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have been taken. The percentage of timber to be removed before the reduced rates can 

 come into operation should be decided in each case, and beforehand, by the forest officer 

 who revises the work of the guard ; it may vary from four-fifths to one-half, but should 

 the experience derived in working the section show that the proportion adopted was too 

 high, it may be modified by the Conservator. The timber removed under reduced rates 

 would consist principally of : (a) crooked or short trees not capable of yielding long 

 timber ; (6) twisted trees ; (c) trees containing only a small proportion of sound wood ; 

 (ct) trees overestimated in the marking ; (e) trees so situated as to cause exceptionally 

 increased cost of extraction. 



When this second return is squeezed out of the forest, a residuum will be left, con- 

 sisting of trees not removable at a profit. In some cases it would be well to fell a few 

 of these, in order to disencumber the reserved stock, if it can be done at a small cost. 



FOREST REGULATIONS. A licensing system must needs be adopted, where, as in 

 South Africa, the trade in native timber is too small to permit of the disposal of all the 

 trees marked in a section, to tenderers, or by contract or auction. One of the drawbacks 

 of such a system is the facility with which it lends itself to fraud, unless it is carried in a 

 careful and systematic manner. Practical details are of much importance in this respect ; 

 they are usually embodied in forest regulations, dealing with minor points such as I shall 

 proceed to indicate. The holder of a license, who contravenes such regulations, should 

 be liable to forfeiture of his license and of the wood not previously removed. This is a 

 sufficient provision for their enforcement, if all the more serious offences are amenable to 

 special forest legislation. 



PRODUCTION OF LICENSE. No woodcutting party should be allowed into the forest 

 without a license, and, before any tree can be felled, the license should be presented to 

 the forest guard, unless it has been issued by him. 



The woodcutter or his deputy should produce his license, if called upon, at the forest, 

 by a forest officer or any other person specially authorised thereto under the Forest Law f 

 or when he requires manufactured wood to be stamped. If the license has been mislaid, 

 a duplicate, on which the quantity of wood already stamped is stated, could be obtained 

 from the issuer. 



FELLING AND REMOVING TIMBER. The trees should be cut close to the ground. Not 

 only is a saving of timber effected, but in the case of Stinkwood, Assagai, and other 

 species that are regenerated freely by shoots or suckers, this becomes an essential con- 

 dition for the production of healthy coppice-shoots capable of taking the place of the trees 

 cut down. 



There is no need to extract the crowns of trees felled in the sections ; it would be 

 quite sufficient to reduce them with the axe, because they do not impede the growth of 

 young plants, become converted into humus, and their presence affords protection from 

 cattle. 



