90 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 



should contain a mixture in order to determine which are 

 the varieties that succeed best on the particular soil or soils 

 of your block. In planting out, it will be necessary to 

 remember that Casuarina succeeds best in a sandy soil, and 

 Acacia Arabica in black cotton, and do not plant the Casua- 

 rina in the clay, and the babool in the sand. 



On the Western Coast, at Mangalore, Casuarina does not 

 thrive well in sand, even when water is only 4' or 5' below 

 the surface, the growth being slow. 



Your block being subdivided into smaller blocks of, say, 

 fifty acres each, you can fell each over when they reach 

 maturity, which will depend on the nature of the species 

 growing in each block and the soil. As each compartment 

 is felled, it can be either treated as coppice or replanted, 

 the former system being the best for such kinds as shoot 

 freely from the stool, and the latter for those that do not. 



The average outturn per acre for a mixed plantation will 

 be about the same as in the case of the Australian wattle 

 for the first crop ; but the succeeding crops will bear no 

 comparison with the sucker crop of Australian acacia that 

 invariably succeeds a clean felling. 



The following balance sheet will show the result of work- 

 ing a block of 500 acres for 12 years and 6 months. 

 Assuming that you have had to pay such a price for the 

 land, that any little profit realised by the felling and disposal 

 of the timber or fuel already growing on it, just recoups 

 you for the outlay you have incurred. 



You may then expect to realise a profit, at the end of the 

 eighth year on the first of your plauted-up blocks ; and sup- 

 posing that you have felled and planted each block at inter- 

 vals of 6 months, each compartment will be fit to fell just 

 6 months later than the one last cleared, and the last will be 

 cleared 12 years and 6 months after the first was planted- 

 up. 



Of course the energetic fuel-planter may be more rapid 

 in his rotation*, and his returns will bo proportionate. 



