630 FOREST LITTER. 



The disposal of litter by area, where everyone may take as 

 much as he can collect, is least advisable ; it {li^ives too great 

 advantage to farmers with good teams and numerous labourers 

 over needy peasants, and the surface of the ground is usually 

 scraped so clean of litter, that it is completely deprived for a 

 long time of its humus. In order to protect the forest from 

 such a calamity, large areas are opened at once, so that it is 

 impossible to remove all the litter on them within the prescribed 

 time. Even when a stipulated number of cart-loads, barrow- 

 loads, &c. is prescribed, the ground is not protected from exces- 

 sive removal of litter, for the permit-holders always endeavour to 

 collect their litter from off the smallest possible area, so as to 

 reduce the labour of collecting it. 



Removal by volume in heaps is therefore preferable to the 

 former method, and does less injury to the forest. The litter is 

 then brought alongside the roads and piled in heaps as rect- 

 angular as possible, these are counted and delivered in a regular 

 manner to the permit-holders. It is a pity, that this regular 

 method of distribution, which prevails for all other classes of 

 forest produce, is not the rule for litter where sylvicultural 

 requirements are so urgent. The fact that the collectors are 

 right-holders is no obstacle to the enforcement of this system. 



(b) Price of litter. — Strictly speaking, the price of litter should 

 depend on the loss of wood-increment caused by its removal ; 

 for, from a sylvicultural point of view, litter is as valuable as the 

 additional volume of wood which would grow on an area, were the 

 litter allowed to remain. Since, however, the exact amount of 

 the loss of wood for any locality can be determined only by long 

 repeated observations, and in many cases is non-ascertainable 

 as a rule, this method of valuing litter must be abandoned.* 

 Another means for determining the royalty on litter is its 

 agricultural value, which should be the minimum royalty for 

 litter, and may be most correctly determined "by selling it by 

 public auction. The agricultural value of litter is, however, 

 also measured by the current price of straw, and the royalty 

 should unhesitatingly be placed at this figure, after deducting 

 the cost of collection and removal of the litter. 



* Vido p. 613, where Dr. Rleuel's observations sire given, wliich aironl the 

 most correct basis for valuing litter. 



