CHAPTER XV 



WORKING PLANS 



IN order to do away with all haphazard working, and to 

 arrange for a regular outturn so that an approximately equal 

 revenue will be obtained year after year, the general lines of 

 treatment must be decided for a long period, usually one 

 rotation of the crop. The compiler of the working plan 

 decides the method of treatment which will be most suitable, 

 and lays this down in a working plan report in such a way as 

 to enable the forester in charge to know exactly what work 

 is to be done each year ; the report is accompanied by maps 

 which show the present state of the crop, the division of the 

 forest, and the proposed arrangement of the fellings. 



Although the general lines of treatment are determined for 

 a rotation, the actual details are laid down only for a short 

 period, generally ten years. At the end of this period the 

 plan is revised and the details for the next ten years are then 

 decided. 



A very small area cannot be managed so as to give an equal 

 annual revenue, and hence no working plan is necessary for 

 such a wood. It is managed solely according to sylvicultural 

 rules, the woodman carrying out each year, or at regular 

 intervals, the work which should be done to improve the crop. 



All large woods should be worked according to the prescrip- 

 tions of a plan ; otherwise there will be no continuity in working 

 and no system ; there will be no assurance that the woods are 

 not being either over or under felled, and the outturn, and 

 coincidently the revenue, will rise and fall irregularly. It is 

 obvious that the main axiom of forestry not to remove 

 annually from a wood more than that wood can annually 

 produce cannot with certainty be adhered to unless it is 



