96 PRACTICAL FOREST MANAGEMENT. 



time. The yield of timber from standards does not affect the 

 consideration of the rotation of the coppice as it is of little 

 importance whether standards are to be grown for 3 rotations of 

 15 years or for 2 rotations of 20 years. The thin wood is also 

 best left out of account as the figures for it represent the amount 

 which was actually extracted and utilised rather than the maxi- 

 mum amount which could be collected. Taking the area of the 

 plantation at 9,000 acres with a 15 years' rotation the annual 

 coupe is 600 acres, yielding 2,678 cubic feet stacked of thick wood 

 per acre =1,606,800 cubic feet stacked. With a 20 years' rotation 

 the annual coupe is 450 acres, yielding 4,238 cubic feet stacked of 

 thick wood per acre =1,907,100 cubic feet stacked. Apart from 

 the fact that 20 years old mulberry wood is worth more than 

 15 years' old mulberry wood (at present about Us. 8 and Us. 6 per 

 hundred cubic feet stacked respectively), the actual outturn with 

 a 20 years' rotation being greater, the 450 acre coupe is worth 

 more than the 600 acre coupe. Further, if the 15 years' rotation 

 were adhered to almost all the mulberry timber which is now 

 produced and which is a very important source of revenue would 

 be lost. 



" Since a 20 years' rotation pays so much better than a 15 

 years' one the obvious question to ask is " why stop at 20 years " ? 

 Would not a rotation of 25 or even 30 years pay better still ? To 

 answer this question it is necessary to have figures of yields of 

 crops 25 to 30 years' old, which are not available at present. Any 

 one who saw the crops now being felled at 22-23 years' old would 

 admit that they should have been felled some time ago as crops 

 of this age tend to open out very much and there is a constant 

 loss of valuable timber from windfalls. It is not uncommon to 

 find a mulberry undergrowth coming up owing to the thinning 

 out of the cover, and it seems probable that if in Changa Manga 

 a rotation of 30 years were adopted the crops would open out very 

 much and regenerate themselves naturally before the fellings came 

 round, so that a 30 years' old crop would look more like one 



