TECTONA 751 



sufficient natural reproduction present to warrant their execution, and to 

 areas from which extraction is easy. Within the area operated over, places 

 containing no teak, but which are suitable for its growth, are regenerated 

 artificially by the taungya system. These cultural operations, combined with 

 artificial reproduction within the areas operated over, are interesting as show- 

 ing an attempt to regenerate definite areas, and may be regarded as a transition 

 stage towards the adoption of a regular system of concentrated regeneration 

 tending towards the creation of even-aged crops. 



These ' Y ' improvement felhngs have now been in operation in Burma 

 for some years, and the experience gained so far indicates that they can rarely, 

 if ever, justify themselves financially if they are carried out in forest under 

 continuous fire-protection, and unless they are considered as a means towards 

 the complete regeneration of definite areas mth the aid of fire and in con- 

 junction with the complete removal of overhead cover in the manner described 

 below ; even so the taungya system of regeneration has proved to be cheaper 

 and more efficient. It has been found that ' Y ' improvement fellings in fire- 

 protected forest may be the means of saving from suppression, at considerable 

 cost, saplings which are already established ; they do not result in the appear- 

 ance of new seedlings. In Tharrawaddy ' Y ' improvement fellings repeated 

 for four or five years have been found to cost Rs. 5 to Rs. 10 per acre for 

 weeding and cleaning only, without the clearing of overhead cover, which is 

 necessary for the proper development of the young growth, and in certain 

 cases they have cost as much as Rs, 21 to Rs. 37 per acre when repeated for 

 five years, with results quite incommensurate with the high cost and far less 

 successful than would have been attained at a lower cost by the aid of taungya 

 plantations. 



3. High forest systems with concentrated regeneration. Dutch East Indies. 

 The method of treatment of the teak forests in the Dutch East Indies has been 

 described in a note by Mr. R. C. Milward.^ The teak grows remarkably pure 

 on the chalky soil on which it is commonly found, and efforts are made to 

 encourage a mixture of other species, of which SchJeichera trijuga is considered 

 the most suitable, as it stands shade and keeps the soil in good condition. The 

 present method of treatment is by clear -felling in plots of between 25 and 

 50 acres, followed by natural reproduction by seed or coppice, which is supple- 

 mented by artificial reproduction. The rotation arrived at is 100 years on 

 good soils and 80 years on poor soils, the average diameter attained on the 

 former being 24 to 32 in. The trees are girdled two years before felling. Some- 

 times the coupe is burnt over before felling, in order to assist the germination 

 of the teak seed on the ground. Burning is in any case carried out after 

 extraction is completed, the refuse being piled up against the old stumps to 

 prevent the growth of coppice -shoots, which are not desired from these stumps. 

 All the smaller stumps are then coppiced. Only one good coppice-shoot is 

 left on each stool, the others being bent or half broken down a year or so after 

 coppicing, in order to cover the ground. The growth of grass which tends to 

 spring up on these large clear-felled areas is looked on as a disadvantage, and 

 hence, although this system is very successful and comparatively easy, the 

 Dutch foresters are on the look-out for some system which will prevent the 

 1 Note on the Forests of Java and Madoera of the Dutch East Indies, 1915. 



