must of course be locally modified according to the varying character of the stock and the 

 requirements to be met. Thus, to take the two extreme ends of the scale, in sal forest, the 

 improvement fellings will tend to approximate towards the nature of a selection felling and 

 leave the crop as fall as practicable ; whereas in forests of miscellaneous species capable of 

 yielding only fuel and situated near good markets, or in those forests which are more specially 

 intended to supply fuel for the iron and lime industries, the fellings will be made with a freer 

 hand and assimilate in character to fellings for coppice with standards. Then, again, if the 

 demand is insignificant, the fellings will make hardly any impression on the stock and include 

 only the stems whose removal is most urgent. And so on. In a word, the nature of the 

 improvement felling will vary from forest to forest, from crop to crop, and even from group 

 to group, being, all circumstances considered, the best that can be devised for the particular 

 forest, crop or group to be treated. The treatment to adopt will ultimately be, in sal areas 

 jardinage, everywhere else coppice with standards. 



ARTICLE 3. The Exploitable Age,. 



89. Age as a factor influencing the exploitability of the trees must once for all be 

 abandoned in the working of these forests, where, seeing the great variability of the factors 

 of soil and situation and the irregular mixture of species, a given diameter of stem may be 

 produced in any time between n and thrice or even four times n years. So that whether 

 during the course of the present improvement fellings or afterwards, it will almost invariably 

 be its size and condition and its utility as a component part of the crop that will decide 

 whether a given tree shall be cut at once or spared until the next felling. After the preceding 

 remarks it is unnecessary to say that, so far at least as this working plan is concerned, there 

 is no connection between the terms "exploitable age" and " rotation," which latter term will 

 be used only in the sense of the period of return of the fellings. 



CHAPTER III. THE FELLINGS. 

 ARTICLE 1. The General Working Scheme ; the Rotation and Possibility. 



90. It is evident that systematic annual fellings can be carried out only where the 

 return will at least cover the cost of the operations. We must hence first of all separate the 

 forests into (1) those which can be regularly worked on a commercial basis, and (2) those on 

 which, either in consequence of the competition of private forests or of remoteness combined 

 with the miserable quality of the present stock (the result of past maltreatment), there is 

 little or no demand beyond what is necessary to meet the occasional wants of the sparse local 

 population in respect of firewood and of small poles for hut-building (nistar). 



91. The second class of areas will be considered first. If they are not at once brought 

 under the provisions of a working plan and are merely left alone as they have been hitherto, 

 they will certainly not improve, if they do not continue to deteriorate. They will hence be 

 formed into 5-coupe felling series (nistar series), each coupe being successively opened to 

 felling once in five years. As these areas consist of scattered blocks, each block will, as a 

 rule, constitute an independent series, so that no village will have to go an unreasonable 

 distance for its wood and grass and grazing. Every effort should be made to induce their 

 inhabitants to visit the open coupes for the wood they require for their domestic purposes, 

 and every opportunity yielded by any exceptional demand arising should be seized to get rid of 

 the degenerate or hurtful elements of the stock. The effect of the arrangement here prescribed 

 will be, even if the annual removals are insignificant, to subject the tracts in question to 

 continuous and systematic supervision which they do not now get. Thus the condition and 

 progress of the crops and all factors which in any way influence its growth will receive constant 

 attention, so that further deterioration will be rendered impossible and no opportunity of im- 

 proving it lost. The following are the areas to be worked in the manner just described : 



