GENERAL RULES FOR CLEARING. 283 



(e) The method of removal of the wood to be adopted must 

 be prescribed beforehand and adhered to as much as possible. 

 All unsilvicultural methods should be avoided, and employed 

 only in high mountain-districts, where the timber cannot 

 otherwise be removed. 



(f) The greatest care must be taken of the young growth 

 when the wood is being removed, and tracks, along which this 

 is permitted, should be selected beforehand by the manager. 

 Great care must be taken not to injure the bark of standing 

 trees during the removal of the wood, as this frequently causes 

 unsoundness and greatly depreciates the future value of these 

 trees. 



On fairly level ground, if there is no snow, the heavier 

 material should be removed by means of horses and a pair 

 of wheels, especially through young coniferous growth. On 

 slopes, the groups of young growth should be surrounded by 

 heaps of branches to protect them. Timber may be removed 

 across natural regeneration-areas without any serious damage, 

 but this is undesirable in the ease of artificial plantations. 



(g) The wood should be removed in assortments, and then 

 stacked at the forest-depot. Care should be taken to economise 

 space in the latter, and Unit the piles of malt-rial on hillsides 

 are stable. [In some eases terraces must bo carefully made 

 for locating the stacks. Tr.] All small timber should be 

 piled in hundreds or fifties, and butts and logs in lots of five, 

 ten or more. Heavier pieces which would otherwise remain 

 some time on damp ground should, as soon as possible, be 

 raised on supports above the ground. 



(h) Each party of woodcutters must remove and pile its own 

 wood separately from that of other parties, in order to facilitate 

 payment for the work. 



(i.) Removal from the felling-area and transport to the sale- 

 depot are frequently done simultaneously ; in such cases the 

 work may be entrusted to a contractor under strict rules to 

 prevent damage. 



It often happens in the plains, in the case of clear-fellings, 

 that great numbers of logs have to be removed, and sometimes 

 this may be done best by means of contractors' horses, 

 mules, or bullocks. In high mountain-regions, removal and 



