1884.] FOBESTBY IN BBITISH BUBMA. 409 



A Working Plans Department was started this year, and operations 

 were commenced in the old Mokka-Bilin reserve, and extended over 

 the fire-traced area, or about twenty-four square miles. The formation 

 of working plans seems, however, not to have been completed owing to 

 the want of some maps, which, although expected, were not ready in 

 time. 



The entire area to be included in each working plan was to have 

 been valued by the careful counting of all trees, and the result used 

 as a standard for the valuation of other similarly constituted forests ; 

 but this was found impracticable owing to the unreliability of the 

 men employed as enumerators. Should even trustworthy men be 

 found to enumerate, the difficult configuration of the ground, and the 

 almost impenetrability of portions of the forest would be sufficient to 

 so retard the work as to make it inordinately expensive. In order to 

 expedite the work a system of linear surveys was substituted ; and in 

 this way 578 acres, or four per cent, of the total area, were correctly 

 surveyed and valued. Although this is a very small percentage, it 

 seems sufficieut, considering the very poor average of Teak trees to 

 the acre contained in our natural forests. There are usually only 

 about fifteen to seventeen Teak trees on an average per acre, of which 

 nine to eleven are below one foot in diameter. The average number 

 of trees of all kinds per acre is thirty-three to thirty-five, bamboos 

 for the most part completing the forest. An unsuppressed Teak tree 

 seems to attain six feet in girth in about 105 to 110 years. 



Annual plans of operations will in future be submitted by divisional 

 officers, with the Budget estimates. So far a general plan of operations 

 for the whole circle has been worked up to. The area to be planted 

 yearly with Teak on the taungija system was fixed at 1,000 to 1,200 

 acres, and in endeavouring to bring the Teak taungya cultivation up 

 to this figure it has been found necessary to modify and extend the 

 area protected from fire. The number of trees girdled has been 

 limited in accordance with an estimate of the marketable Teak trees, 

 standing outside reserves. There are still outside reserves supplies 

 for the girdlings of two years to come, estimated at 26,000 to 30,000 

 trees. The out-turn of the forests being to some extent dependent on 

 casualties amongst elephants, and water in the floating streams, can 

 only be estimated for the entire circle, and will always be liable to 

 differ considerably from any plans of operations for divisions. The 

 number of elephants attached to the depots and different divisions of 

 the Pegu circle was thirty-five. The average monthly cost pep 

 elephant amounted to a little over thirty-four rupees. The mortality 

 among contractors' elephants was very great during the year. 



The revenue was derived from the following main sources : — 



