i 



724 XLVI. VERBENACEAE 



are thrown two or three spadefuls of earth. According to Mr. Copleston/ the 

 soil round the plants is not loosened, and the two main objects of the mulch 

 are (1) to keep the soil round the plants free from weeds, for which purpose 

 a six-inch layer of grass and leaves, with a very little soil to keep them in their 

 place, is sufficient to keep the ground clean for a whole year ; (2) to secure 

 the loosening and aeration of the soil by worms and insects, for after the 

 mulch has been down a month in the monsoon a mass of worm-casts and 

 much tunnelling by insects may be found under it. The class of forest to which 

 this system of mulching is applied is thinly stocked pole forest of teak on dry, 

 hard, stony ground ; the rainfall is only about 30 in. The results are remark- 

 ably good, for in coupes where formerly no seedlings survived it is possible 

 to establish from 200 to 300 per acre at a cost of between Rs. 3 and Rs. 4 per 

 acre. This method of tending natural seedlings has recently been tried in the 

 Melghat, Berar ; in open* places the results were good, but where there was 

 any drip from overhanging trees the seedlings failed to survive. 



(iv) Weed-growth. The intolerance of teak seedlings to suppression b}- 

 weeds has already been alluded to under ' the seedling ' ; weed-groA\iih is one of 

 the most serious obstacles to the establishment of natural reproduction, which 

 in areas where weeds are prevalent can be secured in quantity only by means 

 of systematic weedings commenced in the first rainy season and continued 

 regularly until the plants are free from the risk of suppression. 



(v) Grazing. If not heavy, grazing appears to favour the reproduction of 

 teak rather than otherwise, by keeping down, heavy grass and undergrowi-h. 

 Experiments were carried out in 1914 in the Wardha district. Central Provinces, 

 in which cattle were admitted into coppice coupes which had been closed to 

 grazing for three years after felling. This resulted in little or no injury to the 

 teak coppice or seedlings, but one year's grazing stimulated such a rank growth 

 of Cassia Tora and Indigofera glandulosa as to threaten further teak repro- 

 duction. 



(vi) Fire. In the drier types of teak forest, such as those met with 

 throughout a considerable part of the Indian Peninsula, fire is admitted to 

 have an adverse influence on the establishment of teak reproduction, which is 

 greatly assisted by fire-protection. In many of the moister types of forest, on 

 the other hand, it has now been proved beyond doubt that indiscriminate fire- 

 protection exercises an adverse influence on teak reproduction by encouraging 

 the growth of inferior species, bamboos, and dense undergrowth at the expense 

 of the more fire-resisting and light-demanding teak. We are not concerned 

 here with the question of damage done by fire to the standing crop, or to the 

 effect it is sometimes held to have in impoverishing the soil ; nor are we 

 concerned with the effect of fire-protection on the drier types of forest, but 

 only with its effect on the moister types of teak-bearing forest constituting 

 most of the best teak areas in Burma and along the Western Ghats. In the 

 latter region the adverse effects of continued fire-protection in the moister 

 types of teak forest have been noticed for some years past, but the matter 

 has received more attention in Burma than elsewhere owing to the large extent 

 and the great importance of the moister types of forest, where the teak reaches 

 its best development. 



1 Ind. Forester, xlv (1919), p. 82. 



