090 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AND PRODiX'TIOXS. 



it in anotlior light, the average strength of six samples of wigirdhd Tharraicadi 

 Teak is 241 lbs. ; of girdled Tharruicadi Teak only 184 lbs. ! Yet more, the average 

 breaking weight of the whole 28 samples of certainly girdled teak experimented 

 on is only 182 lbs., against the 241 lbs. of ungirdled Tharrawadi teak; and of the 

 whole 28 samples, not one attains the average of the 6 ungirdled samples ! Of 

 the 10 samples, which, though not so spcciiied, I treat as ungirdled teak (for a 

 reason given below),' the average breaking weight is 222 lbs., one specimen 

 only of the ten falling below the average of the 28 -girdled samples, whilst two 

 specimens exceed the remarkably high average of ungirdled Tharrawadi teak. 



"Assuming therefore that the forty-four samples of teak may be classed as 

 twenty-eight girdled and sixteen ungirdled, we have an average breaking weight of 

 182 lbs. for the former, and 229 lbs. for the latter. 



"To arrive, however, at perfectly satisfactory results, a little elimination is 

 desii-able, as specimens rendered unsound by knots or other causes cannot give fair 

 results, and I accordingly prefer to select from the above experiments only those 

 wliich are free from any objection of unsoundness in the samples under trial. 



"Rejecting then all samples rendered unsound either by knots or other causes, 

 and all cut ' across grain,' we find fourteen samples of sound girdled ti'ak to give 

 a lircaking weight of 202 lbs., whilst eleven samples of ungirdled teak give a mean 

 breaking weight of 238 lbs., a difference of about 1.5 per cent, cateris paribus in strength 

 in fa-s-our of ungirdled over girdled teak." 



These experiments strongly support the view I have all along entertained of 

 the injurious results of girdling timber, based on personal observation of trees so 

 killed in clearings, and on the rapid decay of many woods if allowed to remain 

 ' tdieoiiferted,' some of which there is little doubt would yield fairly useful timber 

 if at once sawn into planks, and thereby allowed at once to season, instead of weltering 

 for months in their own sap, at a mean temperature of 80° or thereabouts. Other 

 remarks of mine were nearly as follows : 



" Regarding the practice as it now obtains of ' Girdling ' or killing timber (teak) 

 before felling it, I shall endeavour to show that, whereas no one single good reason 

 can be advanced in its favour, three valid objections to it can be satisfactorily made 

 out. The Forest Office rule is — ' T/ie trees will alicai/s be allowed to stand three years 

 be/ore felling, tchieh is one gear longer than is generally considered to be sujjicient for 

 seasoning in this climate." From this it may be inferred that the seasoning of the 

 timber was the main reason for the practice being introduced into Pegu by Dr. J. 

 McClelland, and continued to the present day by his successors. Now practically no 

 timber seasons to an appreciable extent till it is felled ; and how should it '? The 

 fluids circulate in a tree very much as they do in an animal, and the moisture con- 

 seqticntly remains in the trunk, till by cutting it into logs a ready exit is afforded 

 lor their transudation ; and it is absurd to suppose that any notable abstraction of sap 

 from the body of the tree takes place till it is felled. The three years therefore 

 a tree is allowed to stand under the present system are simply three years wasted, 

 and something more, as I shall presently show. In standing three years girdled, 

 a portion of the trunk towards its circumference becomes seasoned, and by the time 

 the tree is felled and ' logged ' its general gravity is reduced sufficiently for rafting ; 

 but there can be no question, if the tree were felled at once, without ' girdling ' 

 and converted into logs, that a far more complete seasoning of the whole tree would 

 take place at an earlier period than is now allowed for felling it, and that con- 

 sequently the process of gii-dling actually tends to retard the very cud, to accelerate 

 which it would seem to have originally been devised. This then is my first objection 



' fily reason for classing the foregoing ten samples of foreign teak as nngirdlcil is, that the native 

 methoil of "girdling" (if it can be so called) or killing trees dilfers in toto from the method enforced 

 by the Forest Department, and consists, as I am informed by Mr. Slyni, hi Jialf tiilliiir/ tinoiigli the 

 tree as it stands, and driving angnr holes through and throngh the remaining portion. This plan, as 

 far as regards the abstraction of the sap, ditfers little from cutting the tree down at once, as I arr/iie 

 shinihl he dune ; anyhow, its superiority over the ridiculous system of "gmlling" in vogue in I'egu 

 cauuot for a moment be contested. 



