APPENDIX. 



XXV 



in his work " Seeding and Planting": ' It is generally acknow- 

 ledged that the artificial stand as compared with the natural is 

 more quickly established and more uniform in distribution and 

 in the size of the individual tree. The growth during early life 

 is also more rapid. It appears however that it is more sensitive 

 to external harmful influences and that the trees begin to fail or 

 fall off in increment at an earlier age than in stands that have 

 arisen from natural seeding." 



" Where natural regeneration is possible the trend of present 

 day forestry in Europe is away from pure stands and artificial 

 regeneration towards mixed stands and natural seeding. In 

 Saxony where spruce has been planted in pure stands for succes- 

 sive generations a change is now being made towards natural 

 regeneration and mixed stands. It is believed by many that the 

 repetition of the same species rotation after rotation ultimately 

 exhausts the soil." 



Believing as we do as a general rule in the superiority of 

 natural over artificial means and considering that the best practice 

 is likely 'to be that which approaches most nearly to the regime of 

 nature we welcome this trend of modern thought, and consider 

 that there can be no question but that the art of silviculture finds 

 its highest expression in the successful natural regeneration of a 

 mixed crop. Nevertheless under certain circumstances clear 

 felling and planting is the only satisfactory system of management 

 giving the most valuable crops and the best financial results. 

 This is probably undoubtedly so in the teak forests of Burma 

 where this method combined with the cultivation of field crops has 

 given good results out of all proportion to those obtained by 

 natural means. A similar method of treatment has been adopted 

 for the Bengal sal forests which is described in detail in the Indian 

 Forest Record by Messrs. Grlasson, Russell, Shebbeare and Teague. 

 It is still open to doubt however whether it will be possible to 

 obtain the labour necessary to regenerate the normal area by these 

 means and it is probable that the regeneration of the Groalpara sal 



