122 PRACTICAL FOREST MANAGEMENT. 



under the shade of miscellaneous undergrowth than beneath the 

 overwood of sal, and it is commonly found that in this division 

 (Haldwani) that regeneration is more profuse in the forests 

 unprotected from fire (but immune from cattle) than in fire 

 protected areas. The writer, therefore, prescribes the burning of 

 the leaf layer in unregenerated areas. It will be an inexpensive 

 and easy operation and is likely to be very successful. No harm 

 will result, as throughout the first periodic block there are no 

 areas of high grasses. Nor will the soil suffer injury, as the 

 burning will not be annual but only carried out when a good seed 

 year has occurred. In unregenerated areas the leaf layer will be 

 burnt in the interval between the completion of leaf-fall and the 

 beginning of seed-fall. 



' The subsequent development of seedlings is as little under- 

 stood as the conditions which favour their production. Profuse 

 regeneration may follow a seedling year but die within a few months 

 of germination. The excessive moisture which is usually asso- 

 ciated with the earliest life of seedlings is commonly supposed to 

 be the chief cause of mortality. But there are certainly instances 

 in which regeneration survived the rainy season only to die in 

 the following cold weather. No purpose is served by theorising 

 on this seedling mortality, the causes of which are not yet under- 

 stood. Of the seedlings that survive, the vast majority pass 

 through an ' establishment period ' before they show any real 

 progress. The shoot displays no continual height growth, while 

 the root continues to thicken until a vigorous shoot is produced 

 which grows on into a sapling. Many theories have been 

 advanced to explain this phenomenon. The writer has carefully 

 examined many hundreds of seedlings growing under all condi- 

 tions. Water level may be a factor in the length of the establish- 

 ment period but it is probably not important, since the seedlings 

 growing along the banks of perennial streams, seem to die back 

 for as many years as seedlings on plateaux in which the water 

 level is deep. 



