TECTONA 749 



practice it has been found quite impossible to carry out these improvement 

 fellings, as they are termed, on anything like the scale necessary to keep up 

 with the felling of teak trees, more especially since experience has shown that 

 in the case of young teak still in danger of suppression from weeds and bamboos 

 a single felling is insufficient, and cleanings require to be repeated, it may be 

 several times, before the young teak are out of danger. 



The note of alarm in respect of selection fellings in Burma was first sounded 

 after the adverse effects of continued fire-protection on the establishment of 

 teak reproduction came to be realized, and the conclusion was reached that 

 the combination of continued fire-protection with selection fellings would 

 ultimately lead to the extinction of teak over large areas of forest. The 

 argument that the abandonment of fire-protection will bring about the desired 

 result without any alteration in the method of treatment will not hold, for the 

 constant cutting out of the teak, without the possibility of carrying out improve- 

 ment fellings for the benefit of that species on anything like the scale necsssary, 

 is bound eventually to deplete the stock of teak. Again, if the reproduction 

 and establishment of the teak crop is to receive special encouragement, some 

 regard must be had for the requirements of the species in such matters as 

 exposure of the soil to the sun for purposes of germination, clearance of over- 

 head cover to afford abundance of light and to prevent mortality from drip, 

 and repeated weeding and cleaning. Finally, in most of the forests in which 

 teak has hitherto been worked under selection fellings, the proportion of that 

 species might be largely increased without undue risk of insect or fungus 

 attacks, and much fertile ground which is at present unproductive might be 

 utilized profitably. These considerations, apart from other advantages to be 

 secured from concentration of working, have within recent years led to a fairly 

 general consensus of opinion in Burma that the selection fellings hitherto in 

 vogue should be superseded, when and where circumstances will permit, by 

 some system of concentrated regeneration whereby the proportion of teak will 

 be not only ensured but increased. 



A brief account of the method of selection fellings hitherto practised in 

 teak forests may be of interest. In Burma it has long been the custom to 

 girdle teak trees three years before felling them ; this girdling, which consists 

 of ringing them completely down to the heart wood near the base of the tree, 

 is carried out primarily with the object of rendering the timber buoyant for 

 floating purposes, but it also serves to season the timber before felhng and 

 extraction. Trees are selected for girdling, provided they have attained the 

 prescribed minimum girth and are not required as seed-bearers, and are 

 felled at least three years later. The exploitable girth most commonly adopted 

 in Burma is 7 ft., or 6 ft. in dry types of forest, but in some cases it is fixed 

 at 7| or 8 ft. The age corresponding to a girth of 7 ft. is with very few excep- 

 tions estimated to be from 150 to 180 years. The exploitable age is divided 

 into a convenient number of periods, which actually vary from 20 to 40 years, 

 but are for the most part 30 years in duration ; the period is equivalent to 

 the cycle during which fellings go completely round the whole area. The 

 period is divided into sub -periods, which usually vary from four to eight years 

 each, and corresponding sub-periodic blocks are laid out on the ground. The 

 object of these blocks is to afford elasticity of working, in that girdling is not 



