logs. It must be observed, however, that while diameter measurements give more nearly the actual contents of logs and trees yet in practice the contents of round timber are always calculated, for trade purposes in India and in England, on the assumption that the sectional area is arrived at by squaring the quarter girth. Square-cut timber must, of course, be cubed by the formula : volume=lengthx width X thickness. The solid contents of small pieces, toppings and loppings and irregular-shaped pieces from stumps and roots, are obtainable by the water-method (their volume bemg equal to 66 tbe quantity of water they displace when suhmerged), or by the water-method and weighment combined. For the water-method special vessels, called xylometers, may be employed. In the combined system, samples of each kind or class of wood are successively weighed and measured by the water-method, and the contents of the entire quantity in each class are then worked out by means of simple proportion. Figures expressing specific gravity canoofc be employed ; since the specific gravity of wood varies — not only according to the amount of moisture present but — even in one and the same tree according to the part from which the wood has been derived. The most rapid way of measuring small wood on a large scale is to stack it cut up into billets of the same length, tlie width of each stack being equal to the length of the billets. The contents of a stack will be equal to length x height x common length of the billets. The length of a stack built up on a slope must be measured horizontally. 'J he above formula will give us only stacked contents. To reduce the latter to solid contents, we must determine, by the water method or by the combined water and weighment method, the exact volume of a sufl5ciently large number of stacked units, thereby obtaining the ratio between solid contents and stacked con tents. To obtain the solid contents of a stack it is then necessary merely to multiply the stacked contents by this ratio which may be termed the reducing factor * In connection with the determination of the solid con- tents of stacked wood it is obvious — (a) That the longer the billets or the less carefully built up the stacks, the less will be the solid contents. In careless stacking billets often lie across one another. (6) That the thicker or more regular-shaped the bil- lets, or the more carefully built up the stacks, the greater will be the solid contents. (c) That the larger the stacks, the greater will be the reducing factor. When bark is sold se parately its quantity may be i„^ * ' rj '""°"'''g '•Sr^'es may bo accepted as average factors fot converting stacked into BOlin contents : — ° Split woort . 065 to 0-80 Koiind billets (large) 50 to 0-65 Ditto (medium) 0-3u to OSO hmall stuff, Btnnipg and roots . . . 0-15 to 0-30 57 deteremined either by weighment or by ascertaining the volume.^ The solid contents are calculated by reducing factors in the same way as the solid contents of small wood. Experiments give from 0-3 to 0*4 as the average factor for bark. It has been found that the quantity of bark varies from 6 to 15 per cent, of the total volume of the tree or crop. There is in India only one practicable method of arriving at the contents of standing trees, namely by means of form- factors. It has already been explained that the cubical content of a tree is equal to some fraction {f) of the ideal cylinder whose basal area is equal to the section of the tree at breast-height and whose height is that of the stem. Form- factors may be deduced, according to the require- ments of the case, for the whole tree, for the stem only, or for the branches. It has been supposed that the sectional measurements have been taken at the height of a man's chest, assumed, for the sake of uniformity, to be 4 feet 6 inches above the ground. But it is obvious that any other conventional heiglit would serve the purpose, although it is usual and most convenient to employ the one we have adopted. We need refer to only one other convention which is sometimes used. The diameter may be measured at a constant fraction (say, for instance, one-twentieth) of the height of the tree, in which case the form-factors obtained are termed normal. Normal form-factors yield perfectly correct results; but they are not practical owing to the difficulty and trouble of mea- suring at various heights from the ground, Form-fictors are said to be absolute when the base of the ideal cylinder is assumed to be in the same horizontal plane as the diameter or girth measured. In this case the contents of the portion of the stem below the plane must be calculated separately. As may be supposed, calculations based on form -factors give better results for an entire forest than for individual trees. The preparation of a complete set of form-factors requires great care and experience, as ultimate accuracy depends entirely on the selection of the type-trees whose dimensions serve as the basis of all the calculations. In some cases the trees of a crop have been groupedinto various classes accord- ing to their height and shape, and a separate form-factor calculated for each class. The most recent investigations 58 prove that form-factors vary chiefly with the height of the trees. CAtCULATIOS OF THE EXPLOITABLE AGE. General rules. — In order to calculate the exploitable age of a tree it is necessary to ascertain the girth or diameter at which it furnishes the greatest quantity of the most useful material that is required. As a rule the price is the best gauge of the utility ; so that in most cases it may be said that trees are exploitable when, after deducting all expenses of exploita- tion, the price they realize per unit of volume is the highest obtainable. It not infrequently happens in India tliat it hag to he decided — ^not what is the priofi or what is the most useful produce but— whether the people in the vicinity of the forest or the general commanity should enjoy the produce. The people in the neighbourhood may require small wood-fuel and pasture for their cattle ; the fseaeral community, large timber. As a rule, the decision goes in favour of the local wants, though this could not always be defended from a purely economic point of view. It is, moreover, frequently overlooked that, in growing large timber smuU timber from the thinnings and branches is also available generally in as great abundance as can he consumed within the radius to which it may be profitably transported ; when more grazing can he provided than if the crop were cut when young and the forest, conse- qnently, can he closed more frequently to cattle. By price is here meant, of course, the net price of the trees when standing in the forest, after deduction of all cost of felling and extraction. The price must be calculated per unit of volume in the rough, unless where there is only a demand for standing trees. When poles or timber in the rough or logs are sold, the price realised per cubic foot for differently sized pieces directly indicates the size of the trees which are most useful and which will bring in the highest revenue ; provided that the cost of extraction is in all cases previously deducted. It will often he found that, owin^ to defective means of transport and to the greater cost consequently involved in extraction, the net price of large logs is lower than that of small, although the selling price of the former when delivered to the consumer may be very much ni<;her. When the size of the trees is calculated from the ruling price for converted timber, planks, sleepers, etc., or manufactured articles, the loss in conversion must be cal- culated in order to ascertain the cost per cubic foot, and that size should be ascertained in respect of which the loss is least. Almost invariably the loss will be least when the trees are largest. 59 Suppose that sleepetSi eaoh containing 2 cubic feet and costing One rupee to saw and deliver, sell for R3 eaoh. In order to ascertain the price realised per cubic foot in the rough) it will be necessary to know the average number of sleepers yielded by and the average cubic contents of an exploitable tree. Suppose the average diameter of the trees felled was 1^ feet, and that it was found that eaoh tree felled contained 80 cubic feet and yielded 2u sleepers, the price realised per tree would be 20 x 2 = R40, and the price per cubic foot standing would be fi^= 8 annas. The loss in the conversion of these trees is 80 — 40 or 50 per cent. It should be ascertained whether this loss would not be less and the price realized consequently higher if larger trees were felled. Thus, suppose it was found that 2 feet trees coutaining 120 cubic feet yielded 40 sleepers, the net price realised per standing trees would be 40 X 2 = B80, or per cubic foot fi-5^5 ^ 11 annas. The loss on conversion is 120 — 80=40 cubic feet, or 33 per cent., as compared with 50 per cent, when Ig foot trees were felled. A higher revenue is not realised hy felling large trees unless the net price of the latter per cubic foot is higher. The price per tree standing would of course be higher even if the price per cubic foot did not rise. But this must not be mistaken for a higher revenue ; for on the same area more small trees than large can be grown. The larger trees might bring in double as much per tree as the smaller ; but there might be double as many of the smaller stems. The quantity of material produced per annum would be the same. In fixing the dimensions of the exploitable tree the number of stems to be felled is decided upon ; and it might be thought that, because the lower the age of felling the more trees can be felled, the adoption of a lower age would be better. Thus, suppose a forest of 1,600 acres in which the exploitable size is fixed at 18 inches in diameter corresponding to an age of 100 years ; that the annual yield is, say, 1,184 trees ; and that it is proposed to raise the exploitable size to 2 feet diameter. We will assume that the average production of the soil per acre is 63 cubic feet a year, and that the tree of 2 feet contains 135 cubic feet, as compared with 85 cubic feet in the IJ feet tree. The number of trees that could be felled annually would be -^is x 1,600 = 747. It might be argued that it would be better to fell 1,184 trees a year than only 747. This depends on the purpose for which the trees are required and on the price realized. Thus, if, owing to the better wood or less loss in conversion, the net price realized per cubic foot for trees of the larger size were 4 annas, as compared with 3 aniias_for the smaller trees, each of the larger trees would be worth fi34, as compared with E16 for the smaller ; and the annual revenues would be R25,398 or R18,944. Indian forestrv is not ripe for elaborate calculations and most be satisfied _ with fellin.r when the revenue will be highest or the produce the most useful : otherwise it would also be necessary to consider the greater capital involved in producing the larger sized timber in view to taking account of the rate of interest on that capital. The correct calculation of the exploitable size is of the greatest importance and demands a good deal of careful local enquiry and comparison as to selling rates, etc. In European countries, where forestry in all its branches has long been practised and where the wood trade is fully deve- loped and established, the most profitable size is well known for each class of produce and each kind of treatment ; but this is not the case in India. 60 The following is an example of tlie sort of calculation that vonld be made to ascertain the most profiiable size for felling for fuel :— DesGription of mnterial and its thickness. Fuel in billets of over 10" . Fuel in billets of 10" to 6" . Fuel in billets below 6' . Sellin? price per 100 cubic feet stacked. Cost of cutting and extracting per 100 cubic feet stacked. 5-89 5-32 3-50 1-6 10 1-51 Net price per 100 cubic feet stacked. 4-32 1-99 BedQcing factor per 100 cabic feet stacked. 63 0-57 0-37 Net price per 100 cubic feet solid. 681 7-58 5-38 Bevises. It is evident from this that, assuming the average annual increment to remain fairly constant, there is every financial advantage in growing trees that will faruish billets of from 10" to 6" in diameter. The size having been decided it only remains to deter- mine the age at -which the trees attain that size. This is often exceedingly difficult in India, owing to the ring mark- ing being indistinct, and also to the fact that several species form more tiian one concentric ring of wood each year. In such cases the rate of growth can only be determined when trees of known age are to be found. The following remarks ap})ly, therefore, only to those species which form a single distinct concentric ring of wood each year. In the case of felled trees, the required age is found by counting the number of concentric I'ings on the section of the stool or base of the trunk. To ascertain the diametral increase of growth the countings should be made along several radii and the mean should be taken. Where necessary the rings in the sap wood and barK should be separately count- ed and recorded, and all great extremes should be rejected. Usually, with a view to determine, as is often necessary in order to calculate the possibility in selection-worked forests, the number of years required by trees to pass from one size- class to another, the average number of rings included in the diameter of each size-class is separately recorded. For a good many species the age may be very roughly determined without felling the trees by the use of the little instrument known as Presxler's borer, a hollow gimlet which, on being screwed into the trunk and then withdrawn, extracts a small cylinder of wood on which the ring- markings 61 can be counted. Prom two or three such'borings, on different sides of the trunk, the average number of rings per unit of radius can be ascertained. This instrument is a gimlet, consisting of a tube (G) with a very sharp-cutting edge (E). To render the instrument easily portable, the gimlet G can be taken off and placed within the hollow cylinder CC, of which the caps are removable. As the tube is forced into the trunk of a tree a cylinder of wood is cut out. On withdrawing the gimlet the cylinder can be easily pushed out of the tube and the ring-markings on it counted. Well-formed fairly cylindrical stems of various girths should be operated upon, and care should be taken that the instrument proceeds into the trunk towards the centre. 62 CHAPTBU III.— THE WORKING- PLAN", PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. General arrangement followed.— The prescription of the possibility — the manner and locality in which it is to be exploited— constitutes, practically speaking, the working- plan for all forests of which the exploitable material is wood ; and, as the manner in which the possibility ip cal- culated depends on the method of treatment, it will be con- venient to discuss separately the form of working-plan required under each method. This will be done in regular order, the coppice methods, as the simplest, being considered first. The manner of pre- scribing the provisional treatment that crops may and usually do require, transformation and restoration fellings, prepara- tory thinnings and other improvement fellings, in order to apply these methods will also be dealt with in describing the nature of the working-plan for each:— Method of simple coppice, „ „ coppice-selection. „ „ bxanch-coppice. „ „ coppice with standards. „ „ clearances, „ „ storied forest. „ „ selection. „ ,, successive fellings. „ „ pastoral treatment. Before dealing with these methods in detail some preli- minary explanations are, however, necessary. Manner in which the possibility is prescribed.— It has already been explained that the possibility may be prescribed in three ways, viz., by area, by number of trees or by volume of mater- ial, and that either of the two latter may be combined with the former. Practically speaking this is what is al- ways done, and the possibility is expressed by prescribing the felling, under certain sylvicultural rules, of the crop, or of a limited number of trees or volume of material in a given area. General and special plans.— The prescription of the possibility involves the formulating of a general plan or framework on which the whole working of the forest is built up, and a special plan or statement of the fellings to be made during a limited period. It has in some cases been imagined. that the general plan might be dispensed with and the fellings 63 prescribed in wliat has been called a "preliminary working- plan," This is, however, a mistaken notion. A forest ex- ploitation must have a definite purpose which cannot be arrived at without considering what crop and capital is to be created. This necessilates the determination of the ex- ploitable age and the drafting of a general scheme of work- ing for that age. ^ Thus, suppose the working-plan for 1,000 acres of sal forest to be — treatment by the selection-method with the object of gi'owing sal trees of two feet in diameter and requiring 100 years to attain that size ; the possibility being 1,000 trees a year. These prescriptions constitute the general plan. The regulation of the fellings for a certain time, say for 10 years (that period having been adopted as the falling rota- tion) and their allocation to definite areas or blocks, each about one-tenth of the total area, would form the special plan or statement of fellings for the first felling rotation. A better example is, however, afforded in the method of successive regene- ration fellings in which the periodic blocks and the order in which they are to be re- generated are prescribed in iht: general plan, n\\\\.e the special plan ■gxeSBxihe& in detail the fellings to be made in each block during one period only. Provisional working scheme.— The possibility is based on the condition of the existing crop ; and as this crop is pract- ically always abnormal, being either insufficient or super- abundant or irregularly arranged, the possibility also exhibits corresponding divergencies from the normal standard. Thus a coppice of 500 acres is to be exploited at 20 years. The normal annual felling would extend over 25 acres of coppice 20 years old. But, if there were no crops of say 10 to 15 years old, it would not be possible during the first rotation to follow the normal plan : either the area occupied by the crops aged from 16 to 20 years should furnish the fellings for the first 10 years, and then a larger area would be felled, or crops of a lower age than 20 years should be felled during some years. It has by some been considered necessary to distinguish between the actual scheme applied and the ideal one ; and the former has, in consequence, occasionally received the special name of provisional plan. This is, however, hardly necessary ; because, in the great majority of cases, the only plan with which we have- to deal is provisional, and there can, therefore, be no confusion. Preparatory period.— The length of time required in order to constitute the forest according to the normal condition is sometimes called o, preparatory period. It is necessary to adopt a preparatory period where the age-classes are defective or irregularly arranged, where it is desired to hasten the fellinc of over-mature material, or where immediate re- generation of the crops cannot be undertaken. Theoreti- cally the length of the preparatory period should be equal to the exploitable age ; but, in practice, a shorter period is generally adopted and the attainment of the desired end 61 is Lastened by judicious improvement fellings, etc. The object is to obtain a crop normally constituted according to the method of treatment adopted and containing a regularly graduated series of age-classes. Such a forest capital can generally be secured in a shorter time than that represented by the exploitable age. Thus the irregularly constituted coppice of 500 acres, already (akcn as an example, which it is wished to exploit at 20 years, could ouly he constituted, according to the normal type, hy making during the next 20 years 20 successive fellings of 2i> acre« in extent each year. After the lapse of 20 years there would he on the ground twenty age-classes, each occupying the same area and differing in age hy one year. In practice, however, such a treatment is not necessary, and it is merely sought to properly constitute the capital as soon as possible. In the case of coppice exploited at a low age, the provisional period is, however, generally equal in duration to the exploitable age. Prescribing the fellings.— The general worldng scheme is merely an outline ; because detailed operations could not, in most cases, be prescribed with any degree of certainty for so long a time in advance as the exploitable age or the duration of the preparatory period. It is therefore neces- sary to regulate in a special statement and for a shorter time the — duration of operations ; area to be operated on in each year or period ; order to be followed in the fellings ; nature of the fellings ; material to be removed. Period for which fellings are prescribed. — The interval during which the fellings should be prescribed depends on the general working scheme, as provisionally modified, and on the nature of the plan. The interval should not be too long, as the longer the more likely is it that unforeseen events may necessitate its modification ; and this may prove inconvenient. As a general rule, the term should be long enough to enable the prescribed fellings to pass once over the whole area to be worked, or to complete any definite series of operations already undertaken. That is to say, the fellings would generally be prescribed for one whole telling rotation in the case of coppice and selection worked forests, for one period in the method of successive fellings, etc. In Europe longer periods than 10 or 15 years are seldom taken ; but in India, in the case of selection fellings, 25 years or more have sometimes been found expedient. An 66 interval of time varying from 10 to 30 years would, therefore, generally be that within which the prescriptions would run. Area operated on. — The area to be operated on each year may be determined by dividing the number of acres in the whole forest, less blanks, etc., by the number of years in the felling rotation, and then by apportioning to each block or natural sub- division, according to the fertility of the soil, a certain number of coupes each of that area. The following example will explain this process. Suppose a forest of 3,870* acres containing a crop consisting of three types, only one of which is at present productive owing to the others containing no saleable species; also that four blocks, bounded by roads, rivers or other landmarks, have been formed and analysed as follows t — Naub of Block, Exploitable sal forest. Unproductive mixed forest without sal.* Blank.* Total. BXUABEa. Faimar . Datwind . Haigia £aira Acres. 690 540 530 1,240 Acres. 180 100 250 150 Acres. 80 30 60 20 Acres. 950 670 840 1,410 I Very good soil. Poor and rooky soi). Total 3,000 680 190 3,870 We will assume that the felling rotation adopted is 15 years, Rnd that it is, consequently, required to divide the total area into 15 portions of equal forest productivity. This may be done as follows : — Total area of forest .... Deduct blanks and unexploitable areas . Total exploitable area 3,000 3,870 acres. 870 „ 3,000 „ The average aftato be operated on annually is ?^=200 acres. In order to lay out these areas each block may be divided into an integral number of coupes containing an area of exploitable forest greater or smalUr than the average according to fert.hty of the soil Thus Paimar, Datwind and Haigla, containing very good fertile soil at ?he base of the hills, might each be divided into coupes containing on au average w than 2(K) acres of sal forest ; whilst Baira, situated iu rocky ground m the hiUs whe2the^aU;;o1 the soil is poor, might he divided into five portions, each * It need hardly be explained that small areas of anexploitable forest would be included vrhcre ueccfcsary ia a working-circle, F 63 containing about 250 acres of sM forest, or a good deal more than the average. When icarked out on the ground the conpes would, we will suppose, be as follows : — Abu. iir Aoixs. SbbialNo.O] CODFB. Block. SaL Unprodnc- tiTC' Blank. Toiu. 1 Paimar . . . 180 60 Nil 240 2 Do, , , 175 20 Nil 195 3 Do. 176 Nil 20 195 4 Do. 160 100 60 320 5 Uatwind 185 70 30 286 6 Do. . 175 30 Nil 205 7 Do. • 180 Nil Nil 180 8 Haigla 175 50 60 285 9 Do . 175 100 Nil 275 30 Do. 180 100 Nil 280 11 Baira , 240 Nil Nil 240 12 Do. • 230 10 20 260 etc. eto. etc. etc. etc. etc. 'OTAL • 3,000 680 190 3,870 In selection working, where the number of trees to be felled is prescribed, the usual practice in India bas been to study the results of the enumeration survey and to select areas capable of furnishing the number of trees required each year. Thus if the possibility were fixed at 2,000 trees, areas capable of furnishing 2 000 trees would be selected to constitute the annual coupes. This system is, however, open to objection in that the coupes are not permanent as they ought to be. They depend merely on the crop for the time being. At the next felling rotation totally ditferent annual coupes might have to be formed. Where a sustained annual yield is not of special impoi-tance, it would, therefore, be better to form permanent annual coupes and then to prescribe the fellings to be made in them. Balancing the production — In coppice fellings, and other cases in which the possibility is prescribed by area only, it is sometimes sought to balance the production and to determine the area of the coupes by processes more exact and scientific than those described above. The production depends on what has been called the quality of the locality, that is to say, on the influence of the climate, aspect, soil, etc., and on the composition and density of the crop ; and it has been attempted, by assigning numerical co-eflBcients to each of these factors, to arrive at the result sought by means of mathematical formulae. But such calculations, based on uncertain data, are often misleading and occasionally lend merely an appearance of mathematical accuracy to estimates which can be more correctly made by the exercise of a little judgment and common sense. In the present state of our knowledge of forestry in India they are entirely out of place. 67 Locating the fellings. — For locating fellings rules have been formulated which are to be found in most works on sylviculture. These rules, although theoretically occupying an important place in organised forest working, are not, however, always applicable, especially in the case of irre- gular forests worked by the selection method. They may be stated as follows : — (1) The fellings should be adjacent and succeed one another in the order in which made, and should have the most regular form possible. (2) They should be so located that the produce of an area in course of exploitation need not be carried through the young crops in the portions of the forest recently felled. (3) They should proceed from the side least exposed in a direction contrary to that of the prevail- ing dangerous winds. (4) On steep slopes the fellings should be commenced at the bottom. (5) In hill forests the coupes should be long and nar- row in form, and have their longest sides per- pendicular to the direction of the dangerous winds. Nature of the fellings The nature of the fellings to be made depends on the permanent or temporary method of treatment and may be explained by a single term. A list of the various fellings has already been given in connec- tion with the methods of treatment. But, in the irregular con- dition of the forests in this country and owing to the want of well-known methods of cultural treatment applicable to them, it is always well to indicate briefly the more im- portant points connected with the application of the fellings. This may be done by a few remarks in the statement of fellings itself, or in a separate note ; or the detailed descrip- tions of the forest may be referred to, and such suggestions as are likely to prove useful to the executive oflBcers may be entered in the remarks column of the statement for each compartment or block. Material to be removed.— The possibility, as calculated by one or other of the methods to be explained hereafter, should be prescribed for the length of time for which the detailed statement of fellings is drawn up, and it may possibly be subject to revision during that period. 68 We may now proceed to discuss the manner in which plans may be suitably framed according to one or anotber of the various methods of treatment enumerated at the begin- ning of this chapter. THE METHOD OF SIMPLE COPPICE. General plan. — The general plan in the case of the simple coppice method is exceedingly simple. It consists in dividing the forest into as many annual coupes as there are years ia the exploitable age, and prescribing the felling of one such coupe in rotation each year or period. Where the age-classes are not suitably distributed or graduated, a provi- sional plan is necessary ; and, as the age of exploitation is short, the length of the preparatory period during which the provisional plan remains in force is usually the same as the exploitable age. Exploitable age— The age of felling is the first point to determine. This age varies within tolerably narrow limits. The trees cannot be felled at a very advanced age, or they will have lost the power of throwing out shoots ; nor while quite young, as the produce may be unsaleable. As a rule both these limits should be determined, as well as the size of the trees which furnish the most useful material. The age of felling, corresponding to that at which the average annual production is greatest, can then be decided with safety. Generally it may be said that, so long as the age at which the trees cease to produce vigorous coppice shoots is not exceeded, the longer the rotation the more valuable the produce and the greater the revenue. Period for which the fellings are prescribed The fellings should always be prescribed for the whole length of the rotation which is the same as the exploitable age. Area to be operated on.~The area of the coupes is deter- mined by dividmg the total exploitable wooded area by the number of years in the exploitable age. This gives the size of the average coupe which may be increased or diminished C9 *r '^^^j^r^'*- ^^^^ ^'ock or natural sub-division should be divided into an integral number of coupes of approximately the same productive power. Order to be followed in the felUngs. -The rules regarding the allocation of the fellings should be attended to. The coupes should have the most regular form possible, and, as a rule, should succeed one another in consecutive order on the ground ; and the produce of a coupe in course of exploita- tion should not be transported through another coupe recently exploited. A good system of roads or paths must conse- quently be arranged. Nature of the fellings.— The sylvicultural rules regarding the fellings to be made are simple. The felling of the trees flush with the ground and at the most suitable season of the year, is, as a rule, all that need be prescribed. Possibility. — This is prescribed by area, and is determined by fixing upon the area to be operated on. In determining the possibility the present age of tlie crop as well as its age at the time of felling should if possible be stated in order to justify the plan which, owing to the irregularity of the crops, must often be of an abnormal character. Although the exploitation of the coupes in regular succession, in the order in which they stand on the ground, is desirable, this is not always practicable in the first rotation, especially when dealing with areas which have already been subjected to cop- pice fellings without the control of a regular working-plan. As the following example indicates, such a case presents no real difficulty in the framing of the plan of fel- lings. It is 'assumed that a plan is being drawn up for a working-circle containing 1,188 acres already worked as coppice and composed as follows in the year 1888-89 : — Abba mr acbes. Block. Wooded. Blank. Occupied or uncul- turable. Total. E311ABKB. Chansil Kotigall Datmir . l^aintwar Sahlra . 360 200 100 270 236 3 9 1 2 3 1 "3 364 209 101 275 239 (-178 aged 12 to 1 Of which ^3|— ^ ^^ ^ V, years. „ 8 years. „ 5 to 6 years. „ 4 to 5 „ ( 130 aged 1 year. (.106 „ 13 years. Total 1,166 18 4 1,188 70 This analysis enaWes us to study the compoBition of the growing stock or capital and to arrive at the following figures :— . 130 acres. Crops 1 to 3 years old 6 370 382 284 4 to '„ 7to 9 „ ,. „ 10 to 12 „ „ and over We will further assume that it has heen decided to work the forest on a short rotation of twelve years, so as to furnish small fuel for the ne.ghhourmg nght-holders a«d villagers. Consequently, as iifi acres would be cut over annually, or on an average 291 acres every three rears, there ought to be about 290 acres for each of the above a4ola7ses. It is, therefore, apparent that the forest is over-nch m woods of medium age. and that the e.cess capital may be utilized The average s,Wea^h annual coupe would he found, after deducting the blanks, etc., to be ^W «F 9? a^'^s- But we will suppose that iu order to provide in the different blocks for differenoes of fertility which, owing to a complete change of soil, are somewhat marked, it has been decided to distribute the coupes as follows : — Chansil — good soil — 4 coupes of 90 acres wooded each. Kotigall — medium — 2 „ of 100 a " •> Datmir — do. — 1 » of ^ 00 » " " Naintwar — good soil — 3 „ of 90 „ >> » Sahha —bad soil —2 „ of 118 „ „ „ It will also be supposed that advantage has been taken of existing roads and other land-marks in locating the coupes so that the areas are not exactly equal. Ihe fellings to be made are as follows : — Abba IK ACRES kgtt of the . Year of felliDgs P< °s crop when and order of 1 Block or com- «■« felled. Bkuibks. working during partment. ■s . •5.1 first rotation. "S •y s ?:? 3 Tears. o ^ a og f XII Sahlra 106 106 14 As the forest 1889-90 . capital is in I Chansil 92 2 1 95 14 to 15 excess of the normal, coupe 1890-91 II Ditto 86 1 ... 87 15 to 16 No. 12 in Sahlra will he 1891-92 III Ditto 94 ... ... 94 12 to 13 felled in the first year and 1892-93 IV Ditto 88 ... ... 88 13 to 14 again in its turn in the 1893-94 V Kotigall . 108 6 ... 114 14 last year of the rotation. 1894-95 VI Ditto 92 3 ... 95 15 This slight de- parture from 1895-96 VII Datmir 100 1 ... 101 13 to 14 the regular or- der will dis- 1896-97 VIII Naintwar . 82 1 ... 83 13 to 14 appear in the second rota- 1897-98 IX Ditto 96 ... 3 99 14 to 15 tion. 1898-99 X Ditto 92 1 ... 93 15 to 16 1899-1900 . XI Sahlra 130 3 ... 133 13 1900-1001 . XII Ditto 106 ... *•• 106 11 71 It is evident that, if an equal yield were required from year to year, the excess felling rendered neceBsai^ hy the Buperahundance of mature crops should be spread over several years instead of beiug carried out in 1889-90. Conversion of irregular forest into coppice. — In the fore- going example it has been assumed that the forest had already been under coppice treatment, and that consequently there existed on the ground a more or less complete scale of age- classes. Generally speaking, however, this is not the case in India ; and the crop to be dealt with not infrequently con- sists of an irregular and inferior or partially ruined seedling forest or scrub. In any case the forest must offer one of two conditions. The number of young trees in the growing stock is either suflB.- cient or insufficient in view of reproductionby coppice shoots. In the former ease the conversion of the crop into coppice offers no difficulty. It will first be necessary to decide on the age at which the coppice, when created, should be exploited. This, unless there are in the neighbourhood coppice forests of the same kind, must be more or less a matter of guess-work. Having decided on the age, the area to be worked would be divided, in the manner already ex- plained, into as many coupes as there are years in the rota- tion, and one of these coupes would be clean felled each year. In dealing, however, with a mature or over-rnature crop incapable of being regenerated by coppice shoots it is neces- sary to regenerate by seed with a view to constituting a new crop which could be converted into coppice while still com- paratively young. For this purpose the forest should, as in the former case, be divided into as many coupes as there are years in the age at which it is proposed to exploit the cop- pice, and the regeneration, either by natural or by artificial means, of one or two of these coupes, should be taken in hand each year. In this way there would in due time be brought into existence a complete scale of age-classes which could then be converted into coppice as in the first example. In, both cases cuttings would be prescribed in a table of fellings such as shown at page 70. ^ ,^ „, tx • Supplementary regulations : preserving belts ot trees.— It is always useful to preserve belts of trees— which sometimes, for climatic reasons, are of considerable breadth— along the roads, main division lines or boundaries of the simple cop- pice compartments. Such trees are useful in many ways : they protect the coupes, furnish seed, and, when required. 72 act as boundary marks ; and they adorn the forest. The establishment of such belts, the species to be preserved, etc., should therefore be considered and if necessary should be prescribed in the working-plan. Works of improvement. — The works of improvement re- quired in coppice forests are generally limited to the re-stock, ing of blanks, which are common enough in such forests, and in some cases to the construction of ditches or fences for the exclusion of cattle. Coppice forests are not likely to be form- ed except for the supply of fuel in the immediate neighbour- hood of villages and of large towns, and therefore in situa- tions exceedingly liable to trespass. A ditch or a wire fence is often the cheapest way of putting a stop to cattle trespass which, in view of the short intervals at which the stock in coppice forests is renewed, is a grave danger. COPPICE-SELECTION METHOD. General plan- — The coppice-selection method of treatment, a selection method in which reproduction is obtained by coppice instead of by seed, is believed to be only applied in India in the treatment of bamboos, of which the "culms" may be compared to coppice-shoots. Such fellings may be carried on simultaneously with those under whatever method of treatment is applied to other species in the forest where the bamboos are growing. The whole bamboo-producino- area, or so much of it as it is desirable to exploit, may be divided into two or three coupes which are visited in turn every two or three years, as the case may be, care being taken always to leave a certain number of shoots in each clump. Such fellings are organized and prescribed by area, in the way that would be followed for simple-coppice worked on a very short felling rotation. The possibility regulates itself ; and all that is required is to parcel out the area into two or three coupes to be worked in regular rotation. 73 THE BRANCH-COPPICE METHOP. General plan— In certain parts of India, notably in hilly or mountainous country, the inhabitants practise pruning or lopping off branches of trees for firewood and manure or for fodder or litter for their cattle. Where this practice prevails the transport of timber to a distance is frequently out of the question, and there is often consequeatly more material than the people can utilize, while fodder during the winter is urgently needed. In such cases the method cannot be con- demned, as it is perhaps the sole means of furnishing the fodder required ; and it may, therefore, sometimes be ne- cessary to recognise it as a justifiable modification of the coppice method. Conifers, which in the Himalaya are often treated in this way, do not of course throw out shoots like broad-leaved genera ; but the smaller branches left and new shoots springing from buds on these branches replace those removed. When necessary, the working of forests according to this method may be organised in the same way as for ordinary coppice on a short rotation of from 5 to 10 years. Modification of the branch-coppice method. — In the pasture grounds of some countries there is practised a modification of this method which consists in pollarding all the trees at a height of 5 or 6 feet from the ground, so that the young shoots produced may be out of reach of cattle. These shoots are removed a few at a time, as in the coppice-selection method ; and the working-plan consists in dividing the area into a few coupes to be cut over in rotation, and in limit- ing the size of the branches to be cut. The larger branches bear seed from which a sufficient number of young trees are produced to replace the old pollards as they decay ; but reproduction however sought necessitates the exclusion of cattle until the young trees grow out of reach. METHOD OF COPPICE WITH STANDARDS. The general plan.— The method of coppice with standards 74 is applied in exactly the same way as simple coppice, the difference between the two methods— a very great one- being in the selection and reservation of the standards. The exploitable age is calculated for the underwood only and in the same way as in the case of simple coppice. Gene- rally, however, the underwood is felled at a more advanced age, as this procedure tends to lengthen the stems of the re- serves and has other advantages. The possibility is pre- scribed, as in simple coppice, by area, but with the addition of a rule regulating the constitution of the reserve of stand- ards : that is to say, prescribing the number of stems of each species and of one rotation which must be reserved at each exploitation, and specifying the number of older stems to be felled. Reservation of standards. — The characteristic of the method lies in the reservation of the standards, and the value and exact constitution of this reserve must be deter- mined with great care. The number and proportion of each class of standards have therefore to be decided. The total number of all classes that can be retained is limited by the fact that the standards should remain isolated after they are first marked and until they are felled. The maximum number per acre is, therefore, the area of one acre divided by the average ai'ea covered by the crown of one mature standard ; but the number that is reserved in practice depends on the species both in the reserve and in the coppice. As regeneration is principally obtained by means of coppice, the cover of the standard trees must not be of a kind to unduly interfere with the development of the stool shoots. Provided no such interference occurs, the greater the number of stand- ards the better ; as this reserve enormously increases both the capital value and the revenue. The value of the coppice, as compared with that of a fully established reserve of stand- ards, is insignificant. The following example exhibits the method by which the number of standards can be arrived at, and the influence of the reservation on the revenue and capital value of the forest. It will be assumed that the length of the rotation is 20 years ; that the maximum age up to which the standards can be preserved is 80 years ; and that it has been found by experiment that the cover of the trees of different ages is as follows : — Square feet. Trees of one rotation or 20 years, each .... 30 „ two „ 40 „ 150 „ three „ 60 „ 400 ,. four „ 80 „ . . . , ,600 75 The number of square feet in one acre is 43,560 ; and hs i?=^ = 72, a crop of that number of trees of 80 years old would form a complete croTon one acre Let Z^T^Z *'"'* ? ^Ta^ ^^'' ""^ ^•'?. observation on the .pot, it is decided that the total D"mber of standards per acre should not exceed about 40 trees, and that trees of from 60 o 80 years old have attained the most useful dimensions they can reach whi e sound; also that It has been estimated that only about a third of^ the stems first reserved can be again reserved with advantage at the second rotation, and so as regards these again. There should therefore be reserved at each exploitation— 27 standards of one rotation. 9 „ „ two „ 3 „ ,, three „ As soon as the capital was constituted the number of standards to be felled at each exploitation would thei ef ore he : — Trees of one rotation, felled 0, reserved . . 27 .. » two „ „ 18, „ . . 9 „ „ three „ t, 6, „ . . 3 „ „ four „ „ 3, „ . . When the capital was fully constituted and just beforeleach coupe there would be per acre (in addition to the coppice containing 27 standards of one rotation about to be reserved and covering an area of 810 square feet) — Square feet. 27 trees of two rotations covering • • . . . 4,050 9 „ „ three „ „ 3,600 3 „ „ four. „ 1,800 ToTAI, AEEA COVEEED . 9,450 The maximum area covered by the standards, including that covered by the trees about to be reserved, would, therefore, only amount to one-fourth of the total area. For the particular species cimoerned it would, by hypothesis, have already been ascer- tained that the room left for the coppice growth is sufficient. As re>;ards the effect of the reservation on the capital value of the forest and on the revenue, we may assume the net value of the tree of 40 years old to be E5, of 60 years old 1110, and of 80 years old R20 ; and that an acre completely stocked with simple coppice 30 years old produces at each felling « net piofit of filOO. Ti,... -,» ij v t n J 1 u The effect of the reservation of the standards There would be lelled at each coupe— ijii,j: ux • ti. ii /■ i would tnereiore be to raise the net value ol each ,„ ... ,j ^ one-aore coupe when the crop is mature from 6 T' IS '"r °!. ® 10 = w RlOO to E286, and the net annual revenue per 3 „ 80 ,',* ,V ,7 20=60 acre from fl5 to fil4f. Capitalised at 4 per cent, ~7^ the value of the forest cropped with simple coppice 100 X 10.260 would be EI2o per acre; while with standards, the Coppice : KlOO ^^^ 76 ^^i„g ^q^j^ ^e fl360. The results may in many Total ~im •"'^^^ ^^ ^'^^^ more favourable to compound oop- ' — . pice. In selecting the standards attention is paid to their origin, their species, their shape, their condition of growth and their position in the crop. Seedling poles should be preferred to coppice, because they are longer lived. Where, however, seed- lings are not found, sound shoots from young and small stools may be chosen. Only such species as furnish valuable timber 76 should be reserved ; inferior trees should not be selected. It is not necessary to reserve the prescribed number of standards in every acre or coupe : only well-shapen, straight, sound and vigourous stems should be chosen, and they should be selected in places where it will be possible for them to thrive. This should all be prescribed in a regulation attached to the state- ment of fellings. Supplementary regulations.— The importance of a numerous and well-constituted reserve, formed chiefly of stems which have sprung from seed, has been explained. There is, how- ever, a likelihood of the seedlings not being forthcoming owing to their being suppressed by the faster growing coppice. Means are therefore sometimes taken to foster them by clean- ings during the early years of their existence. Such clean- ings are frequently conducted — every year or every two or three years according to the species and the rate of growth — until the coppice has attained a certain age, 5, 10 or 15 years, when they are as a rule discontinued. In certain instances it may be advisable to make a thinning 2 or 3 years before the coppice is felled, in view to the better development of such stems as will probably be selected for standards. Conversion of irregular high forest into coppice with stand- ards. — This conversion, except as regards reserving standards, can be done in exactly the same manner as has been ex- plained with regard to simple coppice. If there is a suffi- ciency of young trees capable of producing coppice shoots the conversion can be commenced at once, the forest being divided into coupes to be felled in rotation, just as if these coupes already contained coppice growth. Otherwise it will be necessary first to constitute young crops which can then be operated on as in the former case. The young growth can either be obtained naturally by regeneration fellings or arti- ficially by sowing or planting. The reservation of the standards obviously presents no difficulty. The stems it is wished to retain are immediately selected, and the reserve constituted. Even where the crop is so mature that it is necessary, before applying the new method, to obtain a young growth, trees should be maintained with a view to constituting the reserve with the desired proportion of older stems when the coppice fellings can be begunl The possi- bility, which will be by area for coppice conversions when undertaken direct, may be calculated in the same way as already stated for ordinary coppice fellings. 77 Transformation of simple coppice into coppice with stand- ards. — The operation of converting simple coppice into coppice with standards is -very simple ; but, in order to produce the desired capital, it has to be spread over as many rotations as are necessary to obtain standards of the oldest age desired. It merely consists in the reservation of the required number and kind of standards in each coupe. Beyond prescribing the reservation of standards no change in the working-plan would be required. The fellings would otherwise be or- ganized as already explained. METHOD OF CLEAKANCES. General plan. — This method, as already explained, in- cludes several different forms, viz., clearings on adjacent areas, clearings on alternate parallel strips, and clean fellings with artificial regeneration. In all these modifica- tions the possibility is determined by area, as in the method of simple coppice, and the number of coupes, if annual, is in each case made equal to the number of years in the ex- ploitable age ; if biennial, to half the number of years, etc. The fellings are, however, prescribed with some slight differences in each of the modifications. In the system of clearings on adjacent areas, the exploi- table age having been determined, the whole area is divided into as many coupes of equal fertility or equal resources as there are years in the exploitable age, or, if necessary, into one-half or one-third as many biennial or triennial coupes, one of which would be felled every year or every two or three years, as the case might be. The clearances made may be either clear fellings, or a certain number of trees may be reserved to grow to a larger size and to assist in the regener- ation by the seed they shed. Where no trees are reserved natural regeneration by seed can only be secured from seed shed by adjacent trees, and the average area of the clear- ances should therefore be small. The object of the strip system, which is the same in principle as that of the method of adjacent areas, is to ensure natural regeneration taking place over large areas. With 78 this object long narrow strips are marked out on the ground and every alternate strip is cleared until the whole area has been traversed, when the alternate strips, omitted at the first passage of the cuttings, are clean felled in their turn. By these means a newly-felled coupe has, as it were, a hedge of seed bearing and sheltering trees on either side of it. Larger areas may obviously be felled without risking failure of reproduction than in the case of the method of adjacent areas, and as in that method reserves may be left if de- sirable. The system of clean-fellings (with artificial regeneration) is applied in the same way as the method of clearings, except that, instead of trusting to reproduction from seed falling from the reserved trees or from the adjacent forest, the area felled is planted up or sown each year. The size of the coupes may obviously he as large as can conveniently be re-stocked artificially ; and, unless re-stocking fails, tlie ideal or normal type of forest may be approached very closely under this method. The cost and difficulty of successfully re-stocking large areas are the chief drawbacks to its employ- ment. METHOD OF STOREYED FOREST. General plan.— In applying this method the number of stems of each age or size-class to be reserved must be decided on. This number is deduced from the area covered by the crown of the average tree of each size-class and from tbe rate of growth. The difference in age between each class is, we may assume, equal to the length of the felling rotation ; and the classes must be formed so that the trees of one class will attain the dimensions of the next higher class during that interval. Or, if preferable, the size-classes may first be decided on, and the length of the felling rotation, based on the rate of growth, may be made to correspond. 1, 'F'V'^' ^"PP"^® *^** '^^ ^i*'"<'*e'"8 "f the size-classes determined on are : below ^A ■ J } '■ ^' *° ^^'' ■"■'' *° ^'' ^""^ °''^^ 2' ""^^t ! tfaa* <^"es of 2 feet diameter have attained their maximum utiUty ; and that the rate of growth is such that in about dO years the trees of the lowest dimension in one class attain the minimum size for the next higher class. This period of 30 years would, therefore, be taken as the 79 Sd conlllt offZ.?^"?"- ^° '"i?^ " ^°'''' *^ •''^P^t'^'' ™^«" ^°™''"y constituted woultt consist ot four age-classes, each occupjins one-fourth the total area Thus in rar'l0°890:au^f f °t ^T^ '"*' ^f ^S-^- would co^eroneTurth ofths ffj ° l.^'S^O square feet. There would be no crops composed of trees over 2 feet m diameter, as m theory these would be exploited as soon as they reached th,t Class I, stems over 2 feet diameter, occupying " ^^' " •> Is to 2 feet diameter, occupying •■ "i' " " 1 " n , " ^*^» " .. i „ 1 foot ,, jj V, „ below i foot . 2Sfil. • • 10,890 square feet • • 10,890 . • 10,890 10,890 TOTAL 43,560 In order to ascertain the number of stems of each class, it woold be necessary to measure the areas covered by the crowns of the average trees in each class. We will assume these areas to be as follows :— Class I . ., II . =, III . „ IV . „ V (dominant stems) 900 square feet. 625 400 100 23 The number of trees of each class, when the capital has been constituted, is evidently the area covered by the class (10,890 square feet), divided by the average area covered by one crown of that class ; and would therefore be as follows :— Class I , trees „ II . ■ 17 „ „ III • 27 „ „ IV . 108 „ V • 436 „ In the course of 30 years, according^ to the assumption made, all the trees in each class attain the next higher class. If, therefore, during this inturval we fell the difference in numbers the capital will remain unaltered. This operation may be tabulated as follows : — Clahs, Felled. Eeserved, Total. I 17 17 II 10 17 27 III 81 27 lOS IV 328 108 436 At the end of the thirty-year period the crop on the ground would thus be the normal capital. The place of the young growth in Class V at the commencement of the period would be taken by a new stock of seedlings which would occupy one-fourth of the area, i.e., the portion not covered by the standards reserved. This method is applied in the same way as the selection method. The forest is divided into whatever number of annual or periodic coupes the felling rotation requires, and 80 the number of trees to be felled each year is prescribed. The number of stems to be felled in each size or age-class should be stated. When first applying such a method to a forest, the num- ber of stems to be felled would not of course, as in the example given, be the difference between the numbers of trees in the various classes. In such a case, the number of stems to be left on the ground having been determined in the manner explained, reference would be made to the results of the enumeration and the number of trees to be felled would be deduced therefrom. Thus, suppose an enunaeration of the block or compartment to he exploited, con- taining UOO acres, gave the following results ; — Class I . 470 trees or . 2 trees per acre. 11 . 5.656 „ »» * . 28 „ s» Ill . 3,3S8 „ i» • • 17 „ J» IV , 26,690 „ :» . 133 „ »> V . . 127,400 „ s» • . 6H7 „ »> In order that the capital should be constituted in the manner required, it would be necessary at the iiist operation to lell and reserve, on an average per acre of the coupe — Of Class I trees ; to fell 2 trees ; reserve trees. n „ i» 11 ., j» • 17 „ III „ i» „ s, • 17 „ IV „ f> 15 „ »» • 118 „ There would he reserved of Class IV 118 trees instead of 108, to make up for the deficient number of trees reserved in Class 111. It need hardly be said that, when a mixed crop is dealt with, the felling of each species should not be separately prescribed as has been sometimes done in Indian working- plans. At most the relative proportion of each kind should be prescribed. This " storeyed forest " method of treatment lias been seldom described, though it has been largely applied in certain parts of Prance. It is stated to be parti- cularly well-suited to hill forests, in which the uncovering of the soil leads to a dense growth of forest w^eeds and thus prevents reproductiou. 81 The method of selection fellings (French jardinage). The General plan — The method of selection fellings con- sists in felling here and there, as they are found growing and according to certain cultural rules, such of the exploit- able trees as it is calculated will not exceed the possibility of the forest. Theoretically, every acre of a selection- worked forest should be felled over each year ; but, as the trees felled would be so scattered that it would often not be profitable to remove them, it is usual to fell over a portion of the area each year and thus work over the whole area in a given period at the end of which the portion first worked is again taken in hand. The working.plan thus pre- scribes the number of years in which the whole area is to be worked over ; the area which is to be worked each year, or during a short period of years ; and it limits the quantity of material to be removed, annually or periodically, to the total production over the whole area during the year or period concerned. Tins the working-plan might be to the effect that each year there will be felled by the selection metbodi on one-tenth of the area of the forest, such and such a number of trees. Limitation of the fellings. — The limitation of the material to be removed may be effected in several ways, viz. : — (a) by cultural rules only; (6) by prescribing, in addition to cultural rules, the quantity of material or the girth or diameter limits of the trees to be felled ; and (c) by prescribing the proportion which the number of trees felled shall bear to the number of stems of certain dimensions in the standing stock. The number of trees or the volume of material which is to be felled may, when precision is required, be calculated by one or another the following methods which will be separately described in the order given : — The rate of growth. Enumeration of the trees. Estimation of the production of the soil. The method of relative proportion. The method of proportixjnate volumes. 82 Another process based on tables showing the yield of dif- ferent classes of forest and soil need not here be dealt with, as no such tables for Indian forests exist. It may be useful to note that in applying these methods, the yield need not as is frequently done be separately calculated for each species. The enumeration would show the relative proportion of each species ; and in the working-plan the fellings of each may be prescribed according to that proportion. Thus, suppose that | of the trees enumerated were of species A, and % of species B, and that the possibility were fixed at, say, 600 trees a year, the plan might prescribe the felling of 200 trees of species A and 400 of species B. Fellings limited by cidtural rules.— -The cultural rules prescribing the method of making the fellings should be easy to understand and of general application ; and they should also ensure that, as far as possible, more material than the forest produces will not be removed. Where the demand and consequently the fellings are very light nothing more is required than to fix the diameter below which trees must not be felled, or to limit the fellings to the removal, here and there, according to the principles of the selection method, of such trees as are over-mature or are above a certain girth. Such general rules sufficiently limit the fellings where the crop is already constituted according to the selection type or where there is a good executive staff. But where, as often happens, this is not the case, there is danger of such simple rules being unintelligently or unscrupulously applied. To meet this difficulty it is well, when dealing with large irregular forest masses, to supplement, as in the following example, the general rules by hints or directions, conveyed in the " Bemarks " column of the description of each block, legarding the nature of the fellings to be made : — Description of compartments. M Abea in aobeb. ConfigraratioD aDd aepect. Soil. Stock. Beuabes. s o o i a 1 -"1 53 O i Sujigestions as to future treatment, etc. i a 1 102 32 26 169 Intersected by nu- merouB narrow- topped ridges. All aspects are re- presented. Gra- dients 28°— 30°. Altitude 6,000 to 6,300 leet. Granitic. San- dy clay; very deep. About one-fifth open grassy blanks, with a few mature ban. rai, lauri, etc. Stocked portions contain mature oaks and kokat, with a few rai, ban. ayar, and burnuB, except in nalas where some aapliuffs are found. Nearly all old trees nnsonnd. The mature trees on the edges of blanks, as well as those on the open grassy slopes, should be left as seed-bearers ; and the few trees which can be taken out should ouly be felled along nalas. Grass blanks might be planted up. 83 Cases in which the fellings may properly be regulated by cultural rules. — The cultural method of organizing selection- •worked forests is especially applicable to the irregular and partially-ruined condition so frequently to be dealt with in the forests of India, where enumeration surveys would often be waste of time and money. The method is also applicable to forests in which it is merely desired to retain the cover. In the latter case, the fellings would, of course, be limited to the removal of dead or decaying trees. But the method enforced in the manner explained above is attended with the drawback that there is no means, other than by personal inspection, of checking its correct applica- tion. The only extraneous control that can be exercised over its application is with regard to the area exploited ; and all the prescriptions on this subject might be rigidly adhered to while the far more important cultural rules were being misapplied by unintelligent or unscrupulous subordinate officials. Hence, where possible, it is always preferable to determine the quantity of material that may annually or periodically be removed with safety, and to limit the fellings to this maximum quantity while subordinating them to cultural rules. Thus, suppose it -were ascertained by experiment that the average prodnotion of a crop in its present condition was 30 to 40 cubic feet per acre per annum, and that it was desirable to increase the forest capital, the fellings might be limited to 20 cubic feet per acre per annum on an average for the whole area, or, if the area were 1,000 acres, to 20,000 cubic feet. Tliis maximum amount could be felled in each annual coupe. Limitation of fellings determined by the rate of growth.— It was explained, when discussing at pages 5 and 6, the formation of the forest capital, that, in a normal forest, the number of trees which attain exploitable dimensions in a given period practically represents the possibility of the forest for that period. As it is possible to estimate, for a short period in advance, the number of trees in a forest that will become exploitable and to determine with some accuracy whether the crop approaches the normal type or not, the principle may, in some cases, be usefully applied to selection working in forests in which the trees can be enumerated. Suppose a forest in which trees of all ages are well represented and fairly evenly distributed, and in which the rate of growth is such that in the course of 30 years trees of 4% feet girth attain the minimum exploitable girtb-hmit of 6 feet. In the course of 30 years all the trees now 4,1 to 6 feet in girth would be removed. Provided, therefore, that trees of all sizes now from 4^ to 6 feet girth were properly represented in the crop, and were felled as they attained to 6 feet girth, the annual possibility would theoretically amount to one-thirtieth of the total number g2 84 of trees above 4| feet in girth Btanding in the forest. In practice, since the exploit- able size is a minimum only and eince merely a portion of the forest is gone over annually, a stock of exploitable trees has to be accumulated and the possibility is necessarily something less. As an adjunct to cultural rules, and subject to such re- strictions as common sense and a knowledge of sylviculture dictate, the principle here sketched may often be applied with advantage. It may even, with some sacrifice of accu- racy, be used to limit the fellings in forests in which, for any reason, it is inexpedient or impossible to carry out com- plete enumeration surveys in advance of the working. In such cases, all that is necessary is to determine the average rate of growth of the principal species when ap- proaching maturity and the length of the felling rotation, and to prescribe, by a simple rule, the proportion of the trees above certain dimensions growing in each coupe that may be removed in each felling. Thus, snppose that for the forest dealt with in the last example it were determined to work over the whole area in ten years by annual coupes of one-tenth of the area. Each of these coupes, it might be assumed, would contain about one-tenth of the trees growing in the whole area, so tbat to fell one-third (that is ten times one- thirtieth) of the exploitable trees in a coupe would be equivalent (as regards the num- ber of trees felled) to the felling over the entire forest of one-thirtieth of the stems exceeding a certain prescribed minimum girth. This, however, pre-supposes that the accumulation of trees 6 feet in girth and over is such that the requisite number is available on one-tenth of the area, and does not justify the felling of trees over 4,\ but less than 6 feet in girth. A rule, therefore, prescribing that there will be felled each year on one'tenth of the area, in tuccestion, one-third oj the total number of trees of from 4\ to 6 feet in girth growing on that area, provided no tree is felled before it attains the exploitable size, would, in the restriction of fellings, have much the same effect as if the whole of the trees in the forest were counted in advance aud the exact numbei to be felled each year were prescribed. It is unnecessary to discuss in detail either the errors involved in this method or the cases in which it is applicable. There are undoubtedly many instances in which the method might be applied, and in which it would lead to better re- sults than any attempt, with the means usually available in India, to enumerate in advance the whole stock. Limitation of fellings. derived from an enumeration of the trees. — ^The principle explained in the preceding paragraph may also, it is obvious, be applied to the results of an enu- meration of the growing stock made in advance of the ex- ploitation. The number of trees of each kind and size-class and their rates of growth being known, it is possible to esti 85 mate with fair accuracy the number that will pass from one size-class to the next higher class, or that will become ex- ploitable in a giren period of time. The average number of trees that will be available annually for felling during this period is thus known. As an example, snppose a foiegt at present containing the following stock of exploitable trees, and in whioli the average annual diametral increase ot the stems when approaching the exploitable size of 2 feet in diameter is 0-2 iuehes— Class I over 24 inches in diameter • 24,741 trees ,, 11 18 inebes to 24 19 »> • 17,867 „ .. Ill 12 „ 18 »» )f • 19,467 „ „ IV 6 ,. 12 ft )j • . 192,827 „ ,. "V below 6 »» >» . 968,000 „ In the course of 80 years the growth in diameter of the larger trees will be 0'2 x 80=60 inches. Consequently in that time the trees of Class II, now 18 inches to 24 inches in diameter, will be replaced by those in Class III : they may therefore be removed. Most of them will have attained the exploitable diameter, but a oertaia number being suppressed or crowded out may, unless felled while still below the ex- ploitable size, be ultimately unutilisable. Assuming, therefore, the stock to be com- plete and normal, we may theoretically fell in the course of 30 years, without exceeding the possibility, all the trees now in Classes I and 11, that is to say, 24,741 + 17,867= 42,608 trees or at the rate of ' = 1,420 trees a year. In the preceding remarks it has been assumed that the crop contains a sufficiency of trees of the lower age- classes. But in a forest where, for example, most of the trees are mature or are approaching maturity — and this is the condition of crops which have not been worked or have been much under- worked — fellings determined in this manner would remove in a single period not the possibility but practically the whole forest capital. In India it has sometimes been the practice to base the calculation on the number of trees already exploitable, and to limit the annual fellings to this number divided by the number of years in which all the stems in the next lower size-class will become exploitable. Thus, in the above example, the annual fellings might be limited to 24,741 divided by 30, or to 825 trees. In other cases, where the younger age-classes are sufficient- ly well represented, the possibility has been arrived at by dividing the exploitable trees together with a proportion of 86 those to become exploitable during the felling rotation by the number of years in that rotation. The calculation can, however, be made in a less rude fashion. Supposing that the ages are evenly graduated, the average number of trees that can attain exploitable dimensions each year in the immediate future is the total number in Class II (the size-class next below that of which all the trees are exploitable) divided by the number of years required for trees of the lowest dimensions of this class to become exploitable. This is then the possibility of the crop for the time being ; and it must be estimated — from the average production of other similar forests for instance — whether the result so obtained is above or below the normal or potential possibility, and the number of trees to be felled should be increased or diminished accordingly. With a view to estimating whether the age-classes are suitably graduated or not, the number of trees in Class II may be compared with those in the lower and higher classes. Finally, as regards the sufficiency or insufficiency of the stock already exploitable, it must be remembered that, in a normal forest in which the age-classes occupied equal areas, there would be no trees above the exploitable size on the ground immediately after a felling, and only one year's growth immediately before the next felling. In a selection- worked forest, owing to the trees of different ages being distributed all over the area, this would only be the case where the whole area of the forest was worked over each year. Ordinarily, however, as already explained, the entire forest is gone over in a number of years ; and consequently it is only on the portion of the area felled over twelve months previously that there is one yearns growth of exploitable trees, on the next area there is two years' growth, on the next three, and so on up to the limit of the felling rotation. Knowing, therefore, the number of trees of Class II which annually attain exploitable dimensions, we can calculate the normal exploitable stock and thus ascer- tain whether the actual exploitable stock is sufficient, insuffi- cient or superabundant relatively to the stock in Class II. If superabundant, the excess can be utilised at once or in several years according as the lower stages of growth are sufficient or insufficient. If insufficient, less than the normal pos- sibility should be removed. The crop already taken as an example will serve to illnstrate this method of analysis. The number of trees below exploitable dimensions, 18 to 24 inches in 87 diameter, being 17,867, the greatest number of trees (the 24,741 trees over 24 inches being already exploitable) which can attain exploitable dimensions each year in the immediate future is 17,867-J-30=:696 trees. This number, divided by the wooded area of the forest expressed in acres, would give the average annual production of exploitable trees per acre. Assuming this area to be 1,200 acres, the average annual production per acre would be 596-f-l, 200=0*5 trees. It would be pcssible to compare this figure with that of other similar forests, and thus to ascertain whether the production was above or below what it ought to he. We will suppose that it is found to be considerably in defect. It would follow that the forest is deficient in trees of Class II, and also it would appear of Class III, as the number is about the same. Class IV would, however, appear (a rough approximation only is possible) to be well represented, and so would Class V. It may, therefore, be accepted that during (we will assume) the next 60 years, until the crops of Class IV begin to he exploitable, the fellings must be made with caution ; but that the crop will be thereafter fairly com- plete if not altogether normal. This interval of 60 years is in fact a preparatory period during which a provisional plan is required. As regards the sufficiency or otherwise of the existing exploitable stock, we will suppose the felling rotation adopted to be a very long, say 30 years, and that the whole area is subdivided into 30 portions each approximately equal in extent. Every year there would pass from Class II into Class I and become exploitable something less than 596 trees, or on one-thirtieth of the area wj=:i9 trees. Consequently, immediately before the commencement of the second felling rotation and ever after, the exploitable stock on the ground would be : — On the area felled over 30 years before 30x19 trees. 29 „ 29X19 „ 28 „ 28x19 „ etc., etc., etc, , 2 „ 2X19 „ ), „ »> 1 »> •"• '^ ■'" » The total number of exploitable trees left standing would therefore be — 19 X (30 + 29 + ... + 2 + 1) = 8.835 trees. Therefore the surplus stock is 24,741 - 8,835 = 15,906 trees. As however, the crop is defective in trees of Classes II and III, this surplus oTipht if the trees can be preserved in a healthy condition, to be utilised during the ™4.ol»'nf thP nreoaratorv period of 60 years. It would, therefore, be only permissible To fell 15,906^ 60 = 265 trees of the surplus stock each year or, in all, 265 + 596 ~ ^ lWoreS"tocussion! as to the sufficiency of the stock already exploitable. A^^L thp assumption that the stock of trees in Class II is normal. But suppose ?h:maximumn"r of trees becoming exploitable each vear. viz., 596 is below the no?m7production which should annually be about one tree an acre or 1,200 trees in auT this case it would be desirable to preserve on the ground a corresponding stock which would be, with a felling rotation of 30 years. -^ ( 30 + 29 + . . . . 1 } - i,2H0f OQ . 1 1-^ = 18,600. Here again it would only be permissible to fell /9A 7/tl —18 6001 -^ 60 = 102 trees of the surplus stock each year during the prepara^ 1 ' LnS ,o that the fellines would be reduced to 102 + 596 = about 700 trees a tory period ; so that 'f« f "'"^T""' ^tock is deficient. If there were only, year. Again It might be that ^he e^P'o^ta^-le .t Ji ^^^^ y^ wewilUuppose 4 741 instead of 24,741 ^^P^""^^^ be verv deficient in mature srk^^n£rs7o?60V^^"h;'fx;ioVable stock should be augmented by the di^erence IS,600 4.H1 = 13^^^^^^^^^ ^J Lt^?^:^ ;S notrote tlledlh ylarToi^e than about 596 -^231 = 365 trees. 88 Fellings limited by the productive capacity of the soil.— The method last described meets the diflSculty, so frequent in India, involved in calculating the possibility of a mixed crop containing only one or two saleable species, such as the teak forests of Burma, the deodar forests of the Himalaya, and many others. The more accurate methods employed in European forestry are not intended for such forests, and it is a question whether they can be made use of except where the whole crop is saleable. The most common of these European methods consists in determining the number of trees to be felled by estimating the production of the soil. The number is, if possible, deter- mined by ascertaining the mean increment of a complete crop of the exploitable age on the same kind of soil, and by dividing this increment by the volume of an average tree of the exploitable size. Thus, if the average annual production of the soil were 120 cubic_ feet per acre, and the volume of an average exploitable tree 60 cubic feet, the possibility would bo fixed at two trees per acre per annum. As, however, each portion of the forest might not be able to furnish per acre the number of exploitable trees so deter- mined, no minimum girth limit is fixed with regard to the trees to be felled. In this way, a quantity of material less than the possibility is removed from those portions of the forest which are deficient in large trees ; while, where the exploitable stems are in excess, the possibility is, for the time being, exceeded. The result is the nltimate regulari- sation of the crop as a whole. The method nay best be explained by an example. Let ns suppose that the forest which it is wished to organize by the selection method, and the possibility of which has to be ascertained, consists of 1,810 acres of mixed conifers and oaks, all beiug saleable. We will also suppose that an enumeration of the trees has been made, and that the forest has been found to contain 263,520 Bt«mB of all sizes and a^es, the proportion between the two species being 90 firs to 10 oaks ; also that the average number of stems of all ages per acre is 146 as follows : — Small trees under 12" in diameter ..... 92 Sledium-sized trees 12" to 24' in diameter ... 46 Exploitable trees over 24" in diameter .... 8 Total stems per acre . 146 The production of the soil can be roughly estimated as follows. It may be as- Bumed that the same kind of soil, when fully cropped with trees of a certain species, produces a constant quantity of material per unit of area each year. Suppose that a fir tree of two feet in diameter is exploitable, and that by experiments in the forest it has been shown that a tree of this size requires a circular space of 25 feet across. We will also assume that it has been determined that the mean volume of wood in a typical fir of the above dimensions is 136 cubic feet, and that the tree requires 1 50 years to attain the diameter stated. The productive capacity or capability of the soil will be as follows :— 89 1^ J^4[^gu£2L'I^«^ '"^'°"''"* '•'''•'*'"'' *""• S"-"" *•" ""« "<"« "^1 26» — 625 — 70 trees, and the volume of wood will be 70 X 18o = 9,450 cubic feet. This is the growth of 150 years. The average mean annual production of each acre, therefore, amounts to ~^ = 63 cubic feet. In a selection- worked forest the rate of growth is exceedingly diflScult, we may Bay impossible, to determine accurately, because of the inequalities in the growth of the trees at different stages of their existence. Bat this is no reason for not attempt- ing to estimate the growth, making due allowances for probable error. It is hardly necessary to state that if there existed in the neighbourhood of the selection-worked forest a mature regular high forest of the same species and growing under similar conditions, the productive capacity of the soil could be determined more easily and with greater accuracy by felling and cubing the wood upon a known area. Moreover it would be possible to ascertain, from a regular crop of the kind, the number of exploitable trees that can grow at the same time on one acre. Eetnrning to the forest cited as an example, the area of the blanks, roads, occu- pied lands, Ac, has been ascertained by survey to be 210 acres. The productive wooded surface would thus be reduced to 1,600 acres, and the average annual produc- tion of the whole area would then be 1,600 x 63 cubic feet = 100 800 cubic (eet. We might stop here and prescribe the removal annually of this volume— which is by assumption equal to the annual production— from the entire area, trusting that the forest would produce the same quantity and thus repair the loss. And, if the forest were perfectly constituted and contained in the necessary proportions trees of every size and stage of growth, no harm would result from this procedure. But such a state of things is not often found, and it is impossible to say exactly how far the actual approaches to the ideal C(mdition ; whether there are, for instance, a sufficient number of trees of 3 feet in diameter to furnish 100,800 cubic feet of wood each year during the time that isrequired for the trees of the next (say If feet diameter) stage to attainthe exploitable dimensions ; that the trees of the next lower stage are sufficient in their turn ; and so on. The yield mast therefore be fixed in number of trees. The annual production of the soil being 63 cubic feet per acre, and an exploitable fir tree of 2 feet m. diameter having a volume of 135 cubic feet, the annual yield of each acre in trees will be 63 ^135 ^ 047, and, for the entire wooded area, the annual yield will be 0'47 X 1,600 = 752 exploitable trees. It would usually be impossible, without great loss and inconvenience, to spread the fellings each year over the entire area of the forest. We will suppose, therefore, that the annual fellings are limited to one-tenth of the entire area, and that ten years are allowed to elapse between sacce!>Bive fellings in the same area. As we have assum- ed that there are in every 100 trees 90 firs and 10 oaks, the provisions of the working- plan as regards the fellings might be summed up as follows : — " Each year there will be felled by the selection method, on successive annual coupes of one-tenth the area of the forest, 752 trees^ via., 677 firs and 75 oaks." No limit as tu the si^e of the trees felled need be fixed ; but in each coupe the dead or dying trees are felled first, and then a sufficiency of the largest trees to com- plete the prescribed number, which in no case should be exceeded. This system of not fixing any limit to the size, while strictly limiting the number, is chavacteristio of the mefhod by the application of which the crops, in the poorer portions of the forest, will become richer. Where the trees are small, the same number of stems will contain a less volume of wood ; while, where the crop is rich in large trees, a greater volume than the normal production will be felled. The crop will tend to become uniform throughout, and to assume the normal state of one exploited at an average age of 150 years, which is the number of years that the trees require in order to attain 2 feet in diameter, or the assumed exploitable size. There will usually be no danger of all the large trees being felled at once, because all will not be found in one portion of the crop. An examination of the valuation survey records of the number of trees in each size class will show the average age or size at which trees have been exploited ; for trees above this size will be rare. The record will also readily indicate whether or not there are trees of the various size classes in numbers sufficient, as far as can be judged. 90 to replae€ the matare trees when felled, so as to enable the forest always to remain ia move 01 less the same condition as regards its capability of furnishing a given number of trees. Fellings limited by relative proportion. — This method is based on considerations similar to those whichi influence the determination of the possibility of regular high forests, com- posed of properly graduated series of crops of all ages up to the number of years comprised in the normal rotation. These crops may be classed under one of three groups, each of which would obviously occupy one-third of the total area, vie. :— I. — Full-aged crops, of wbicb the ages will range downwards to two-thirds of the total number of years comprised in the exploitable age. II. — Medium-aged crops, of which the ages will range from two-thirds to one-third the number of years in that age. III. — Young crops, aged less than one-third the num- ber of years in the exploitable age. It is evident that, in a regular high forest so stocked and in which the elements of production are everywhere identi- cal, a sustained yield will be assured if each group is in its turn regenerated during one-third the number of years in the exploitable age. The annual yield can therefore be determined by dividing the volume of material contained in the full-aged crops, with the addition, if possible, of its increment up to the time of felling, by the number of years in one-third of the exploitable age. When a forest does not contain crops of all ages covering equal areas, it may be necessary to make transfers from one group to another, so that the areas to be exploited in equal intervals may be equalised. If for a regular be substituted a selection- worked high forest, it is still possible, notwithstanding the apparent irregularity of the latter, to distinguish in it these three groups, namely, of full-aged, medium-aged and young crops. But the areas respectively stocked with these three groups, instead of forming compact blocks, are scattered and intermixed in the most irregular manner throughout the, forest. It is usually impossible to ascertain what area each group occupies ; so that it is necessary to determine whether the volumes of material in each group are in norm.al pro» portion to each other. It has been ascertained that, in a 91 normally-stocked high forest divided as explained above into three age- groups, the volume of material in the crops ot the second group is equal to three-fifths of the volume of tJie crops in the first group.* Therefore, whenever in a selection-worked forest the volume ot the material in the group of fuU-aged crops exceeds by two-thirds the volume of the group of medium- aged crops, it may be admitted that these two groups cor- respond to the two similar age- groups of a normally. stocked high forest ; and if it is arranged to exploit the group of full-aged trees in one-third of the number of years corres- ponding to the age of the exploitable tree, there should be no decrease in the yield during the following period when the trees which, at the outset, constituted the group of medium-aged crops will be felled. Purthermore, all risk of overfelliiig may be avoided by omitting to take into account the increment of the full-aged crops during the period prescribed for their exploitation. In practice it is convenient to base the classification on some more easily ascertainable factor, such as the circum- ference or diameter of the trees, and thus prescribe the maximum size for trees in the groups of medium-aged and young crops. Usually the operation can be still further simplified by determining the size corresponding to the age of exploitability, and by assuming that the full-aged and medium-aged crops comprise respectively trees exceeding two-thirds the size of the exploitable tree, and trees from one to two-thirds of that size. The method is very easy to apply in calculating the yield of selection-worked forests. First, the age of exploitability and the circumference or diameter corresponding to it should be determined. Next, a valuation survey should be made, and the trees and their volumes classed as follows : — I. — In the group of full-aged crops — when they are more than two-thirds the size of the exploit- able tree. *That this is very approximately correct may be see h from fig. 1 by actually counting the rectangles representing the production, or in a similar figure by assuming the average annual growth per acre to be uniform and equal from year to year. If a be the area, v the average annual production per unit of area, and n the number of years in the exploitable a^e, the volume of wood in the first group would he — t "'^ + "^ X % and in the second group * ^^ ^ h'^^ x a 2 2 „ Volume of wood in first group f -f" 1 s Hence ■_ -^ =-= 3-^ — s=-t; ; = ■!• Volume of wood in second group t ■^ \ 92 II. — In the group of tnediutn-aged crops — when they are between one and two-thirds that size. There is usually no need to count the trees which should be placed in the group of young crops. If, when the classification is effected, it is found that the total volume of trees in class I is greater by two-thirds than the total volume in class II, it may be assumed that the crops are in the normal proportion.. In this case, it will be understood from what precedes that a sustained yield will be assured if the possibility is calculated from the volume of the full-aged crops divided by one- third the number of years in the exploitable age. Since no allowance is made for the iucrement, it may safely be assumed that the yield so cal- culated need never be reduced in subsequent revisions of the possibility. But the normal proportion of 5 to 3, between the vol- umes of full-aged and medium-aged crops, will not often be found to exist in India. There may be — (ffl) excess of full-aged crops, or {b) excess of middle-aged crops. Where the volume of the old crops is abnormally large the condition of the smallest trees in the full- aged crops should be examined with a view to ascertaining whether it will be practicable to keep these stems standing till the medium-aged crops are exploited. If it appears that this can be done, a portion of the full-aged crops should be placed in the group of medium-aged crops. In other words, it should be sought to make good the deficiency of medium-aged crops by adding a given amount of wood from the full-aged crops. Where the volume of medium-aged crops is in excess, it should be ascertained whether the largest trees in the medium- aged crops cannot be exploited during the period assigned for the felling of the full-aged crops, and it should then be sought to supply the deficiency of full-aged crops by transfers. When the possibility has been determined, the length of the felling rotation, during which the whole forest will be gone over by the selection fellings, should be fixed. In the pre- sent case it should, liowever, be one-third or a sub-multiple of one-third of the exploitable age. 93 To this method of determining the possibiiity of selection worked high forests the following advantages ai-e ascribed : — (a) It allows the possibility to be fixed according to the statt) of the crops on the occasion of each revision of the working-plan. (6) It tends to mtroduce the normal proportion be- tween the different age-classes or size-classes of trees. (• .. 262,000 ., „ 105 „ 1,419,000 „ „ 1.681,000,, Total . 6.070,000 o.tt. Consequently, the total volume to be felled during the first period of 30 years, after ■whic?! the calculations would be revised, is 6,070,000-4-4 = 1,517,500 cubic feet, and each year l,517,50O-f-3O=5O,583 cubic feet. The permanent plan would then be drawn up by allotting to the first block, to be regenerated during the period of 30 years, a Bufiicient number of the compartments containing the oldest crops to furnish, includ. ing I nture increment, 1,517,500 cubic feet of material. As the compartments tempo- rarUy included in the first block will furnish 1,596,000 cubic feet, certain crops shonW now be allotted to the second block instead. There would then be felled each 99 year daring the period, in the compartments forming the revised first hlock, 50,583 cubic feet of material. During the first period, thinnings would be carried out in the couiparlments of the other blocks until the end of the 30 years, when the compart- ments m the second block would be taken in hand and dealt with in the same way. This method of calculating the yield is now, owing to the difficulty of accurately estimating for long periods the future growth, seldom used except in certain parts of Germany, where, however, numerous improvements have been intro- duced in the manner of verifying the possibility and iit graduating the age-classes. These modifications are, however, too complicated for adoption in this country, where indeed the method is not generally suitable in present circumstances owing to its complicated nature, its uncertain results, the frequent revisions necessary, and above all the irregular nature of most of the crops dealt with. Possibility: mixed method.— The volumetric method has been generally replaced by a simplified form, known as the mixed method, the essential feature of which is the two-fold and simultaneous division of the exploitable age and the area into corresponding portions. In other words, instead of calculating the future growth of all the crops up to the time of felling, the total area is divided into a num- ber of equi-productive blocks, and the exploitable age into a similar number of periods during which each block is in its turn to be regenerated. The yield of that block which is about to be taken in hand for regeneration is then calculated. Thus, in the example already taken, instead of calculating the future growth of the crops in all the blocks, and then making transfers from one block to another so as to secure an equal yield throughout, the forest area is partitioned off into four blocks, each about 400 acres in extent or each of equi-productive resources. Thus block I would contain the mature crops. H „ „ large pole crops. III „ „ younger pole crops. IV „ „ young growth. In this partition the size of each block, where the elements of production vere not uniform, would be enlarged or reduced, as the case might be, so that all might even- tually yield about the same quantity of material. The yield of the first block only wonld then be calculated. This would be done, as in the previous exainple by adding to the material on the ground the estimated growth during half the length of the period — in this case close on 15 years— and by dividing the total so obtained by 30, the nnm- ber of years in the period. The future growth is obviously taken as the ayerHge srowtU of the whole for Aa^/ the period only; because some of the crops would be exploitett at the beginning and some at the end of the period. The trees in the block under regeneration would, as al- ready stated, be generally removed gradually in several successive fellings. The first, the preparatory or seed f ellmg, would be made with the obiect of opening out the canopy so H 2 100 as to obtain young seedlings sufficiently lighted for proper growth. The extent to which this felling should interrupt the cover would depend on the species constituting the seed- lings, the nature of the soil, and the climatic conditions. Where the cover was only slightly interrupted, the felling would be said to be close ; otherwise it would be an open seed felling. When the crop of seedlings became fairly complete, the young plants, having reached a certain age, would require more light. This would be effected by one or more secondary fellings. A final felling, to remove the trees not cut in the secondary fellings, would be made when the soil was fairly covered with young growth in the thicket stage and had nothing to fear from complete exposure. During the interval between the first and final fellings the young seedlings would be carefully fostered by cleanings. These would be made principally with the object of re- moving or retarding the upward growth of the more vigour- ous but valueless species, which nearly always invade the ground and threaten the existence of the more important kinds. The cleanings would be followed by thinnings, to be continued until the crop was almost mature. In the blocks containing medium-aged crops not yet under regeneration, thinnings would also be carried out, and where, as often happens, overmature trees were scattered through the crop, these would be removed. The thinnings would be made with a view to preparing the crop for regeneration during the period aesigned by the plan for that purpose, and gener- ally with the object of favourising the better trees by the timely removal of less promising stems. Thus, in the block to be regenerated in the following period, only dead and decaying trees would be removed, while in those blocks which were not to be regenerated for a considerable time, all trees over a certain size or age, up to the limits of the capability of the forest, might be felled, provided their removal was sylviculturally desirable in the interests of the trees of the future. This is an outline of the manner in which the method of successive fellings is organised when applied to a forest in which crops of all the different age-classes exist in the re- quisite proportions. It rarely happens, even in Europe, where the forests contain distinct age-classes, that the method can be directly applied without some deviation from the ideally correct or normal treatment. Generally speaking. 101 in order to form the periodic blocks of compact shape and fairly equal area, it is necessary to include in them crops which must be regenerated out of their turn so to speak. An example of such a proceeding is here given ; but obvious- ly the variations, which circumstances may render necessary ia applying the method, are endless. Example of the general working scheme for a forest of 1,786 acres, treated ns high furesthy the method of Buccessive fellings and thinnings under a rotation of 150 years divided into five periods of 30 years each. ABEA.TOBB TAEBir IIT HAND. No. 1 III IV Blockg. Deota Chansil Norann Datmir Compart* ments iocluded. Acres. \ Bamen Sahlia Al Bl CI A2 B2 C2 D2 A3 B3 C3 A 4 B4 C4 AS B5 C5 54 87 214 176 149 105 33 153 117 80 189 68 100 205 112 44 Period in which to be regenerated. 1880-1909 1910-1939 1940-1969 1970-1999 2000-2029 Rbuabeb. The compartment C 1 has already been re- generated and con- tains only young seedling growth. C a, though placed in the fifth block, con- tains mature high forest, which it will be necessary to rege- nerate in the first period, and to exploit a second time in the fifth period. 102 Working tehemefor the first period of 30 yeirt, J880 to 1909. Abea to be taken in hand- Ages of the Natnre of fellings te > Beuabks. Periodic crops in be made. blocks. Compartments. Areas. 1880. /.- -Felling- by volume. IB 1 . S4 140 Regeneration fell- The fellings by volume I 1 . 87 130 ings by volume, comprise seed or pre- V C 5 . 44 185 II.- 150 ■Area fell 85,893 c. ft. ayear during the first ten years until the first revision of the pos- sibility. ings. paration fellings, se- condary and final fell- ings. The actual vo. Inme of wood in com- partments to be sub- jected to these fellings is 828,300 c. ft. Adding the estimated growth during 15 years (one- half of the period, as some fellings will ba f A 2 . 176 125 Pinal thinnings by made at the beginning ^R 2 . 149 110 one-fifteenth of the and some at the end of II )" 2 . 105 85 area (31 acres a the period) at the rate of h 2 . 33 463 90 year) repeated twice during the period. 2 per cent, a year, or 248, 490 c. ft., the total vo- lume is 1,076,790 c. ft. Therefore, during each year of the period there (A 3 . 153 80 Thinnings by one- III \^ 3 . 117 75 tenth of the area may be felled 1.076,790 -5- a 3 . 80 70 (71 acres a year) 80=35,893c. ft. f A 4 . 189 60 repeated three IV B 4 . 68 65 times during the (.0 1^ 4 . 5 . 100 40 6 period. Cleanings according 707 T 205 The possibility will be re- 5 . 112 15 to cultural require- vised at the end of ten I c 1 . 214 16 ments. years. 531 The fellings. — The fellings in this method are prescribed for one period only. The length of this period, which is a sub-multiple of the exploitable age, should be long enough for the seedlings of the principal species to establish them- selves completely. Except in the modified method subsequently mentioned, the area to be taken in hand each year or sub-period is not pre- scribed for the principal fellings. These are, it will be seen, prescribed by volume and may be made wherever required in any part of the periodic block to be regenerated during the first period. Selection fellings and thinnings are prescribed by area in the usual manner. The order to be followed and the uature of the fellings to be made require no further explaijation. 103 Modifications of the mixed method.- Several modifications have been recently introduced in Prance into the appli- cation of the method of successive fellings. The principal of these consists in the establisliment from the fir«t of annual coupes, instead of leaving the position of the coupes to be fixed from year to year by the controlling officers according to cultural requirements. The whole area is divided off into as many permanent annual coupes as there are years in the exploitable age. The coupes are made fau-ly equi-productive, by deduction of blanks and by asses- sing the fertility of the great natural divisions of the forest m the manner already explained for coppice. The coupes being formed, the preparatory or seed felling's are then prescribed by area, one of the coupes being taken in hand each year for this purpose. The same system is followed with regard to the thinnings and cleanings, which are made by area in regular succession in one of tlie annual coupes. But the basis of area has to be somewhat departed from as regards the secondary and final fellings -which depend on the state of reproduction and on the development of the seedling crops. These fellings must be regulated by volume as in the old method, and for this purpose the coupes in the block under regeneration are grouped together, and the volume to be felled each year in this block is then calculated in the manner already explained. Application of the method to irregTilar crops. — None of our Indian forests could be subjected directly, in their present condition, to the method of successive fellings, as they do not as yet contain definite groups of age-classes. Should it be decided to apply the method to any of these forests, it will, therefore, first be necessary to transform the crop into one of the type required, that is to say, one containing a regular series of age-classes. For this purpose the first thing to be done is to lay down the general frame-work of the plan according to the method of successive fellings which it is hoped eventually to apply. The general working scheme would be framed and the circles and periodic blocks or coupes corresponding to this frame-work would be laid out. Until this is done, and the place which each portion of the forest will occupy in the final scheme is known, the cultural rules to be applied to each crop cannot be prescribed. The general working scheme gives the order in which the various portions of the working- circle are to be taken up for transformation during each successive period. 104 The formation of the working-circles is not a matter of difficulty. A correct gradation of ages is by hypothesis unobtainable. The duration of the provisional plan for the transformation of the forest would be equal to the exploit- able age of the forest which it is sought to constitute, and would be determined in the same way, that is to say, it would depend on the size of the exploitable trees and on the rates of growth. The periodic blocks would consist of a few great natural divisi('Vis of the forest, chosen so as to furnish more or less equal material during corresponding sub-mul- tiple periods of the exploitable age. Indeed, the general scheme is usually very obvious and well defined. When it has been thus drawn up, two classes of operations will be required, namely, (1) transformation fellings in those portions of the forest which are to be first regenerated, and (2) modified selection fellings elsewhere. The transformation fellings do not usually differ very materially, at least in principle, from ordinary successive regeneration fellings; but their execution will depend more markedly on the nature of the crop, and it will be necessary to change the manner of applying them from place to place according to the irregularities met with. Where reproduc- tion is abundant, they will simply remove the mature trees in whatever way is required, so as to leave room for the young growth to develop. Where there is little or no young growth already established it will be sought to obtain reproduction in the ordinary way by successive fellings, preparatory or seed, secondary and final. The selection fellings to be carried put in the blocks to be regenerated later on offer no difficulty. The trees to be removed will be such as cannot maintain themselves in a sound state until the crop in which they grow reaches its turn for regeneration. Knowing the length of the rotation and the rates of growth, the question is easily determinable. Thus, where the ex- ploitable size of the trees is 24 inches in diameter, with a rotation of 120 years, and a rate of growth of 10 years for each inch of radial increase, all trees above 12 inches in diameter might be felled in blocks or coupes in which re- generation fellings will not be made during the following 60 years; while in those blocks which will come under regeneration in, say, 30 years, only absolutely unsound trees, or at any rate trees well over 18 inches in diameter, would be felled. The selection fellings would in other respects be 105 conducted as in ordinary selection worked forests regulated by area according to the cultural roethod. The transformation, fellings would be regulated by volume in the manner already explained. Tlie selection fellings would, on the contrary, be applied by area according to cul- tural rules, with or without a limit as to the number of trees to be felled. The general working scheme will be drawn up absolutely as already explained. THE GROUP METHOD. General description. — This is merely a modification of the method of successive fellings. All the calculations connected with the manner of prescribing the possibility, etc., are iden- tical in the two methods, and the gradual exposure of the young seedlings is secured by means of two or three succes- sive regeneration fellings. These successive fellings are, however, in the group method all made simultaneously by groups, that is to say, wherever a patch of seedlings is al- ready established it is at once exposed in greater or less degree to the climatic influences. Where seedlings do not exist, the cover is opened out with a view to their establishment. The method in fact amounts to this that the volume of material to be felled annually in the block under regeneration having been determined, this volume is felled by patches or groups ■wherever a group of established seedlings exists or is desired. The patch is then enlarged, or new patches are opened out from time to time as the area covered with established seed- lings extends. The method is applied in exactly the same way as the method of successive fellings, and comprises similar clearings, thinnings, and selection fellings. PASTOBAL TKEATMENT. Areas to which applicable, — There are many tree-clad lands in India under the control of the Forest Department which 106 can be profitably utilised only by the pasturing of cattle, and •which, in the interests of the community, should be devoted to the production of fodder. Such areas require, however, to be placed under forest treatment, with a view to the pre- servation of the trees whose roots penetrating to deeper and fresher soil maintain active vegetation in the dry season, thus enabling the overhead cover to protect and conserve the shallow-rooted grasses which would otherwise inevitably succumb. As cashes in which the pastoral method may have to he organised, there may he cited those tracts in some of the drier purts of India where the laud, except when ir- rijrated or adjoining perenniHl rivers, is uncnlturahle. The rainfall is insufficient, and tlie water level is too far below the surface for any system of well-irrigation to be profitable. Cultivation is, therefore, confined to the banks of rivers; but, even there, gives a poor return. Larsre numbers of people, however, frequently manage to subsist in these areas owing to the addition to their income and food-supply derived from their herds and ilocks. These animals obtain food from the trees and bushes dotted about in the uninhabited and unculturable tracts away from the rivers, and which even in years of drou-flit, owing to the depth to which their roots penetiate in the soil, yield some leaves which can be used as fodder. In such cases the giazing lands arc the very life of the people, but should tlie trees on tliem disappear they would become almost absolutely barren. It is, therefore, necessary in the interests of the people to subject the lands to forest management, and to restrict grazing so far as may be neeessni-y to ensure the maintenance of the trees. It should not he sou-rht, however, to produce timber except such as may be yielded by some method of treat- ment that will not interfere with grazing. These lands in many cases orly produce annually some two or three cubic feet of wood worth not half as many arnas. The grazing fees, if the number of cattle were limited to what the lands could support, might well bring in as much. Apart however, from considerations of State revenue, if (he number of people benefited by the grazing, as compared with the number bene- fited by wood culture, is taken into account, the result is much in favour of pastoral treatment. Application of the pastoral method. — The treatment of Indian forests, primarily with regard to the fodder they pro- duce, has been perhaps insuflficiently studied in view of the enormous importance of such areas in the economy of the country. It may be accepted that the greatest quantity of fodder will be obtained by absolutely closing the area to cattle grazing and by allowing grass cutting only. For it is indisputable that animals, while grazing, trample and destroy more grass than they eat, damage young seedlings and trees, and harden the soil. But the exclusion of cattle and the en- forcement of grass-cutting is not often feasible, owing to the distance to which the fodder would have to be carried and to the small value of the animals. There are many areas wliich it would be impossible to utilise except by cattle grazing. In such cases it will generally be possible to suflBiciently 107 restrict injury to the trees and to ensure their reproduetiou and perpetual maintenance by — (1) limiting the number, or the kinds and classes, of animals grazed ; or (2) limiting the period during which grazing is al- lowed ; or (3) combining (1) and (2). The first method, where it can be effectively carried out, is the best— the best not merely in the interests of the vege- tation but also of the animals, which are thereby well nourished. But it requires, as compared with the second method, a larger and better supervised establishment ; and the small fees usually realised for grazing will rarely cover the expenditure involved. In practice, therefore, the second method, although much less effective, is often preferable. Sometimes both methods may be enforced simultaneously, as in certain of the Ajmere forests. It may be remarked in this connection that one of the chief causes of the inferiority of Indian cattle is the smalliie.-s of the ftes charged for grazing and the looee way in which these fees are collected. The Indian cattle-owner does not li-nit the ntimbcr of his stock acooi ding to the grazing area at his disposal. He usually lets nature perform this office, and keeps as many ill-fed or half starved animals as can n.anage to escape death. This would not be the case veie the fees charijed sufficiently high and were the nuiiilerof animals allowed to fituze per acre strictly limited. It is a common practice for Go-vernment to sell the erazing right by auction, or to rent it to a contractor on the condition that the fee charired per capita shall be limited to a certain maximum. I'he contractor's interest tlicn is to graze as many animals as possible on the land. The appalling number of cattle which are killed off every dry year in the more arid pans of India has led to many proposals for increasing the grazing areas and for throwing optn tne Government forests to grazing. Such measures merely tend to incrense the number of Hiiserable animals, which exist without profit and even to the detriment ot the owners until the next season of drought does its work. The only remedy appears to lie in limiting the intensity of the grazing in the Government estates to what the land can support, and in charging Buch fees as will make it worth the while of cattle owners to keep only animals that can bring them in a profit. Although the areas subjected to the pastoral method of treatment should be worked with a view to the production of fodder, it by no meaos follows that none of the wood pro- duced can be utilsied. Apart from the fodder, a supply of small timber can be obtained by ubjecting the trees to branch-coppice fellings for instanc , or, where the number of cattle is limited, over-mature tree can be removed by the selection method. It should not, however, be overlooked that the treatment is primarily intended to favour the produc- tion of fodder not of wood, and that if restrictions are introduced with the object of preserving the trees it is because these trees arechiefly useful for the fodder they 108 furnish, either directly in the shape of leaves and twigs or by the shelter they afford to the soil. In most cases it will be found that the direct profit from grazing is greater than that which could be obtained under the strictest system of closure for timber growing. SUPPLEMENTARY PROVISIONS OF A WORKING SCHEME. Subjects to be dealt with. — The application of the method of treatment adopted may inrolve thinnings, cleanings or even selection or other fellings being carried on in various parts of the working-circle, blanks or other areas being re-stocked artificially, or valuable species being introduced into the crop. It will also generally be necessary to regulate the grazing of cattle and the removal of produce by right- holders, or of dead and fallen wood ; and, as a rule, to provide generally for certain improvements, such as the construction of roads or buildings, for fire- protection, etc. Improvement fellings.— These, if any are to be made, wDl have been indicated with the method of treatment. In all cases they will be prescribed by area. Sowings and plantings. — The importance of artificial re- production in the mode of working will be indicated in the method of treatment on which the necessity or other- wise of such operations depends ; because regeneration may be entirely obtained by artificial re-stocking, or the operations may be confined merely to the re-filling of a few blanks. The introduction of superior species into a crop will generally be carried out by planting. Regulation of grazing. — Porest grazing in areas which have been permanently set aside for the production of wood should not be confused with the pastoral method of treatment! already described. The two classes of forests are absolutely distinct as regards the purpose for which they are managed. It may be assumed that, as regards the former areas, it is in the interests of the community at large, if not of the population immediately surrounding the forests, that the forest should produce timber, large or small. It may not be necessary or expedient to exclude grazing altogether 109 from sucli areas ; but there should be no room for doubt aa to whether grazing or the production of -wood is to give way. Many of tlie troubles of the Forest Department are dne to a proper disHnotion not beins made between lands whiob, in the interests of the country, should be managed with a view to the production of wood and those which should be devoted to the priiduction of fodder. Lncal Governments hesitate to place lands under t'orest management, because experience has shown that lands so pluoed ar' liable to be turned into close preserves for the production of timber— the supply of which is ofte" already too abundant lor local consumption — and that thus the grazing reqnire- mentE;ulations. as it was found that with a number of animals scattered through the forest supervision became impossible. Separate groups of right-holders are not, however, allowed to unite their cattle under one shepherd, as too great a number of animals grazing together injure the soil. The shepherfls appointed are directly responsible for breaches of the regulations, or for injuries done by the animals in their charge ; and, if nned,the commune ap- pointing them are responsible for the payment of the fines (former Article 72). It is provided by Art'cle 119 of the general rules made under the Law that every year the local Forest Officers shall, having due regard to the nature, age and situation of the trees, report, in a formal written proceedings, the condition of the blocks of forest under the regime forfstier vihieh can be made over for grazing. They are to indicate the number of animals that can be admitted to these blocks, and the dates on which tlie exercise of the rights of user may commence and must end. The proposals of the Forest Officers are submitted for the approval of the Con- servator before the 1st February in each year. There are very severe penalties for a breach of any of these grazing rales. Eight-holders introducing goats or sheep are subjected to a double fine. _ Kight- holders who introduce more animals than they are entitled to, or who graze in closed portions of the forest, are treated as if they had no rights, and are subject to the same penalties as if they were outsiders. 112 Regulation ofrights in wood.— Where there is merely a right to a certain quantity of produce from any part of a forest there is no difl5culfcy, as the produce would come from the prescribed fellings for the year in the coupe set apart for the purpose. But in India it rarely happens that the right is in this form : the right is usually a servitude over a com- paratively small area. In such cases it is not so easy to arrange for the supply to a number of scattered villages of the given quantity from the coupe of the year. Where the demand is inconsiderable, it may often be conveniently met by fellings of scattered trees independent of the main fellings. The produce delivered to right-holders must either be deduct- ed from the available crop, in calculating the possible yield, or, when the demand is considerable, the area burdened with the right must be formed into a separate circle to be worked solely with a view to furnishing the produce required. A village has a right, every year, to 50 standing trees of a certain size and kind in one block only of a iorest which is to be worked, we will suppose, by the selection method. The annnal possibility of the forest, including the trees to be given to the right-holders, is calculated to be 500 trees a year. Therefore, in detenuiaing the size of the annual coupes, the coupe containing the area burdened with the right should be capable of furnishing the 450 trees once during the felling rotation, plus the SO trees each year. That is to say, if the felling rotation were 10 years, the coupe bound to furnish 50 trees a year on<;ht to be capable of furnishing every 10 years 500 in addition to the 450 trees furnished by other coupes every lOth year. Another way of providing for the right would be to set aside an aiea capable of furn-shing 50 trees a year. This area would be formed into a separate circle. Sucb a course would, however, as a rule be impossible in mountainous country, where each small scattered forest has to furnish a few standing trees each year for the repairs of neighbouring hamlets. In such rases the regulation may be best accomplished by sacrificing equality of yield, and by deducting the number of trees felled for the right-holders in a given area from the number to be felled in that area when its turn for exploitation comes round. Thus, suppose ten small scattered forests in the hills formed into fifteen annual conpes and worked by the selection method, the yield having been calculated at 500 trees a year. We will assume that the villagers in three neighbouring ham- lets have rights in as many forests to 10, 20, 30 standing trees respectively. Suppose that the prescribed fellings reach the forest No. 1 in the third year of the felling- rotation, 30 trees will have been felled ; so that, instead of felling 500 trees in this coupe, only 500 — 30 or 470 trees should be out. Similarly, the felling reaches forest No. 2 after 10 years have elapsed. By that time 200 trees will have been felled in this coupe, so that only 500 — 200 or 300 trees should ba removed ; and so on. A new calculation, based on a fresh enumeration, would of course be made at the commence- ment of the second felling-rotation, and the trees to be deducted would count from this date. Where the right-holders' timber was removed from areas subjected to selection fellings by cultural rule, the matter would be very simple ; as in such a case the state of the crop from a cultural point of view would deteruiiiie the severity and nature of the felling, which would consequently be made light or heavy according to the quantity of material required by right-holders. Extraction of dead or fallen trees.— As a rule, especially where it has been possible to choose a short felling rotation, the dead and fallen timher may he left until removed with the ordinary exploitations in turn of each coupe. Where 113 the local demand for produce is good, it may be advisable to allow the dead and fallen wood to be extracted annually or periodically. In that case, if the material to be removed by the fellings is prescribed, the dead or fallen trees ex- tracted may, if desirable, be deducted from the permissible fellings as already explained with regard to trees felled by right- holders. Works of improvement (other than cultural). — ^A working- plan would be incomplete if advantage were not taken of the study of the forest ■which it involves to ascertain and indicate the works of improvement, other than cultural, required. Very often the application of the plan necessi- tates the opening out of new roads for the extraction of produce, or the improvement of existing tracts and the con- struction of forest rest-houses ; while the improvement of the boundaries, the better protection of the forest from fire or other injuries, the strenthening or re-distribution of the protective staff, may all require attention. Such works and subjects should be indicated or discussed with whatever amount of detail may be required. They should not be vaguely suggested, as has been the case in so many Indian working- plans reports, but should be prescribed, though the exact time for their execution need not, and indeed often should not, be fixed. If new roads or new fire traces are required, their position should as a rule be shown on the map, and a rough estimate of their cost should be pre- pared in Order to gauge thg financial result of the whole working under the plan proposed. Very often it will be advisable to mark out on the ground the new roads or paths proposed, and to make use of these in laying out the coupes. The coupes, as we have seen, ought to be so disposed with regard to the roads that their produce can be readily and economic- ally extracted. The only way to ensure that the coupes will be adlered to and the roads laid out in the manner required, is to mark out on the ground the lines of transport. It may be useful to remark, with regard to works of this sort, that altlio^gli included in the approved working-plan, separate sanction will he required tor the necessary funds when the time for construction arrives. Another point, whwti will also be dealt with in treating of the control of plans, is that the woiks may otten be only indicated as desirable, and need not be part of the permanent plan which cannot ordinarily be departed from. Forecast of financial results of working —The working-plan should contain a rough estimate of the revenue and the expenditure under the proposed working as compared with 114 the actual results of the past. An attempt should in all cases be made to estimate the cost of proposed works of im> provement. When the areas to be felled have been decided upon, it will generally be necessary to make a forecast of the outturn of trees, or of material to be removed, so a« to ^ti- mate the linaDcial results of tbe proposed scheme of working. This estimate may be based either t>n an enumeration of the mature trees in- the forest, on tbe previous out- turn, or on experimental area fellings, etc. The enumeration should not, however, be mistaken for a calculation of the possibility, such as is made when fellings are pre- scribed' by volume of material or number of trees. 116 CHAPTER IV.— THE WORKING-PLAN REPORT. General remarks.— It is desirable, especially in India where frequent changes in the forest staff are unavoidable, that working-plan reports should follow generally a fixed pattern. Uniformity not alone lessens the labour of mas- tering the contents of individual reports, but without it systematic scrutiny of the plans is well nigh impossible. The fact that each report deals with essentially different local conditions is no impediment to grouping and discussing together, under suitable headings and in logical sequence, the various subjects. The general order to be followed in working-plan reports is indicated below. This is the arrangement pre- scribed at present by the Government ; and it is only neces- sary to add that each report, while containing .sufficient information to enable the soundness of its provisions to be tested and the ideas of its compiler to be followed, should be as brief and as simply written as possible. Lengthy descriptions and discussions of sylvicultural questions, mathe- matical calculations and complicated tables of statistics should, as far as possible, be avoided. The information deduced from statistical tables can generally be explained in a few words, and the application of mathematical formulae in connection with Indian forests is liable to lead to erroneous conclusions. Some plans have never been applied, owing to the neglect of such rules. These monuments of misdirected energy represent, however, a large amount of labour, and, it must be added, a very considerable amount of expense, all of which, with the exception of the experience so bought, has been wasted. Arrangement of the subjects.— A working- plan is a forest regulation or 'prescription deducep from facts ; _ and, in order that the prescriptions may be intelligible it is neces- sary that the manner in which they have been arrived at should be explained and th« facts from which they have been deduced stated. The working-plan report, therefore, naturally resolves itself into two parts ; the first, containing a summary of the facts on which the proposals are based, and the second, a statement of these proposals— the working- plan proper — accompanied by whatever explanations are necessary in order to show why they have been framed. I 2 116 The nature of the subjects treated in each of these parts, and the order in which they should, as a rule, be arranged, are as follows : — INTRODUCTION. PART I.— SUMMARY OF FACTS ON WHICH THE PROPOSALS ARE EASED. Description op the teact dealt with. Name and situation. ConfigaTation of the gronnd. Underlying lock, and soil. Climate. Agricultural customs and wants of the neighbouring population. The composition and condition op the forests. Distrihution and area. State of the boundaries. Legal position. Rights and concessions. Composition and condition of the crops. Injuiiea to which the crops are liable. System of Management. Fast and present systems of management. Special works of improvement undertaken. Past revenue and expenditure. Utilization of the Produce. Marketable products ; requirements to be met. Lines of export. Centres of consumption. Mode and cost of extraction. Ket price of each class of saleable produce. Miscellaneous facts. The forest staff. Laboui supply. PART IL— FUTURE MANAGEMENT DISCUSSED AND PRESCRIBED. Basis op Proposals. Working.circles ; how composed ; reasons for their formation. Compartments ; justification of the subdivision adopted. . Analysis of the orop ; method of valuation employed. 117 Method ov Tebatmekt.* Object to be attained. Method of treatment adopted. The exploitable age. The Fellings.* General scheme of working. The possibility; how calculated. Period for which the fellings are prescribed. Areas to be felled annually or periodically ; order of allotment. theirconolusSn ^°^**'"''""°*''^®*''^"^'' forecast of condition of orof at SUPPLEMENTAEY PROVISIONS.* Cleanings, thinnings, or other improvement fellings. Kegulation of rights and concessions. Sowings or plantings. Eoads, buildings and othei works of improvement common to the whole ares. Miscellaneous. miscellaneous prescriptions. Tlie forest staff; changes (if any) proposed. Forecast of financial results of proposed working. Appendices. Maps. Description of the crop in each sub-division, written or graphic. Becord of valaation surveys. Record of observations of rates of growth. lUiscellaneons statements. The introduction. — This should hriefly explain the time occupied in the preparation of the plan, the establishment employed, and the expenditure incurred under each head ; any special difficulties encountered, as well as other facts which merit permanent record but which do not find a place in the body of the report. Example. — The field work, which included the survey of the forest to be exploited under tliis plan, was commenced in the beginning of June 1884, and continued, with a short intermission during the rains, until December, when travellin<; in the hills became impracticable. It was recommenced in the following May, and brought to a close at the end of the same year, 1885. The establishment employed during the first season consisted, in addition to the Officer ill charge and his clerical staS, of two native snb-surveyors, lent from the Forest Survey Branch towards the end of the season, and of a small stafF of khalssies, recorders, tree-measnrers and coolies. During the second season two Forest Bangers were employed in addition to the temporary Btafi" entertained in the previous year. The total cost of the work, including the pay and allowances of the Office! in charge, the subordinate stafE and all other charges, amounted to B8,400 or to B70 per square mile. The high cost-rate is partly due to the rugged nature of the country in * Each working-circle should be separately dealt with as regards the method of treat- ment, the fellings, and all supplementary provisions except those common to the whole area, such is road-construction. 118 whicli the forests are situated and the consequent, difficulty of travelling'; but it is also, in a great measure, due to the employment of temporary subordinates, and the late- ness of the season when work was commenced in the first year* Name and situation. — The name af the tract dealt with in the report, generally some forest charge, and tbe civil district or territory in which it is situated, together with that of the Forest Division to which it belongs, should be stated ; and it should be explained whether the wooded area comprises one or several separate forests. The vicinity of large towns or markets for the produce, or of rivers, roads, or railways leading to these places, should be very briefly mentioned here. Example. — These plans have been prepared for vhat are known as the' " Naini Tal Forests " which comprise twenty separate areas situated in the Eumaan District, in the pattis of Chakrata Pahar and Dhangakot, within the jurisdiction of the Com- missioner of Kumaun. The forests surround and supply Tvith produce the Muni- cipality and Cantonment of Naini Tal, and constitute one of the two Banges of the Naini Tal Forest Division. Configniration of the ground. — It should be explained whether the forests are situated in hilly or level ground, or on a plateau ; whether they form part of one or several river basins ; at what height or heights above the sea they are found, and what their relative position is with regard to the surrounding country. Example. — The forests arc situated on comparatively low hills, forming a series of superimposed terraces or plateaux with sloping sides. -The tops of the hills are flat ; so that, instead of ascending to a ridge, we ascend to a plateau, and the action of time has not been able to destroy the onginal terrace-formation 'which gives to the hills their obaracteristie appearance. Precipices are, however, uncommon, and tbe slopes are nsually easy enough for a saddled horse' to be led almost everywhere. The hilU rise from 1,000 to seldom more tban 1,700 feet above the deepest valleys. The forests, as might be expected, occupy the upper plateaux and slopes of the bills, cultivation having taken possession of the lower slopes. The m»in ridge occupies a continuous sinuons line, extending from south-west to north-east, forming the water-parting between the Bamgunga stream on the north and the Fahdi ri ver on the south ; but the greater portion of the area lies within the drainage basin of the latter river. Underlying rock and soil. — The general character of the geology of the country, the resulting soils and their relation to the composition of the forests, should be explained. The explanation should, howeverj be brief and of a general nature ; as a more detailed description of the soils in each block is, when necessary, separately given. Mxample. — ^The entire rock-system belongs to what is known as the Deeean traps, and is coosequently of volcanic origin. The soil resulting from the disintegration of these trap rocks is a red ferrnginous loam, fairly fertile irbere deep. This, however, is not tbe case on the level surfaces of the plateaux where disintegration is slow and Trfaere, in some esses, the nncfaanged rode pretTodes at tbe surface. In other paxts the underlying rock, being everywhere Laminated, oompensates to some extent for shaUowness ; but, 'generally speaking, tbe soil is not favourable to tree growth, as it is too superficial and Iry. On the slopes, honever, which separate the various plateaux 119 .and along the bottoms of the nnmerous gnlliea. the soil, formed of deep floeumaliitions aod resting on a snb-soil of loosely disintegrated trap, is well-drained and admirably suite'! to tree-growth. An introsion of granitic or gneissic rook, about three miles DToad, crosses the area from sonth-east to north-west, and the resulting soil is a fine tuicaeeous sand, which of itself is usually unfertile for agricuitarfe, requiring heavy mannrirg, but which, under bioad-leaved forest, becomes fairly and eren highly fertile. Climate. — All that is generally required is a simple state- ment of the facts with most of which every cultivator in the locality is practically acquainted. Periods of drought or of excessive rain, of great heat or of cold, frosts, dangerous ■winds and the like which have a notable effect on the forest vegetation or on fire protection, sowings, plantings or other sylvicultural operations, should be briefly explained. A few remarks may be usefully added regarding the healthiness or the reverse of the climate, when this question affects the proper execution of work or the duties of the establishment generally. The climate and soil together represent the productive capacity of the area or locality and determine the species and method of treatment best adapted to the results required^ The character of the climate depends on the situation of a given locality, and is described by stating the different local peculiarities of the atmosphere as regards temperature, degree of moisture, prevailing winds, etc. The points to be borne in mind when it is desirable to report in detail upon the climate of a given locality are, therefore, as follows :^ (1) Geographical situation. (2) Height above sea-level. (3) Relative height and position with regard to the sur-^ rounding country. (4) Slope, aspect, and topographical features generally. (5) Temperature, mean, average, and at different seasons; periods of greatest heat and cold and their duration. (6) Species which thrive in the locality and their pecu- liarities as regards climate. (7) Usual state of the atmosphere, whether clear or the reverse, and its dryness or humidity at different seasons. (8) Rainfall, mean, annual, and at different seasons; drought and its duration ; snow-fall and its duration. (9) Winds and storms, their duration and force, damage done by them. - Points (1) to (4) are of relatively small importance in, the plains ; but circumstances of climate should be applied ■ 120 to tlie questions at issue and be explained in a popular manner. Example. — The distinguisliiiig diaracteristics of the climate are its dryness and the great divergence between the temperature at dififerent seasons of- the year. These extremes of heat and cold, combined with the dryness of the atmosphere during most of the year, render the propagation of all bat a few species, such as sissu, im> possible ; and even the hardy kikwr is killed ofi by frost unless artilicially shaded in winter. The monsoon rains nominally commence in July and continue to the end of A ugust ; but they ore neither very constant nor regular, and sometimes almost al- togethpT fail. Plantings and sowings are only possible during this short period, and even then often fail in consequence of the dry hot weather during September. As a rnle, a large proportion of the annual rain falls dnrin<; the winter, showers commeno- ing at the end of December and lasting to the second week of Jannai-y. The mouths of M»rch, April and May are more or less stormy as well as hot and dry. The dangerous season for fires is thus much piolonged ; but, on the other hand, the grass withers early and can be burnt with safety. Easterly winds prevail but are seldom violent, and tbeir eEFects can be neutralized to a great extent by protective bands of trees along the west boundary. The climate is, on the whole, healthy, even during the scorching dry heats, except in the deeper valleys and irrigated tracts. Owing to the dampness of these latter places the forests remain green tfarougbont the year, and are so unhealthy that labourers cannot be induced to reside or work in them during the warm season from May to October. Agricultural customs affecting the proposals and wants of the neighbouring population. — In most instances the agricultural customs and the mode of life of the local population have an important bearing on the management of the forests, both ■with regard to the direct supply of the wants of the people in forest produce and to the adoption of a system of manage- ment that will interfere as little as possible with established customs. Such facts, where they influence forest manage- ment, should, therefore, be briefly stated. Example. — The inhabitants are all of necessity cattle-farmers as well as cultiva- tors, as there are no canals in the district and water lies too deep from the suifaoe to make well-irrigation profitable. Hence cultivation is confined to the areas near the rivers, where, however, owing to the iiTegularity of the floods, farming aSbi-ds at best but a poor and precarious means of subsistence. The combined system of cattle- farming and tillage in vogue is, therefore, the only means by which the people can manage to support themselves. Even in the driest yeiirs, when the bare lands near the villages contain no fodder at all, there are in the forests some grasses and the leaves of many trees which can be ustd as fodder, and by these means the villagers contrive to keep large herds of camels and cattle, and flocks of sheep and goats from which they derive a considerable addition to their income and their fond-supplies. It follows that, while grazing must be provided for, (he numler of animals pastured should be restricted to the. nossibility of the forest in leaf and gi-ass fodder. Unless such a limitation is enforced the forests n.nst inevitably disappear ; and the great increase in the stock kept by the villages threatens this already. Distribution and area.— It is generally necessary, especially where the report deals with a number of scattered forest?, to explain in a few words how the gross area is distributed. .EVaiM^j/e.— The total forest area is formed of a large number of separate blocks, occupying the steeper slopes and less accessible portions of the higher hills, all onl- turahle portions and the lower vallej s having been brought under the plough. The 121 nnmber of demarcated forests in the valley is 80, and the average area of each is about 900 acres. These relatively small forests are scattered over the whole area <>f the vaJley, in the basins of the trihataries of the Bavi and Siul, at elevations of between 3,60 : and 8,500 feet above sea-level. The detail with which the area statement should be com- piled depends on the nature and degree of elaboration of the plans to be prepared. "When possible, the areas of the wooded, blank and unculturable portions of the forests, and the areas occupied by enclosures of private or other land not under forest management but within the boundaries, should be stated separately for each block or sub-division. This inform- ation is required in laying out coupes, especially where the •possibility is prescribed by area. Where, however, large areas are to be felled over by the selection method a less com- plete area statement suffices, but would usually be supple- mented by a more detailed description of the blocks and of the wooded, blank and unculturable area in each. In addition to stating the area, it should also be explain- ed how and with what degree of accuracy the forests have been surveyed, what maps exist, and how the acreages have been ascertained. Example. — The area of the working-cirole can only be given approximately, as accurate maps are available only for the Deota forests. FORBS7B. Blocks. Area of each block in acres. Total area (acres). Eemareb. / Lambaiah 2,883 •) The Deota and Chansil Deota . 2,937 / forests were surveyed in Deota . < Bamsa . 2,823 > 10,482 1881-82 by tbe Forest Sur- Saras l,2:i4l vey Branch, and the areas V Kotigad . l.lOoJ given are those furnished by that Branch as calculat- Chansil . ' (. Chansil Eotigad 1,805) 3,968 i 5,773 ed from the maps on the scale of 4"=1 mile. For the remaining forests Sahlra . ... ... 1,410 which were demarcated in 1885, only rough sfeetch Korann . «.. ... 1,520 maps on the sea e of 2"= 1 mile exist, and the areas Naintwar ... ... 3,450 given are subject to correc- tion when the regular sur- Datmir . ... • •■ 2,560 vey, now in progress, hag been completed. Tot At ... ... 25,195 12^ The following is an example of a more detailed state- ment. Very often, however, it will be necessary to indicate not merely the total wooded area but also the area of each type of forest in each block. Where a stock map has been prepared this offers no difficulty : — Area. m '=! -s ^h « g S S a BX.OCES. , '^ !3 a ^§|SJ Be MASKS. O o S 1 •«3 . «2 3s| & n b (§■" 5^ ^(^2 5-«^^-| DJiamin 2,643-4 128-8 iii-i 11-6 2,894-9 116-4* 3,011-3 'IS'S acres ooonpied by public roadB ; 1*2 acres in comer of com- partment No. 1 by Oanaljbiiildings ; 81'0 acres by lands adjoin. ing the Canal, aud 21 acres by the Eailway. Palmar • 1,699'3 68-0 83-0 53 16-0 1,871-6 590t 1,930-6 t 43-0 acres occnpied by the Canal lands, and 21-0 by the Railway. Kote 1,746-2 274-8 21-7 1-6 3-6 2,047-9 61-st 2,109-4 1 19-6 acres occnpied by Canal bungalow and componnd, and 230 acres by lands adjoin- ing-Canal. § 101-0 acres of landa Lnrla 2,310-2 91-1 138-0 • •• 2,539-3 101'0§ 2,640-3 adjoining Canal. Total . i J 399-1 562-7 353-5 18-5 19-6 i >,8S3-7. 537 9 9,601-6 Boundaries.— In order to justify proposed works of im- provement, or the absence of any proposal of the kind, with regard to the demarcation, it is necessary to ascertain aud state whether the boundary marks are sufficient and suit- able or not ; whether they are in good or bad condition ; and whether they are well placed. In some cases a re-demarca- tion of parts of the boundary may be required, and, if so, this should be justified. The nature of the surrounding properties, the likelihood of trespass, and such other points as bear on the size, degree of proximity, etc., of the boundary marks should be dealt with in such detail as may be neces- sary in each case. A "register" of boundary marks should not usually find a place in a working-plans report. In many cases, for instance where the annual clearing of the boundary lines for fire-protection or other purposes is necessary, it may be advisable to state the length of lines to be kept clear or the number of marks to be repaired, etc.- 123 Tbe boundaries of private lands, included ia the forest, should be described in thes same way as the external Tjouudaries. Example. — The boundary marks used along the outer boundaries are su^jstantial and sufficient. The whole of this boundary is demarcated by square masonry pillars 3' X3' X 4' ; whilst pillars, also square, measuring 2' X 2' X 2|', mark off the bound- ary between the open forests and those free of rights. Theie are in addition 318 round pillars, 4|' in girth by 2|' high, demarcating the chaks or village lands within the forests. The shape of the boundaries is, however, very defective, a crooked or curved line between two consecutiye pillars being common. The conseqiieBce is that it is extremely difficult to foUow the boundary, and encroachments might long pass unnoticed. For the reserve this drawback has been overcome by erectijig ft ring fence of rough posts ; but something should be done as soon as possible to render the boundaries of the other forests easily and permanently recognisable. Otherwise harassing disputes in the near future are inevitable. The adjoining estates consist of ■village lands, the cultivation of which not infrequently is conterminous with the forest boundary. It may occasionally be advisable to prefix to the descrip- tion of the boundaries remarks explanatory of the circum- stances under which the demarcation was made. Enclosures within a reserve are of ten of such importance, as regards the management of the forest, that it may be necessary to notice them in detail. Legal position of the forests. — A brief account of the man- ner in which the forests were acquired, and how they are held by Government, of their settlement (if one has been made) and of their present legal status, should be given. The Act and section of the Act under which the forests have been de- clared " reserved " or " protected," as well as brief particulars of all important orders of the Local Government concerned bearing on the status and management of the areas, should also be indicated. Special regulations affecting the forest^ SQchas grazing rules, should be mentioned, and their bearing on the legal position of the tract should be explained. This section of the report should not, however, be burdened with details regarding the past management of the forests. This subject will be separately dealt with in another section. Example.— 3sxmi3.r originally formed part of the Sirmijr or J^Tahan State. In 1815 it was conquered by the British, since which time ^t has been under British rule. But it was not untU 1860 that the right of Government to the, ownership of all waste Und was enforced by rough limitation of the rights ,of efyjh collection of vill»ge communities. It was clearly laid down in this settlement that the rights of the villagers, in the forests consisted in grazing, in collecting dead wood for fuel, and in cutting timber for tlieir own use only- ..^1.1^ In 1865-66 the proposal to establish a mihtary cantonment at Chakrata gave rise to the issue of different orders for the protection of the mwe valrable tracts of forest, and in 1868 a Forest Officer was appointed -to take charge of them. In 1869 the demarcation of certain portions as Government forest was directed, and three classes »f forest were formed : — First c/a«».— Forest areas practically free of rights. 121 Second class. — Forest areas under the contiol of Government, bat subject to certain rights of usage. Third class. — Forest or waste land, the nee of which nas allotted to the different Khats, the right to sell produce only being prohibited. In 1878, on the Indian Forest Act (VII of 1878) coming into force, a settlement, nnder Chapter II of that Act, was made of the tirst and second class forests, and such areas as could not be secured free of all rights were included in the category now called Vnclassed State Forests. The settled forests, which it will be seen are free of all rights, were gazetted as " Reserves " nnder Section 19 of the Forest Act (t>/rf« 6. 0. No. 408 A of 1st August 1880). The unclassed forests are not {vide G. O. No. 77 F. C. of the 13th June 1871) managed by the officers of ihe Forest Department, the enforcement of the limitation as to the ssde of produce from them being left to the civil officers. Bights and concessions.— It is generally necessary to ex- plain the nature and extent of the rights with which the forests are burdened, so far as they affect management and sylvicultural treatment. But it is only where definite pro- posals are made for commuting particular rights, or for pro- viding for them in some special manner, tiiat full details of each right need be given. And if a detailed report is required it should be prepared separately from the working- plan. It should be clearly understood that the body of a work- ing-plans report is not the place for a detailed record-of- rights, the up-keep of which is separately provided for in the Porest Code. As, however, it sometimes happens that the rights, although legally settled have not been recorded in a convenient form, it may be advisable in the preparation of the working-plan to redraft, under proper authority, this record in a more intelligible form for ready reference. If so desired, the record may often be suitably appended to the working-plans report. Example.— T^e forests in this Division come nnder the action of the third clause of Section 34 of the Act, and, no settlement or enquiry having yet been made, the existence or non-existence of rights unfortunately still remains an open question. The following concessions have, however, been niadt by administrative order in favour of the inhabitants of certain villages in the immediate Tioinity of the forests, viz. : — Sattikhala 10 chil trees 2 feet diameter, annually. • 20 • 35 „ „ „ • 26 „ „ • t)o ., ., ,. Malas Laldhang Amgadi Bedasui Total . 154 The exercise of these rights is restricted to the actual domestic and agrionltutal requirements of the villagers in whose favour they are recorded, and they cannot bo exercised for purposes of trade. The maximum size of a bouse, for building and main- taining which timber can be claimed, is 40 feet x 36 feet x 16 feet. Any trees, except the protected kinds, may be lopped for green leaves ; but the lopping is limited to branches not exceeding 2" in diameter at the trunk. 125 The grazing alloired nnder the orders above mentioned in as follows :— Tract affected bt the concession. Total head of cattle admitted to gbaze at half kates. Name of block. Acreage. Buffaloes. Cows andi hnllooks. Horses, ponies,and donkeys. Sheep and goats. Beuabes. Malan . Amgadi. Bedasni 2,136 3,135 6,304 38 223 106 4S5 1,165 1,464 52 33 175 220 The present full annual rates per head of each class of cattle are, re- spectively, 4, 2, 1, and i annas. Henca the total money- value of the con- cessions at the Total . 11,575 367 3,114 85 395 present rates is H249-5-3 per an- num. It is always well to estimate the quantity of timber or fuel for which provision must be made. This' information is necessary in order to arrange for the exercise of the rights and for their regulation which, as will be seen, may neces- sitate the grouping into separate working-circles of the areas affected. The bearing of the rights on the manage- ment of the forest should be noticed, and it should be pointed out in what way the rights should be regulated. An endea- vour should always be made to estimate the value of the con- cessions granted. Composition and condition of the crops.— As a detailed de- scription of the crops in each block is usually separately given or figured in the stock map, this section should con- tain only a broad general description, special attention being paid to points, such as the following, not dealt with in the detailed description : — The different classes or types of forest and their distribution ; principal and accessory species, and their relative proportions. The condition of the crop ; the dominant age-classes ; the quality and density of the growth ; absence or presence of blanks or glades. Eeprodnction j the presence or absence of natural seedlings, with explanatory Example.— Taking the forest as a whole, the stock may be generally sub-divided into three distinct zones which roughly occupy the following areas •- — (1) The Karshu oak zom?.— Beginning at about 9,000 feet and extending to the highest point of the basin. It comprises pure or mixed open or dense patches of the silver and sprues firs and of Jcharsu (oak), inter- spers^ed with bird cherries, maples, service trees and yews. In this zone, wherever the ground is fairly level, we obtain extremely rich pastures. Deodar just enters the zone. 126 (JS^ -The ieodar tone. — From 6,000 feet to 9,000 feet. Deodar is spread througrh- ont this sone. The tree does not, hawever, grow pure, being mixed with a larger or smaller proportion of spruce and mora principally, and silver fir exceptionally. It is most abundant, and generally constitutes the predominant tree, between 7,000 and 8,500 feet of elevation. Above and below this belt deodar confines itself almost exclusively to ridges and well-drained slopes, particulaiiy the former. (3) The chir zone. — From 6,000 feet to thellowest altitude of the circle (4,416 feet). The predominant type of forest is broad-leaved, consisting of ban (oak) and a few horse chestnuts, maplets, etc., at the higher eleva^ tione, and chir with small trees and shrubs elsewhere. Numerous grazing grounds exist or recently existed in the ban area, .which is therefore interspersed with comparatively extensive plots of open low scrub. The area producing deodar, which is the one marketable tree, is about half the total area of the forest. The crops are all irregular, no distinct age-classes of grada- tion of ages existing ; and every variation in density is to be met with, from open grassy blanks to dense mixed deodar and fir forest. In the following statement, the areas occupied by each of these zones of growth are recorded : — Zone. Wooded. Blank, Unproductive. Total. Karshn . . • Deodar Chir . .. . . 2,795 7,855 1,034 1,024 1,603 1,038 2,108 1,002 428 5,927 10,460 2,500 In the deodar zone, save where the cover is too densei reproduction is good, seed- lings of deodar as well as of kail and rai being plentiful. In the Palangi block especially, tlie young growth of moru (oak) is excellent. In those blocks which have been worked over natural reproduction is exceedingly satisfactory. With what degree of detail the principal species should be described depends on the special circumstances of each case, and must therefore be left to the judgment of the working-plans oflEicer. But, broadly speaking, with regard to every important species of which the treatment is not well known, it will be useful to record whatever information can be collected on the following subjects : — Characters of the soil and of the locality in which the tree is found growing and in which it thrives best. Beqnirements or peculiarites with regard to reproduction, seedling, etc. ; aptitude to produce shoots or suckers. Growth in girth and height ; size attained ; longevity. Most suitable method of treatment ; peculiarities as regards supporting shade or the reverse. Products yielded and purposes for which employed ; qualities of the wood. Information concerning the origin of the crop or im- portant facts connected with its past treatment often throws light on its present condition. In the case of plantations the origin and past history can be readily describedj and for many other crops also much may be learned. 127 JErample.—The Iwge size of the few old trete still remaining would of itself be suttoient to prove that a fine forest growth at one time covered at least the more tavonrably situated areas, and there is besides clear evidence that nearly all the old growth has disappeared through yAwmm^. The fact is that the level tracts, which typify these hills, nttracted settlers at an early date after the pacification of the country under British Mile; and, although ^7 e The following roads, which are the main arteries of the Range, hare to be kept in good order so as to be passable for mules :— Misan to Sagti 12 miles. Dand to Sooli g New roads of the same sort are required in order to open out the Sain forest : length trom the forest to the cart road, 8 miles. Ordinary roads or puths, when no longer wanted for the transport of timber and tnel, need not generally be kept in repair, but will not altogether disappear and can be restored when again reqnierd. Markets.—The size and importance of each of the centres of consumption supplied from the forests uuder examination, their distance from the forest and the produce consumed in each, should be discussed with such detail as appears necessary. The following heads under which the facts may be reeoidei should be borne in mind ; — Name of market. Distance from the forest. Line of export. Description and quantity of produce consumed. Sources from which supplied. Quantities coming from Government forests. Bates paid by dealers. Mode and cost of extraction. — The manner in which the pro- duce is extracted should be explained, and the cost of fel- ling, transport, etc., should be given. Improvements will of course often be suggested with the object of reducing the cost. The establishment of new roads and the improvement of existing lines of export may be justified in this section. JExample. — All the produce reaches the market by railway, to which it is convey- ed from the forests distant from 3 to 6 miles by bullock cart. The rates charged by the Railway Company are given below. The cost of conveyance to the line by bul- lock cart amounts on an average to six pies per maund per mile. This is the chief expense in the extraction of tbeprodace, and in a separate report it has been proposed to substitute carriage by tramway for the present system. A tramway will reduce the cost of extraction three pies per maund per mile. The cost of constructing the pro- posed tramway, in accordance with the estimates given in the detailed report, has been included in the financial forecast. Net price realised for the produce.— Upon the proper corsi- deration of this subject often depend the exploitable age and the method of treatment to be applied. The report should state, separately for each class of produce, the purposes for which it is used, the nett revenue realised after deducting all costs of felling and extraction, etc. An example of the cal- culations which may be necessary has been given in Chapter II in discussing the exploitable age. The result arrived at may be stated in words or in tabular form as most con- venient. K 2 132 Example.— -The following statement indicates the gross and net prices realised for each class of produce : — Description of produce. Gross price per cubic foot (solid.) Nett price per cubic foot (solid.) Eemarks. Trees standing in forest . Fnel billets, 2' 6" long, 10" to 2" diameter. Fnel billets, 5' long, 2" to 1" diameter. S 0-50 0-66 0-82 S 0-50 0-23 0-06 These figures are calculated from 1 the average sales and:the expen- '" diture incurred during five years. The forest staff- — The strength, duties and cost of the forest staff should be stated, and the adequacy or insuffici- ency, as the case may be, of the existing establishment com- mented upon. "Where alterations are necessary this should be stated and explained. Hxamplt .— Th e foUowirg ranges and beats have been established : — Hange and head- quarters No. of beat. Forests or blocks included In each heat. Area of beat. Head-quarters of heat. Bemabes. r Deota ..; 1 2 3 5 Partil, Temple, Deota, Katatach. Tadiar and Bagiar Fipal, Bamsn . Dhikuri . Naintwar and Datmir Total Area . Acres. 1,798 1,139 1,037 1,930 1,010 6,9U Deota. Tadiar. Bamsu, Sahlra. Datmir. The charge of the range is at present held by a Forester. The duties of the subordinate establishment are particularly heavy, as the timber ■works are conducted departmentally. Tiie injuries to which the forests are liable have already been described, and the protective duties of the guards will be nnder- stood. The average area of each guard's beat is about 1,400 acres ; but the forests are scattered over a large area of exceptionally rugged country. It is often difficult to obtain suitable Forest Guards, as the hill men are unaccustomed to discipline of any sort. Proposals for increasing the staff, and for certain changes in its disposition, will therefore be made. Labour supply. — It should be said to what extent and at what rates of payment it is possible to procure local labour, and whether, at particular seasons of the year, there are diffi- culties with regard to the supply. Any other remarks that may appear desirable in connection with the execution of works in the forests should also be recorded under this head. 133 PART II.-FUTDIIE MANAGEMENT DISCUSSED AND PEESCRIBED. Working-circles. — In explaining what working-circles are proposed, their formation should be fully j ustified with re- ference to — The state of the crop and method of treatment to be applied. The position of the natural land-marks. The demand for the produce, and the most desirable size for the coupes. The administrative charges. It wUl generally be convenient, especially when there are a number of working- circles, to exhibit in a tabular form the areas comprised in each circle together with the names of the forests or blocks concerned. Example. — It will have been seen that the forest area consists of two portions' separated from each other by the main road from the railway line to the tehsil, and perfectly distinct in the character of the crops and in legal constitution. That portion, situated to the east of this road has an area of 13,631 acres, is reserved and contains, as we have seen, an irregularly coppiced forest of sal ; while the area lying to the west of the road is nnclassed forest, and contains only scrub jungle which it will be proposed to worli for grazing. This latter block must, it is evident, form a separate working-circle, and it is proposed to call it the " grazing circle." As to the first-mentioned block, it is too large to form conveniently a single circle, and it is therefore proposed to divide it into two, separated by the stream and the path leading to the village. But both circles will be simultaneously worked to supply the same market which is fed by the railway. It maybe argued that this division of the eastern area inio two circles wiU render the working-plan more coniplicated. The cost of extracting the produce will, however, be decreased by reason of the lesser distance it will have to be carried ; while the products of the fellings will not be so difficult to extract and dispose of. The following area statement shows the distribu- tion of these working-circles, called the " eastern " and " western," respectively. Each will conveniently form a Forester's charge, replacing the present arrangement by which a Ranger has charge of the reserved forests only, and two guards, belonging to the sab-division but not under the Ganger, have charge of the grazing area : — Working-circles. Blocks iucluded. Area in acres. Beuabes. Eastern . . . . .< Man^r . . ' . Bhandal .... Langera . . . .' Maila .... Himgri .... 323 1,130 1,302 1,166 1,339 ToTAl iBKA 6,665 Western J Barnota .... Sai .... AInas .... Baira .... Tisa .... Chanja .... Kalel „ . . . 1,260 1.216 728 1,120 716 1.188 1,188 All tbese forests are re- \ served. Total abea 8,066 134 W0BEXHG'CZBCI>£S, Blocks incladed. Area id aci-es. Kemibkb. Grazing , , , ^< Sao Lil BeJj Tunda Aulas Kothi Basu Maila 2,043 S92 1,994 2,606 1,686 3,78S 1,170 2,491 These forests, although de- marcated, hate not been y reserved. tOTit ABEA 14,661 Sub-division of the area into blocks or compartments. — The degree of elaboration with which the forest has been sub- divided and the crops described should be briefly explained and justified. Example. — The working-eirde has heen sub-divided into twelve blocks, each of an average area of 330 acres and with boundaries which follow either roads, ridges or streams. As the forest is to be worked by the method of selection fellings, and the exploitable trees are growing scattered over this area, a more minute sub-division and description have not been considered necessary. The boundaries of the oompnrtnients are marked by deep blazes on all the boundary trees ; whilst, at salient angles, earth maiiads with hardwood posts bearing numbered plates, have been placed. Analysis of the crop. — It should be explained whether the trees have been counted and measured, and whether the areas containing different crops have been diflferentiated and separately surveyed or have simply been estimated by eye. "Where a valuation or enumeration survey has been made, it should be explained whether the stock on the whole area has been counted, or whether the number of trees has been cal- culated from sample plots. Whatever method of analysis and description has been employed should be briefly ex- plained and justified. Example.— '^0 accurate differentiation of theeropsin each compartment has been attempted, as this was unnecessary in view of the treatment to be applied. The number of trees has, however, been ascertained by linear surveys run in all directions thr.iugh every kind of crop. The area so surveyed amounted to 8 per cent, of the area of the working- circle. The results of the enumeration are summarised in the following paragraph, and the detailed figures will be found in Appendix IV. A brief analysis of the crop, based on any detailed de- scription or on a stock map (if one has been prepared) should be given. Where the number of trees has been counted or estimated, totals for each size, class, kind, etc., should be stated and should be supplemented in an appendix by a detailed record of the survey. If the areas occupied by different crops have been separately examined, the age-classes 135 and the area occupied by each kind of crop should be record- ed. Where the stock has been simply assessed by eye, a sum- mary description of the crop in each sub-division may be given. :Ea!ample.—T!he records of tlie detailed enumeration show that the standing stock may be classed as follows : — Trees (exploitable) over 2' in diameter .. li' to 2' iu „ rto IJ'in » below 1' in ,. . 65,871 . 87,846 . 63,000 . 927,000 "Where the crops had been differentiated as to their com- ponent age-classes the summary analysis would be given by area : — Matnre, regular" high forest from 100 to 150 years old Selection-worked high forest from 40 to 150 years old Pole crops fi-om 50 to 90 years old ... Former coppice, undergoing seed and secondary fellings Young thickets and seedling crops .... Blanks and glades ...... Acres. 1,208 1,14.4 955 87 626 167 Total abba . 4,187 Purpose with which the forests should be managed. — The object or purpose in view, such as the production of timber of a certain kind and size, the protection of the trees or whatever it may be, should be deduced from the facts re- corded in the first part of the Report and be plainly stated. Example. — The facts recorded in paragraphs 12 to 15 of this Eepoi-t show that the forests should be worked so as to provide fuel aud timber for the local population. Timber of the largest size is not required, aud the beams or poles in demand can be obtained from trees of one foot in diameter. Method of treatment.— The proposals for the management of each working-circle should be discussed separately, com- mencing with the sylvicultural method of treatment. The method should be explained and its adoption justified by a brief explanation of the reasons which render it advisable or necessary to employ it. JExample. — Although the coppice system introduced in 1871 has not been followed in all its details, its general principles have been adhered to, and, broadly speaking, have given the results that were sought. It is therefore proposed to continue this method of coppice with standards. The method of high forest, it might be argued, woald also furnish both timber and fuel, aud furnish timber in much larger quantities than would be possible under the method of coppice with standards. The present state of the area, formerly set apart for treatment as high forest, does not, however, favour the conclusion that the method of high forest is suitable to the species which the forest contains. The volume of standing timber is undoubtedly great ; but the trees have in general a forced and unhealthy appearance ; and it is not impro- bable that high forest could only be regenerated by artificial means. Every indica- tion points to the conclusion that the principal species thrives best when grown in a state of partial isolation. It finds these conditions when grown as standards over coppice ; aud, as far as can be seen at present, by adopting this method we are more likely to furnish timber of good quality than by any other method of treatment. 136 The exploitable age.— The manner in which the exploit- able age has been calculated, and the facts on which the calculation has been based, should be stated. As already- indicated these facts or considerations relate to the products required, the object with which the forest should be worked, the rate of growth, the prices realised and the net value of the trees standing in the forest. Erample — .It has been stated that the object with which this forest should be worked is to supplj' fuel and timber for the neighbouring population, and it has been decided that this end may best be accomplished under the coppice method of treat- ment. It has been shown that the fuel billets required should not exceed 4 inches in diameter, as, if larger, it becomes necessary to split them, and they bring in a lower nett price. From the rate of growth of the coppice it is known that this size is attained in about 12 years. It is, therefore, proposed to exploit the forest on a rotation of 12 years. As regards the standards, we have seen that trees of 1 foot in diameter furnish the required small timber, and that they attain this size in about 60 years. It is, therefore, proposed to retain a certain number of the standards of each coupe for five rotations of the coppice. General scheme of working and calculation of the possibility. — The calculation of the possibility should be based on the analysis of the crops, or, where an enumeration survey has been made, of the standing stock in the forest. The general scheme of working and the method of cal- culation having been explained and the possibility deter- mined, the condition of the stock as regards its suflB.ciency or insufficiency, the arrangement of the age-classes and so forth, should be discussed. The length of the preparatory period, during which it may be necessary to reconstitute the crop or lead it on to normal condition, should also be explained. ^a!(»»!^(e.— It is proposed to exploit the principal species, teak, by the selection method ; and the length of the felling rotation adopted is 20 years or half the period (40 years) required for a tree of the lowest dimensions of Class II to attain the lowest dimensions of Class I. The valuation surveys show that the age 1905-6 i Masrund . 723 205 1897-98 ■) 1906-7 i Kangu 435 189 E5-8 per acre. 1898-99 •) 1907-8 i • Sloh , 801 202 1899-1900 ■) 1908-9 i Dand 398 186 Total 4.750 1,572 In the improvement fellings the following work shonld be done; — All suppressed deodar seedlings should be relieved from the injurious cover of inferior species, either by the lopping of a branch or two or by the ringing of the immediately over-topping trees. All deodar trees with crowns contracted on account of the heavy surrounding foliage of other trees, but otherwise in good condition, should be set free by the ringing of some of the latter. In the vicinity of, or on slopes immediately below, fertile deodar trees, the soil should be prepared for the reception of any seed that may fall by being cleared of all undergrowth and being freed, if necessary, from the thick covering of undecomposed leaves. In opening ont the leaf canopy, it should not be forgotten that deodar in its youth supports a great deaJ of shade an d requires protection, and that bright illumina- tion results in the soil of these forests being overrun with a dense growth of weeds and inferior shrubs. The object of ringing and not felling the obnoxious trees is to uncover gradually the soil and vegetation, to save the heavy outlay that felling would requii-e, and to prevent the ground from being encumbered. Hegulation of rights and concessions.— The plan, in this respect, must carry out the detailed record-of -rights under the forest settlement, if one exists. It should be laid down what areas are to be opened to grazing and for what periods. The number of cattle to be admitted should, where possible, 142 be prescribed ; and generally it sbould be explained how the rights can be met with the least amount of injury or danger to the forest. ISxample. — The annexed table indicates the periods for which the several areas will be opened or closed to grazing, They have, as permitted by the settlement, been arranged with a view to giving each area a rest of five years. The number of cattle to be admitted is that given in the statement of rights, and the areas opened will allow 3 acres per head oE cattle giazed. When one area is closed, another will be opened ; and, on an average, one-third of the whole area will always be open to frrazing. This arrangement in no way contravenes the orders passed by the Forest Settlement Officer. Area Opened, TeABB BTJEIKe -WHICH OPEHBD. Xfame of block. Area. Bemases, 1884 to 1888 . 1889 to 1893 . 1894 to 1898 . Jellaki Shabpur Gancban . 3.117 2,832 2,979 The Baura block of 106 acres which it is proposed to work regularly will have to he closed. It is free of rights, but grass-cutting can be permitted. The portion traversed by the path from Eanra to Mairawana, or about ten acres, which contains chiefly young chir, may, however, be left open to cattle, as it need not be worked and it is inexpedient to close the much-frequented path. It has already been explained that, as regards rights to timber, it may be necessary either to form the area burdened with the rights into a separate working-circle, in which case the exploitation will be dealt with in the ordinary way as a principal provision of the plan, or to allow for the required material in calculating the possibility. In the latter case the removal of the right-holders' trees would be regulated as was necessary but separately from the fellings made under the principal provisions of the plan. JExample. — The number of trees required annually by the vill^ers has been estimated as follows from the average consumption of the past five years. These trees will be marked by the Eange Officer for removal by the rJght-bolders on pro- duction of their passes : — FonEST FRosr -which to be Granted. D£8CBIfTX0jr, a i ^ Bbuabzs. c "S p. S . 1 at .a 1 Chir trees, 2' diameter . 8 8 12 88 16 132 „ poles 1' „ 60 268 149 76 58 611 Oaks for oharco^ . 10 8 12 27 16 73 143 Hitherto free-^rant trees have been marked in an irregular manner, the same village often obtaining trees from different localities, and the people frequently being allowed to select their own trees regardless of the well-being of the forest. This must cease, and all trees should be marked by the Eanger according to the principles applicable in selection fellings. Sowings and plantings — The question of sowings and plantings should be discussed, only such details with regard to their execution being given as appear to be necessary for the guidance of the local oflBcers. Example. — It is proposed to introduce tun and other superior kinds of trees into the crop by planting in the coppice. The want of good species to serve as standai'ds and the increased value that such standards would add to the forest have been fully explained. To enable these plants to hold their own in the dense coppice growth (only certain kinds of shade-supporting species could be so introduced), good-sized seedlings should be planted in pits. Nurseries should be established in the compart- ments to be felled three years in advance of the felling. Sites for nurseries should be chopen in well-drained localities. The nursery beds should he terraced, and the seeds should be sown in lines, u foot apart, in November and December. Whilst in the nursery, the young plants should be protected in seasons of drought and frost by grass tatties raised a few feet ofi the gj'ound. The young seedlings should be put out immediately the rains set In. Roads, buildings, and other works. — The improvements in- dicated above are more or less connected with the method of treatment adopted. There are, however, many works, such as the improvement of boundaries, the construction of roads and buildings, and, in many eases, the clearing of fire-lines which may concern all the working-circles. The estimated cost of such works as may be proposed should be given in the report. The application of a plan may necessitate the construction of very considerable export works and roads, but such undertakings should form the subject of separate reports and should only be briefly referred to in the working-plan, Example: — Soundaries. — The forests have been merely temporarily demarcated by kutcha pillars many of which have already fallen down. In some cases it will be possible to treat collectively as one block several at present separately demarcated, for instance, Sikri, Rupani, and Chatri ; and also Kalwara, Sani, Padri, Bohar, Chi- rindi and Eumbo. But where this is inexpedient the forests should be re-demarcat- ed hypucha boundary pillars. It is important that new pillars should he of the best possible description. Korest records of former years show that demarcation work has frequently had to be done time after time owing to the cheap and unstable nature of the materials used. It is therefore proposed to construct of the most suitable stone {generally slate) found in the locality, solid masonry pillars about 2 feet square at base, 1 foot 6 inches square at top, and 2 feet 6 inches high, on a solid founda- tion 3 feet square. It is estimated that each pillar of this description will cost from E2 to R4, according to its position. Owing to the configuration of the ground, one pillar is frequently not visible from the next, and there is often, in consequence, un- certainty as to how the boundary runs. The remedy is to cut a two-foot path or line through the forest from pillar to pillar, wherever the boundary is not a natural one or a path does not already exist. In paragraph 6 it is estimated that there are 73 miles of artificial boundary ; so that, if 8 miles were made every year, the whole work would be completed in about 10 years. Fire-protection. — As stated in Part I, it is accepted tbat n&Iess forests open to rights are fire-protected their deterioration must continue, and they must, in course of time, disappear in accessible places, especially if the demand of right-holders ibr timber and fuel is supplied, as in the past, from such localities only. It is therefore proposed to extend protection to the following blocks: — FOBBSTS, Area in acres. Length cf fire- iine required in milcB. Sukrau • . Gtralgarh Sawasan . . . . . ' . • 11,133 13.435 15,933 11 59 Total . 40,500 106 All the other forests in the area dealt with, viz., Jogi Chur, Ander-Majhera, and Kauria Chaur are already protected. _ The Bnriwala-Mahera block is an island, and requires no fire-line for its protection ; but grazing might be stopped in it at the beginning of the fire season. The extra cost which this protection will involve is estimated, on the cost of similar protection in other areas in the division, at K450 a year. This will bring the total cost of fire-protection in the tract to E900 annually. Communications and buildings. — The roads, bridsjes, and buildings enumerated in paragraphs 80 to 85, except the sleeper-carrying paths in the blocks which have been worked out, should be kept in repair. A year before the selection' fellings in the Deota forest are brought to a conclusion it will be necessary to make a good bridle-path by widening the present path from Deota ; and a similar path should be made later to Eamsu from Deota to Sahlra along the main ridge, a short one joining it from Bamsu. Roads, passable for pack animals carrying food for the sawyers and coolies, must also be made along the right bank of the Tons from Tadiar, passing by the month of the Bamsugad to that of the Knnigad, down which will come all timber from the Sahlra forest ; whilst branch roads will be required up the two gads referred to, and also one from Nairitwar bridge to Koarbo, the road on the left hank of the Tons as far as that bridge being widened and improved. Forest rest-houses and sei-vants" quarters should he built at the camping ground in the Sahlra forests, and at the mouth of the Knnigrad. The Bamsu hut must also he enlarged and improved. Houses for the Forest Ranger, and chankis for Forest Guards will be required at Bamsu, Sahlra, Eunigad and Naintwar. Godowns for the food-supply are also necessary at Bamsu, Sahlra and Naintwar. The cost of these various works will, on an average, amount to E5,Q00 a year. Summary of works of improvement.— A summary of the works of improvement may, in some cases, be given with advantage. A brief description of the works, the probable date of their execution as well as of their cost, should be indicated. Example. — Summary of works of improvement. 1893-93 . < JoU . Facilitating the reproduction of deodar, as described, in about 280 J? 660 Includes cost of fenc- Fadri,Bohar . acres. Collecting seed, preparing and sowing 20,000 square feet of nurseries, as described. 165 ing small port ions where neces- sary. 145 Padri, Bohav . Planting 20 acres, as described ft 260 Ditto Besowing old nurseries : 20,000 sqnare feet. 40 Joli Thali . Opening out a path through the forests, and from the forests to Sao river, to join path along 300 1892-93 that river : about 3 miles. Sao Improving the village road along the Sao nalla : about 3 miles. 250 Sai Building a small forest rest-house on road leading to forests in the Sao valley. 500 Kot includ- ing value of the timbei-. , Joli-Tbali . Demarcating the forest boundaries 60 with about 30 pucca pillars, as described. Miscellaneous provisions.— The working-plan may fittingly prescribe the up-keep of records, the conduct of experiments with a view to the future revision of the plan on more accurate data, or for other purposes. Example. — A journal, as prescribed under Section 89 of the Forest Code, must he kept up. This book will contain, separately for each block, a register of tlie operation carried out therein, the yield from the fellings, thinnings, dead and wind-fallen trees, etc., etc., etc. In addition to this, a portion of the journal should he devoted to a general summary of each year's work, to notes on experiments and ohsei-vations made, cost of exploitation, revenue, and expenditure; and so forth, for the forests as a whole. Measurements of the rate of growth of the oak should be made regularly once a year in the sample plot and should be entered in the journal. The examination of the concentric rings of growth in conifers should be continued. The record should be kept by compartments, and both the aspect and altitude should he invariably noted. Changes in the forest staff.— Any alterations proposed should be indicated with such detail as circumstances require, and should be justified by reference to facts recorded in the first part of the Report. Example.— It has been already fully explained that the stafE is inadequate and must be increased if the present proposals for working the forest are accepted. The following protective and executive establishment will be required. A state- ment showing how it is proposed to distribute and employ these men is attached to this Report. Even with the proposed increase , the average forest area (formed of a large number of small forests scattered over rugged country) under each Banger will be 17,000 acres, and under each Guard 1,600 acres- Upper Eavi C 3 Forest Rangers on forests: four \ 5 Foresters on ranges. (.45 Guards on „ . C 1 Forest Banger on Lower Kavn ^ Foresters on Eange. (^22 Guards on Total estimated cost at starting Present sanctioned monthly expenditure ft K 50 to 150 15 }] 40 6 >l 10 60 »> 150 15 40 6 11 10 a mouth Proposed monthly increase ft 1 50 monthly. 115 285 50 45 135 780 610 170 146 This does not include the establishment employed in the forests ronnd Dalhonsie which will be separately reported on. Forecast of financial results.— The report should conclude with a forecast of the anticipated financial results under the management proposed. The forecast should be criticised and compared with the results obtained in past years. Example. — It is impossible to do more than estimate the average annual revenue. It will be noticed, from the following statement of the anticipated revenue and expenditure during the next 10 years, that but little profit from a financial point of view will be obtained from the working of the forests. It is not intended that the position should be otherwise. The object Government l-.o!ds in view in working these forests is, not to trade as timber speculators, but to secure a regular supply of timber for the neighbouring town, and to manage the forests so that they sh all be always capable of furnishing a sufficient supply. It is, therefore, here proposed to devote to the improvement of the forests, which are in a dangerous condition as regards their future, the greater portion of the anticipated net revenue from the timber transactions. The anticipated receipts during the next 10 years compare, it may be thought, too favourably with the actual results of the past decade. It will be seen, however, that it is proposed to fell more than double the past average annual number of trees. Sources of revenue and heads of expenditure. Estimated average annual receipts and charges. Average annual receipts and charges during past 10 years. Eemabks. Timber and fuel .... Minor produce and miscellaneous . 52,000 1,300 B Total Ebobipts 53,300 29,278 Timber works . . . . Eoads and buildings Plantations and other works! of im- provement Salaries of establishment, including four-sevenths of the Divisional Controlling and Office establish- ment charges .... 11,000* 6,000 21,000 8,500 5,200 2,176 8,121 6,282 * This includes one-seventh of the total propos- ed expenditure which will be incurred on the purchase of new tramway stock. Total Expenditure 46,500 21,729 Net bubplus 6,800 7,549 APPENDICES. Maps.— The working-plan should be supplemented by such maps as are required to clearly illustrate the general position of the forests as "well as their proposed exploitation and management. Ordinarily the maps would include, especially if the total area concerned is very considerable, — (1) A general map on a small scale showing the whole tract dealt with, the distribution of the 147 different forests, the boundaries of workinsr- circles and of administrative charges, etc., etc. (2) Separate maps for each circle, on a scale not less than 4 inches=l mile, indicating the boundar- ies of blocks, compartments and coupes. Description of the crop in each block.— It is generally- expedient, when a plan of a permanent and detailed character is prepared, to record separately for each sub-divi- sion into which the forest has been divided, and with such minuteness as the circumstances of each case require, the more important points connected with — («) the situation, relative position of the area and (in hilly country) aspect and slope of the ground ; {b) the soil, nature of underlying rock, state of the surface soil, its composition and physical condition, depth and general fertility ; (c) the composition and condition of the standing crop, type or class of forest ; component species and their relative proportions, age, density state of growth including reproduction ; past treatment, most suitable treatment ; general remarks. It has already been explained that much of this informa- tion may be graphically represented in a stock map, and that such maps may supplement, if they do not replace, the written descriptions. In any case the written record should, in order to fulfil its purpose, be as brief as is consistent with clearness. Lengthy descriptions defeat the object with which the record is framed, as the mind fails to grasp the picture offered and loses itself in details. With the object of rendering these descriptions as little cumbersome as pos- sible they are usually made in the form of a tabular statement such as that reproduced below. The growing stock must be described with accuracy. In describing a coppice, the coppice and the over- wood or standards should be taken account of separately. In the case of crops for which the possibility has been prescribed by area only, no enumeration of standing stock would be made. The following are some examples : — 148 i I s a H t^o fellings of s&l shonld be made until repro- duction improved by exclusion of grazing. Selection felling to re- move over-mature deo- dar urgently required. The removal of the old over-mature standards, and tlie regularisation of the coppice and re- stocking of blank.area, necessary. Regeneration fellings immediately required. i i s c 1 li Acres. 32 11 60 26 2 No. 1,699 627 806 308 No. 265 68 cub. ft 3,60,000 42,600 78,000 1,82.700 .10,600 60,200 80,100 a 1 1 SM mote or less pure. Sal with sain and mixed species. Scrub . • Grass blanks Unproductive Peodar exploitable. Deodar U' to 2' dia- meter. Do. IV to 1' diama- meter. Unsound but ex- ploitable deodar. Standards of one rotation. Do, old over-mature Deodar over 2' dia- meter. Do., 14' to 2' Do., I'toli' Do., V to 1' . Do., unsound 2' . Other species over 2'. Other species under 2'. Condition of the crop. for area fellings. On both sides of nullah, mature seed- ling! s&l forest, more or less pure or mixed with sain; vigorous bnt with no young growth. Eest of aren, irregnlar scrub jungle with a den^e growth of bushes and many sU seedlii'gs interspersed among them. Numerous small blanks. No fel- lings have been made, but area has been constantly grazed over and burnt. Selection treatment. In upper portion kharsn oak with blue pine, etc, ; deodar rare. The deodar increases on descending, but is mixed with spruce and silver flr. All ages represented, but trees mostly maiuie; many over-mature. Density varying ; reproduction fair; scattered seedling of spruce and silver flr over patches in all lower portions; small blanks here and there throughout. Selection fellings made in more accessible positions only. ice Kith standards. Coppice, irreguar of oak viUh numer- ous blanks. Standards, pine usually of one rota- tion, but several old over-mature trees, of successive regeneration fellings. Mature seedling forest of nearly p-ire deodar, 120 to mo years ; complete, vigorons and well- growing. Eeproduetlon good ; groups of thickets 18 to 20 years ; one large blank of 6 acres. . 1 •a a § 9 OQ General description. — Bed of nullah, gentle slops facing the west. Soil, deep, resting on shale, rich and fer- tile. Oeneral description,— West flank of spur; aspect west- erly, but northerly and easterly on side spurs; gradients steep, often precipitous; elevation 6,600 to 8.000. Soil rich loam; well covered, generally deep but shallow at submit where rock outcrops. General description,— Copp Saddle buck on ridge. Socky, poor soil. Osneral description,— Method Occupies lower basin of nullah; aspects northerly and occasion- ally westerly. Underlying rock shales; soil loose sandy clay. 'IBPl S i s § to s s « -«1 BA^anp -ojduji M «D ^ ^ •quBia s S « «. •pa -pooM s i s 1 •odnoo JO ^aam^jiiduiuQ : - a i n o t a 1 i « 1 II 149 Record of results of valuation surveys. — la the following example of a record of valuation surveys it is assumed that there are three distinct types of forest, and that it is advisable to deal with each type separately and to take sample plots in each : — I 2 150 iili « m c3 ■Sis 1 ^ 5 o 'Ojl O So »4* M CS P,"^ ** ' ^ ** -• S ■s-s>-°' ■sSg.! ™ -a ™ o a , s ■Sis aS & ■ssss S 3 ^ A 1 ■2 SI'S llll ■1.3 ! 1 1. 1 ^■a* -^ 3 .Ss "S- EH -2. ^ H > 8 1 s l> CO 5 O o ^ CO n Pi 1 *"* 5 ■^ eo H m S o o Q o h- 1 l-t 3 H h- 1 r -- ■^ eo H ^ — ' to o o g hH o oo ". i ©J « » (5 (^ o C4 o > lO s S" iO Os" o Q o e4 IN 1 M eo w «" * ■a 00 'O o O o © o •fl n h-l e* *>, s H eo '-' lO i-l s **?. s to __ s ,-i-. ,~^ «- O GO o o Q , > CD cq CO CO )-t 'W .-. N M «D A O CD o u PJ OD CM 00 CO o »-t »-t « ti? o 2 n »5 n CD c^> o oo va « Cit •"-t § l-H 64 CD t* A U3 r-« C<1 1 > g s 1 s . O n n 1 *-i »o « • m a> u CD CD p m »< l-t S => ^ N » H cS •-H (M 1-1 s -g k3 A »a 99 t>« C4 s O 00 C-1 CO •-• e< M M r* CD e 21 f 36) 20) 26) a*]" countings. 78 51 74 class 11-4 11'7 13-2 150 10-0 161 13 In moist valley. On high ridge, hut good soil. VaJley moist. Stiff loam soil, valley. Limestone soil, valley. On exposed ridge, hut fair shelter. 152 CHAPTER v.— CONCLUDING REMARKS. ENSURING THE PERMANENCY OF THE PLAN. Laying oat the coupes. — When the provisions of a work- ing-plan have been drawn up there still remains, as a rule, the marking off on the ground of the sites of the annual fellings or the coupes. Until this has been done the plan is incomplete. It may be compared to a forest delineated on a map bat not marked on the ground by material signs. The degree of detail with which the coupes should be marked off depends on the circumstances of each case. In working-circles treated by the selection method or sulijected to restoration fellings, for instance, each coupe will, as a rule, be formed of one or more blocks linaited by natural or artificial land-marks. In such cases no further demar- cation obviously is required. It sometimes happens, how- ever, that the limits of the blocks are roads or fire-lines, the construction of which forms part of the provisions of the plan itself. When possible, therefore, it is well to lay out the roads or fire-lines on the ground before finishing the plan. This course will tend to ensure its provisions being adhered to and the sub-divisions it deals with being preserved, and is in every way advantageous. A well-consi- dered arrangement of fire traces and of roads for the extraction of the produce is of the first importance ; but if the works are only verbally indicated there is every chance of the directions being lost sight of. In coppice treatment especially, where the coupes are comparatively small, the marking-off of the roads or rides is of much importance and very largely increases the value both of the plan and of the forest. THE CONTROL OF WORKING-PLANS* Necessity for simplicity in the control.— Working-plans are of no use if they are not adhered to, and proper adherence can only be secured by an effective control. Much of their * The reiniirk!! iinier this head lire an exnressioa of the writer's peisnnal views. The eontrol .-xercisfd for loiests under the Qovarninent of India is detailed in Chapter II of the Forest Department Code. 153 value will also be lost unless a careful record is kept of the works carried out and of the financial results secured. A sound system of control is therefore necessary ; but in order that the control may be effective it should be of a very simple nature requiring only a few entries, once a year or so, in the records regarding each forest or working-circle. For the same reason the control should be of such a general nature that an uniform kind of record can be used for all forests and for all systems of working. It is nnfortunate that the truth of these propositions has not heen altogether realised in India. The control forms first introdnced were impracticable ; hecause tlie anticipated outturn of each felling was entered as a provision of the plan- It is not • ton much to say that the attempt thus made to keep up the control forms gave more trouble than the iaformation recorded was worth. Nature of control required.— The facts to be recorded for purposes of control may be classed as follows under three distinct heads: — (1) The work done or fellings made as compared with the provisions of the plan. (2) The gross " yield " and the " outturn." (3) Financial results. Controlling the provisions of the plan. —The control can be effected in a very simple manner. The plan amounts (a) to the prescription of certain sylvicultural rules to be applied over definite areas, with the addition, in some cases, of a limitation as regards the quantity of material to be felled ; and (6) to the prescription of certain works of improvement. All that it is necessary to record and to control can, there- fore, be brought under the following headings :— (a) Year or period of operation prescribed. (6) Locality to be exploited or in which the pres- cribed work is to be carried out. (c) Nature of felling or other cultural operation to be made or of work of improvement to be undertaken. (cT) Quantity of material or number of acres to be exploited, or expenditure to be incurred on a prescribed work. The work done, in accordance with the plan or other, wise, can therefore be checked from a record such as the 164 following which need not usually be prepared oftener than once yearly. Control Book, Sunsi Mange^ Furi Division. Ybib. 1890-91 1890-El 1890-91 PbOTIBIONB OV WOBEING-FLAir. Nature of teWing or other operation to be carried out. Selection fel* iiig. Artificial re- st ockiner with ohir. Thinnings . Clearing fire- lines. Locality. Name of block. fBanei . iMaihi , Sudkot Loba Area. 250 7 370 i Quantity of material, number of acres to be exploited} or ex- penditure to be incurred. OPSBATIOira Oi.BBIED 0T7T Nature of felling or other operation carried out. Derbufiga Circle. 650 chir trees. K760 Selection fel- lings. ^oth Vparkot Circle 70 acres Thinnings All ]0 miles, B350 Circles. Clearing fire- lines. Locality. Name of block. I Bansi I Maila (half) ing done Loha 1 435 360 Quantity of material, area exploit- ed, or expen-, ditore incurred. 450 chir trees. 70 acres. 7 mileb, fi210. !From this form it will be seen that works of improvement, such as climber-cutting, thinnings, etc., can be entered as well as other operations, such as fellings and the construction of roads and houses. As a rule the expenditure is the best means of controlling works of improvement. Thus, whei'e a certain forest requires roads in order to develop it and to increase the nett price of the produce sold from it, it would be sufficient to prescribe the annual expenditure on roads of a certain sum, or a certain percentage of the nett revenue after deducting the expenditure on timber works, until the nett price was in this way sufficiently raised. Such a pre- scription could be far more readily and usefully controlled than a detailed statement of definite roads or buildings to be constructed, though such works might usefully be indicated in the plan without being prescribed. Until working-plans are drawn up and controlled with simplicity, as indicated above, they will give rise to useless correspond- ence and will not be adhered to. Eecording the results of working.— Little need be said with regard to the record of outturn, except that it should be quite separate from the statement of the provisions of the plan proper. 155 Record of financial results.— The record of financial results should be nothing more than a brief abstract of the annual receipts and expenditure. It is unnecessary to furnish de- tails ; but it is well, in order that the capital invested in the forest may be known, and its amount tested from time to time, to distinguish capital expenditure sunk in the forest from current outlay on annually recurring works of protec- tion, on repairs, on protective establishment, and so forth. A form, such as the following, could be written np annu- ally with little trouble and would record all the necessary information both as regards the capital expended and the financial results of working for the year : — Eeceipts, Expenditure, Yeab. o a 1. 11 o > cp r o O -< m > __ m ui O a< » < -c. m -e. m > 01 o > > > ^ 21 JO 7> CA I (\J > CO Z o > > ■0 J > CO tr o tr ■< -< ■< n n m > > > X :» a (0 at 0) to O o » > -I o :x> > r o > Z] > o r C*3 o ■n o -< n > CO „ M i\> O) w 4> Cf o Oi o tn O O" o -< ■< -< -< -C -< -C < -^ m m n m F! c m Fl > > > > > > > > 5 X X 73 ■PS » 33 TO X u> in a> 01 M CO J/) CO i 1 \ ^^<^^»^ o o c m 1 > m > 2 IB r 7- is^i^li H o >i r D CD X > > TO f > X ^Sg^^xf^l c o o o > z > o :a m 01 J- 7C C z 5 > r > If en r n 5 CO — r z o c^ a ^ a CO r>i 7Z CD r J> Z z < en m -1 -n 1 D o o o -p. o o 2 X ,^ o o N c: -n "1 -a m m > o n