FOREST RIGHTS. 85 



certain compartments may be opened for plucking leaves as 

 far from the ground as the hands can reach, but only after 

 late summer. 



In various parts of India leaves of forest species are used 

 for cattle-fodder, for thatching, for wrapping up goods at a 

 market, as plates, for making umbrellas, cigarettes, etc., or 

 for manure, and sometimes these customs may have become 

 prescriptive rights. In such cases protective rules similar to 

 the above should be enforced. 



Where foliage and branches are lopped for litter or fodder, 

 as in the Himalayas and in other parts of India, where, owing 

 to the absence during winter of fodder - crops or natural 

 herbage, leaf-fodder is wanted, and a prescriptive right has 

 been acquired, it is by custom limited to certain species, and 

 certain protective measures can be adopted. These are : 



(i) No lopping to take place till after the principal growth 

 of the year is over. 



(ii) To restrict the usage, as much as possible, to woody 

 climbers and species of little value as timber-trees. 



(iii) To forbid the lopping of the leading shoots of the 

 trees, and to restrict the lopping of side-shoots till they have 

 attained certain dimensions and only to a certain height up 

 to the stem. 



(iv) To give the trees a rest so that the same tree is not 

 lopped in two consecutive years. 



(v) Should the right apply to more valuable timber trees it 

 should be restricted to compartments which will shortly be cut 

 over. The use of leafy twigs and branches of trees felled in 

 the ordinary course cannot harm the forest. 



(vi) Where the demands for this kind of fodder or cattle- 

 litter are large, and cannot otherwise be met, a regular system 

 of pollarding should be introduced, with a fixed rotation giving 

 the trees time to recover between successive cuttings. Such 

 a system prevailed in Epping Forest prior to 1878, when the 

 right was commuted. The loppings of hornbeam-pollards, 

 of which this forest is chiefly composed, were not, however, 

 used for litter only, but also for making fences, hurdles, etc., 

 and then a rotation of ten years was fixed ; in the former case, 

 the trees were lopped annually. 



