CHAPTER IV 



IMPROVEMENT-FELLINGS 



The name of "Improvement-fellings" has been devised 

 by foresters in India for the operations which are carried 

 out in the ruined or badly damaged forests in order to 

 lead them back into a more healthy condition, and to 

 enable them to be worked on proper sylviculture! lines. 



It is the case, unfortunately, that a very large 

 proportion of the tropical forests, when they are taken 

 under forest management, show signs of having suf- 

 fered from one cause or another, and that it is difficult 

 to apply to them any of the recognised sylvicultural 

 systems. The causes of this deterioration are various ; 

 the principal ones probably are fires, shifting cultivation, 

 grazing, and unrestricted fellings. In countries which 

 are so subject to sudden climatic changes as are those 

 under the Tropics there are a number of other factors, 

 such as cyclones or tornadoes, floods, extreme drought, 

 and even, in the highlands, frosts, which contribute 

 largely to the damage done. 



The result is that when a forest is taken under 

 forest management its crop is most irregular, the trees 

 too dense here and too thin there, valuable species 

 dominated or suppressed by inferior species or by 

 unsound trees, the poles and saplings misshapen and 

 unsound from results of fires and grazing, the leaf- 

 canopy interrupted by frequent glades or blanks, and 

 the soil exposed or hardened by the tramp of cattle. 



In such conditions it is impossible to apply any of 



248 



