60 



iraste wood on some spots. I ain of opinion that all the forests which it is proposed to 

 open should be worked by jardinage for a number of years, till a young growth ha& 

 re-established itself; the method could then, whenever there are no special reasons for main- 

 taining jardinage, be gradually changed to one of thinnings, simplified in some respects,. 

 by effecting the appropriate cultural operations needed to convert an irregular high forest 

 into one of graduated age-classes. In the meantime I shall recommend an application of 

 jardinage to the Natal forests in the manner following : 



1. The forests having been surveyed, are grouped into Series small enough to be 

 conveniently supervised by one Forest Guard as they become worked ; the extent ranging 

 from 4,000 acres downwards, according to the distances between the individual forests. 



2. Those Series in which it cannot be expected that working would cover the cost 

 of the extra supervision that would be needed should be closed, and remain closed till 

 they can be profitably worked. This applies to Series formerly overworked and laid 

 waste, such as the majority of the Drakensberg forests. 



3. Bach Series which it is decided to work is divided into twenty sections, the area 

 of each being made slightly larger or smaller than the average, according to the 

 density of the forest. The sections should be preferably limited by natural boundaries. 



4. Following a regular order, each section is successively worked during the 

 corresponding year, and the whole forest is gone over in twenty years. 



5. Before fellings can be commenced, the quantity of standing stock in each section 

 is estimated, and one-fifth of the volume is to constitute the limit of the fellings 

 allowable. The yield thus reckoned will be above the annual increment if the forest 

 is overstocked, or below it if the forest is poor, and will tend to bring the forest to 

 a normal condition. 



6. In selecting the trees to be marked for felling each year, dry trees, windfalls,, 

 waste logs, fungus-bearing trees,* and trees with badly broken crowns should be first 

 taken. The complement will be yielded by mature trees ; in the case of Yellowwood and 

 Stinkwood by trees over 24 inches in diameter at three feet from the ground, and 

 for other species by trees not less than 18 inches in diameter. The most mature trees 

 ought to be selected first, and care should be taken to spread the fellings judiciously 

 over the whole section, so as to avoid the clearing of many trees on one spot, and the 

 consequent formation of injurious gaps in the canopy of the forest. Where the forest is 

 tolerably regular, it may become possible to limit the fellings to a certain number of 

 trees, instead of a number of cubic feet. The work would thereby be simplified, and fraud 

 rendered more difficult. 



* Trees once attacked by fuiigi, the fructification of which appears on the surface, are never known to 

 recover. An interesting account of some of the researches of Hartig, Ebermayer, Thuemen, and Rostob, on 

 the subject of diseases of forest trees is given in Prof. Marshall Ward's Timber and some of its diseatts,. 

 London, 1889. 



