282 FELLING AND CONVEESION OF TIMBER. 



greatly affects the transport. If the wood has to be floated or 

 rafted to any distance, it is often necessary first to allow it to 

 become thoroughly dry, especially where the a streams are 

 shallow ; thus 1 J years may elapse between the felling and 

 the arrival of the wood at the saw-mills, which clearly involves 

 great risk to the quality of the timber. In such cases the 

 best logs should be removed speedily from the forest to airy 

 forest-depots. 



7. General Rules. 



The following general rules apply to clearance of the felling- 

 area : 



(a) All wood should be removed, the sale of which will 

 repay the cost of removal ; this may be expected always 

 unless prices have gone down most abnormally. 



(b) All wood lying in places inaccessible by carts, such as 

 ravines, rocky ground, swamps and steep slopes, should be 

 removed. In the case of dead wood, clear-cuttings, thinnings, 

 etc., in flat or slightly hilly ground, the material is frequently 

 left in situ, to be removed by carts, but even in such cases the 

 collection of the wood by the proprietor often increases the 

 forest revenue. 



(c) Wherever there is a crop of young growth, as in all 

 secondary and selection fellings, extraction of standards from 

 younger wood and where trap-trees for beetles are felled, the 

 wood should be removed at once from the felling-area. If, in 

 such cases, the heavier logs are not removed at once, as on 

 fairly level ground, all the rest of the material and especially 

 the firewood should be removed as soon as possible by work- 

 men under the control of the forest-manager. 



The logs left on the felling-area should be raised above the 

 ground on pieces of wood and removed as soon as possible by 

 purchasers. 



(d) The forest-depot and the paths leading to it must be 

 selected by the forest-manager before commencing the felling, 

 and all wood from the felling-area brought to the depot with- 

 out delay. In mountainous districts, where there is scarcity 

 of room, vacant sites for stacking timber are provided by 

 widening the roads leading downhill at suitable places. 



