122 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



but this is outweighed by the seasoning of the 

 timber and the growth of the young crop ; for 

 the overshadowing by the dead stems is prac- 

 tically next to imperceptible. 



This system seems worthy of a trial in Britain, 

 because it has the additional advantage of not 

 rendering sale of the timber necessary immedi- 

 ately after barking. The barked trees could 

 remain standing till a suitable purchaser bought 

 them, or till it was most convenient to fell and 

 log them for sale ; and the longer they stood the 

 better would they season, and the more should 

 their wood rise in valuta 



Seasoning thus on the stool in the open air 

 would also be much more thorough and more 

 rapidly effected if the method of ringing or 

 'girdling,' which obtains in Burma with re- 

 gard to teak trees, to season them and render 

 them floatable, were at the same time adopted. 

 This consists in cutting into the stem all round 

 the trunk at the felling height, so that a ring of 

 sapwood is entirely removed and the cut enters 

 clean into the heartwood. The cleaner and deeper 

 this wedge-shaped incision is made into the heart- 

 wood, the more rapid and the more thorough is 



