PERIODICAL LITERATURE 



SILMCULTURE, PROTECTIOX, AND EXTENSION 



In discussing the handicaps to the appHcation 

 Silvicultural of silviculture in Lower Burma, Watson ex- 

 Probletns presses himself, among other things, on the se- 



lection method and improvement fellings in the 

 following manner : 



The so-called selection system was evolved at a time when the staff 

 was inadequate for supervision. It is admittedly rough and inade- 

 quate, and it is hard to realize why to date it has not been replaced by 

 a more rational system. Where only certain species in a mixed forest 

 are salable, any system of selection which bears only on one, or possi- 

 bly more, species forming a small percentage of the crop must logically 

 result in a great reduction in the stock of the species exploited. The 

 counterpoise was to have been improvement fellings ; but so far these 

 have been carried out unsystematically and, apart from this, have failed 

 to keep pace with extraction. Of late years the introduction of the 

 uniform method has been under consideration, but our moves in this 

 direction have been desultory and on the whole negligible in results. 



Improvement fellings have been classified in two grades : "O" fell- 

 ings, for the improvement of the existing stock, and "Y" fellings, to 

 * induce or aid regeneration. Where, as usually is the case, the produce 

 felled is unutilizable and unsalable the operation is economically un- 

 sound. 



"O" fellings progress annually by square miles ; but, except in rare 

 cases, where groups of valuable species are freed, the results are barely 

 worth the paper they are described on. "Y" fellings progress annually 

 by acres (in Zigon division there have been none so far). Their cumu- 

 lative effect as compared with the total area of reserves is so fractional 

 as to be almost negligible. 



The most striking feature, however, of many improvement fellings 

 is that they appear to be carried out without any clear object being 

 aimed at. Their general object should be the creation of a homogene- 

 ous crop over as large an area as possible. Yet the primary essential 

 to produce this, namely, the careful use beforehand of a preparatory 

 extraction of the salable species that are overmature or interfering 



