82 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. 



generally included under this heading. In some cases also 

 are included dead branches, which can be broken off by hand 

 from standing trees. In many forests, dead standing stems 

 up to a certain girth are also included, and stump-wood as 

 well. The meaning of the term fallen dead wood must there- 

 fore be decided locally, but it is rarely taken to include saleable 

 fallen timber. This distinction is thoroughly recognised in 

 North-Western India. Cutting tools must generally be pro- 

 hibited, but a wooden rake may be allowed for collecting the 

 fallen dead wood on the ground. If there is only a small 

 quantity of dead wood available in a forest, the right-holder 

 cannot claim other wood to make up a full supply. The sale 

 of such wood is not usually permissible, as the servitude is 

 for household requirements. 



Within properly regulated limits this usage is only slightly 

 hurtful to a forest, though all dead wood eventually becomes 

 humus. 



/. Lop and Top. 



This right is generally to the crown of a felled tree from the 

 place where the stem is cut off by the woodman, at a certain 

 fixed girth, and to the lower branches lopped off the stem. 

 The right-holder cannot take possession of the wood until 

 the stem has been severed from the crown. The only serious 

 disadvantage caused by this right to the owner is that he 

 cannot well manage his forest as Coppice, or Coppice-with- 

 Standards, as the greater part of his produce would then go 

 to the right-holder. 



If, however, the right-holder has the right of lopping the 

 crown from standing trees, great injury will accrue to the 

 forest. In such a case the right must not be exercised during 

 the growing season, and only in compartments where the trees 

 are ripe for the axe, and at a certain height from the ground. 

 A particular form of this servitude is the right existing in 

 certain forests to lop birch-trees for brooms. 



g. Stumps and Roots. 



This right is admissible only in High Forest, and the owner 

 cannot then convert his forest into Coppice, or Coppice-with- 

 Standards. 



