726 XLVI. VERBENACEAE 



teak in the protected plot, had conditions for its establishment been favour- 

 able. The enumerations revealed the following number of teak poles, saplings, 

 and seedlings in each plot : 



Tectona grandis : enumeration of natural young teak in fire-protected and 



unprotected plots, Tharrawaddy. 



Number calculated for 50 acres 

 in each case. 



Fire-prote 



Class. 



I. Poles 1 ft. to 2 ft. in \ (a) Sound 



girth. ( (b) Unsoimd and dead 



n. Poles and saplings un- \ (a) Sound 



der 1 ft. in girth ^ i (b) Unsound and dead 



III. Seedlings ....... 



These figures reveal the fact that although the larger poles, which had 

 established themselves prior to the days of fire-protection, were more numerous 

 in the protected than in the unprotected plot, the seedlings many being 

 young plants which had been burnt back for some years and were only establish- 

 ing themselves b}^ degrees were ten times as numerous in the unprotected 

 as in the protected plot. A striking fact, which was wholly unexpected, was 

 the large proportion of unsound and dead saplings and poles in the protected 

 as compared with the unprotected plot. This was due to suppression by the 

 bamboos ; in the unprotected plot weakly stems had to a large extent been 

 killed back by fire and replaced by strong regrowth. In the protected plot the 

 proportion of poles killed outright by suppression amounted to about 75 per 

 cent, of the total number of suppressed and dead stems, and the remainder 

 were so badly suppressed that there was no hope of their ever recovering. In 

 the unprotected plot the sound poles were vigorous, bore no sign of fire damage, 

 and had little to fear from future suppression, the bamboo clumps having been 

 kept well apart by the annual burning ; the unsound and dead poles apjDeared 

 to have suffered not from fire but from suppression in places where the bamboo 

 growth was particularly luxuriant. 



These enumerations give some idea of the holocaust of young teak plants 

 which takes place in typical moist mixed teak forest in Burma as a result of 

 prolonged fire-protection. Unwilling to accept the figures as conclusive, 

 I appealed at the time for further evidence as to the effects of fire-protection 

 in different localities, and such evidence has been forthcoming. In 1907 

 Mr. F. Beadon Bryant recorded the results of enumerations made in 1906 in 

 various working plan sample plots, aggregating 275 acres, in the Tharrawaddy 

 forests. These plots had previously been enumerated when the working plans 

 were prepared twenty-one j^ears before ; some of them had meanwhile been 

 fire-protected for many years, others had been protected for a few years, and one 

 had not been protected at all. Mr. Beadon Bryant's results confirmed those 

 yielded l)y my enumerations, namely that prolonged fire-protection results 

 in a marked decrease in the number of young teak trees in forests of the moist 

 mixed type. 



Similar ro-enumerations have since been carried out in various parts of 

 Burma, and the results have been recorded mainly in forest administration 



