34 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. 



The protective rules are : 



(1) Limitation to persons who have obtained a formal 

 permit from the forest manager, and, as a general rule, on 

 certain fixed days, when the forest guards can supervise the 

 cutting. . 



When a number of people are together cutting herbage in 

 the forest, they should be held collectively responsible for any 

 damage which may be done. 



(2) Eestriction of cutting to places with a moist fertile soil, 

 which can bear the removal of the mineral constituents of 

 the grass, etc. In such places, planting in lines between 

 which grass can easily be cut is more suitable than natural 

 regeneration. In some cases, heather and broom protect 

 young plants from frost and insolation and should be left 

 intact. High grass, on the contrary, as will be seen further 

 on, greatly increases radiation, the intensity of frost and the 

 drying-up of the soil by the sun, so that it is frequently more 

 advantageous to have it removed. Its removal also furnishes 

 additional security against forest fires. 



(8) The use of scythes should not be permitted amongst 

 young growth, where grass should be cut with sickles or 

 pulled up by hand. In India, a flat cutting-instrument called 

 a khurpa is frequently used by grass-cutters to scrape out the 

 rhizomes of the grass, which are highly nutritious ; this 

 practice should not be allowed in forests. Scythes may be 

 used in older plantations, but on the condition of leaving a 

 narrow zone of grass round each plant. On rides, extensive 

 blanks, road-sides, etc., there need be no restriction as regards 

 the instruments used for grass-cutting. 



(4) In hot countries, grass which springs up after forests 

 have been burned furnishes better thatch or paper-material 

 than when cut from unburned forest containing much dead 

 and decayed grass, dead leaves, etc. Hence, in forests under 

 fire protection, grass can be used with advantage only 

 from off roads, fire-traces or blanks which are cut every 

 year. 



(5) Grass-cutting must be carefully supervised by forest- 

 guards, and offenders against the rules reported and 

 punished. 



