Section 5. Composition and condition of the crop. 



6. The previous working-plan goes into this in great detail giving 

 eight different types. For the purposes of this plan it will be sufficient to 

 distinguish only four types which merge into one another and are found 

 in ma'ny places inextricably combined. These are (a) Sal, (b) Mixed (dry) 

 (c) Evergreen (d) Savannah. The main changes which have taken place 

 have been the spreading of sal, mixed and evergreen forests into the 

 savannah and the partial retrogression of the sal forest. This has changed 

 the appearance of the forests considerably in certain parts. 



7. Besides this, owing to the past method of working, some 3,594 acres 

 have been converted from High Sal forests to Coppice with Standards, (see 

 Appendix IV.) Of this area 896 acres was worked over before 1896-97. Had 

 the prescriptions of the plan been fully worked up to, an area of 5,439 acres 

 of sal forest would have now become Coppice with Standards; owing to want of 

 demand for firewood, however, an area of 1,845 acres escaped being exploited. 



8. The condition of the area worked over under Coppice with Standards 



varies according to the age of the coupe. In the first two 

 "areai? 01 ^ 10 or three years after felling, the coppice shoots hold their 

 own fairly well, but by the 4th year the dense mass of creepers which make 

 their appearance as soon as light is let into the forest overtop and smother 

 all coppice shoots. Coppice shoots of sal get bent by the weight of the creep- 

 ers above them and appear to lose their vitality. In the 6th year coppice 

 shoots and seedlings of other species, such as malota, have overtopped the 

 sal coppice shoots and seedlings which, except in favourable localities}, 

 appear as half dead, suppressed saplings in the 10th year, and by the 12th 

 year have almost disappeared, the forest having become a dense thicket of 

 creepers and poles, 18" to 24" in girth and some 30' high, with a few 

 standards of sal scattered here and there. The first coppice felling took 

 place in 1892-93, 



9. This tendency is shown in a marked degree by a recounting in 

 C eu e f "rest * sai int tne Dumchi sal area (244 acres) made after an 



interval of 10 years had elapsed after the first counting. 



The following shows the result : 



This shows that, though there was ample room for an increased produc- 

 tion of sal, large number of seedlings and small poles have disappeared, and 

 there must have been very few replacements. This area has been closed to the 

 felling of sal, and only dry trees have been removed. 



