ACACIA 441 



also found to be possible, if carefully done, in December and January. The 

 plantations were regularly irrigated. Flooding was found to be injurious to 

 the young trees ; the best method of irrigation proved to be by means of 

 small channels 1 ft. broad and 1 ft. deep running along the edges of the lines 

 of trees, the water being allowed to stand in the channels for several hours 

 and to percolate into the pits in which the trees were planted. Eleven acres 

 of the Pardihiagar plantation, on strongly saline land, had been planted in 

 this way eight or nine years previously, and some three-fourths of the area 

 was densely covered with Acacia arabica trees 20 ft. or more in height. 



SiLVicuLTURAL TREATMENT. Clear fclUngs. The system under which the 

 babul is most commonly worked is that of clear-felling in equal annual 

 coupes with artificial reproduction by sowing under one of the methods already 

 described. This system is the one in vogue in Berar, the Bombay Deccan, Sind, 

 and the United Provinces, the rotation ordinarily employed being 25 or 30 

 years in Berar, 30 or 40 years in the Bombay Deccan, and 30 years in Sind. 

 Actually the rotation in Berar is two years shorter, the first two years being 

 taken up with the cultivation of field crops prior to the sowing of babul. The 

 tendency in Berar is to reduce the rotation, as experience has shown that 

 after twenty years the babul is increasingly liable to fungus attacks. For 

 the supply of tanning bark in the United Provinces a rotation of sixteen years 

 is being adopted provisionally in afforestation schemes, though it is possible 

 that in ravine lands it may be necessary to lengthen the rotatioti to twenty 

 years. In Madras certain babul forests are worked under clear fellings, a few 

 standards being sometimes left to provide natural reproduction. 



In Sind the management is complicated by cyclones, drought, and erosion, 

 and by the necessity for irrigation. The first three factors upset the working 

 plans from time to time, necessitating the temporary suspension of regular 

 fellings to provide for the removal of dead and fallen material. Special 

 ' erosion fellings ' are carried out to clear threatened banks in advance of the 

 river's action, with the object not only of utilizing the trees but also of pre- 

 venting the formation in the river of snags which endanger navigation. Irriga- 

 tion schemes of considerable magnitude and complexity are also a special 

 feature of the management of the Sind babul forests. Reproduction is not 

 altogether artificial, a certain amount of natural reproduction being also 

 obtainable ; artificial sowings, therefore, though sometimes extensive, may be 

 regarded as supplementary. A rotation of thirty years has been adopted 

 primarily to meet the demand for fuel. The coupes are sold standing in 

 August each year ; the purchaser commences felling on October 1 or as 

 soon afterwards as the floods subside, and completes felling and extraction 

 by September 30 following, after which seed is broadcasted over the felled 

 area. 



Coppice-tvith-standards. In some parts of Madras, where babul of moderate 

 size coppices without difficulty, the system of coppice-with-standards is 

 followed ; the standards left are few in number, and the coppice is usually 

 worked on a rotation of fifteen to twenty years. 



Thinnings. Practice as regards the conduct of thinnings varies in different 

 localities. In Sind thinnings are not carried out. In Berar they are con- 

 sidered essential to the proper development of the crop. Regular thinnings 



