12 



PART II. 

 Proposals for future working. 



33. The objects of management will be to obtain the highest annual 

 revenue possible consistent with the supply of timber and firewood to Lahore 

 and other markets in the vicinity. With this object it is necessary to abandon 

 the rotation of 15 years under which the plantation has been nominally worked 

 hitherto, and it is proposed to substitute one of 20 years. Fortunately at the 

 present time owing to the fellings being in arrears the crops now being felled 

 are considerably older than 15 years, so that the change can be made at once 

 without reducing the yield. 



34 The following figures show that a rotation of 20 years is more pro- 

 fitable than one of 15 years : An area of 

 464-3 acres felled at the age of 14, 15 and 16 



years, the areas of 14 and 16 years old crop being equal to one another, yielded 

 on the average 2,678 culiic feet stacked of thick and 749 cubic feet stacked of 

 thin firewood per acre. An area of 596 acres felled at the age of 19, 20 and 

 21 years, the areas of 19 and 21 years old crop being equal to one another, 

 yielded 4,238 cubic feet stacked of thick and 1,323 cubic feet stacked of thin 

 firewood per acre. To obtain a fair and representative figure the areas for 

 which the yields have been taken in the above calculation are situated in 9 

 compartments in the case of the 14, 15 and 16 years old crops and 11 compart- 

 ments in the case of the 19, 20 and 21 years old crops. They were all in com- 

 partments felled for the second time. The yield of timber from standards does 

 not affect the consideration of the rotation of the coppice as it is of little 

 importance whether standards are to be, grown for 3 rotations of 15 years or for 

 2 rotations of 20 years. The thin wood is also best left out of account as the 

 figures for it represent the amount which was actually extracted and utilized 

 rather than the maximum amount which could be collected. Taking the area 

 of the plantation at 9,000 acres with a 15 years rotation the annual coupe is 

 600 acres, yielding 2,678 cubfc feet stacked of thick wood per acre = 1.606,800 

 cubic feet stacked. With a 20 years rotation the annual coupe is 450 acres, 

 yielding 4,238 cubic feet stacked of thick wood per acre = 1,907,100 cubic feet 

 stacked. Apart from the fact that 20 years old mulberry wood is worth more 

 than 15 years old mulberry wood (at present about Us. 8 and Us. 6 per hundred 

 cubic feet stacked respectively ) 5> the actual outturn with a 20 years rotation 

 being greater, the 450 acre coupe is worth more than the 600 acre coupe. 

 Further, if the 15 years rotation were adhered to almost all the mulberry 

 timber which is now produced and which is a very important source of revenue 

 would be lost. 



Since a 20 years rotation pays so much better than a 15 years one the 

 obvious question to ask is " why stop at 20 years " ? Would not a rotation of 

 25 or even 30 years pay better still ? To answer this question it is necessary 

 to have figures of yields of crops 25 30 years old, which are not available at 

 present. Any one who saw the crops now being felled at 22-23 years old 

 would admit that they should have been felled some time ago as crops of this 

 age tend to open out very much and there is a constant loss of Valuable timber 

 from windfalls. It is not uncommon to find a mulberry undergrowth coming 

 up owing to the thinning out of the cover, and it seems probable that if in 

 Changa Manga a rotation of 30 years were adopted the crops would open out 

 very nmch and regenerate themselves naturally before the fellings came round, 

 so that a 30 years old crop would look more like one 5 years old in which an 

 excessive number of standards had been left. 



35. A similar effect to increasing the rotation but probably without 



the disadvantage of making the crop very open 

 can be produced by periodic thinnings, and these 



will in future be introduced. The effect of regular thinnings on the rotation is 

 not easy to foresee and it is quite possible that the rotation could profitably be 

 reduced to 18 or 17 years with periodic thinnings. The effect of the thinnings 

 on the crop will be to increase the quantity and improve the quality of the 



