PREPARATORY FELLINGS IN TNE UNIFORM METHOD. 335 



(ii) A sufficient number of individuals of every desirable 

 species present should, as far as it is feasible, be left standing to 

 assure its reproduction in the required proportion in the future 

 crop. This proportion is not necessarily the same as what should 

 exist at the end of the rotation, when obviously those possessing 

 the highest market value should be most largely represented ; but 

 provided the crop contains a sufficient number of seedlings of those 

 species to enable them to secure the desired majority afterwards, 

 the remaining seedlings should belong preferentially to those 

 species which are most valuable from a purely cultural point of 

 view. Of course one and the same species may both command 

 the highest market value and lend itself to the most profitable 

 growth of the crop, as, for instance, sal compared with nearly all 

 its possible companions, and deodar compared with the firs and blue 

 pine. In the case of teak, its soil-improving companions should 

 form the majority of the young seedling crop, so long as there is 

 enough of it present to give as many stems as possible, up to about 

 80 per acre, when the crop becomes ripe for the axe. 



(iii) Subject to principle (ii), as many stems as possible of the 

 more valuable species should be preserved, each in proportion to 

 its selling price and the demand for it. 



(iv) Of two equally promising individuals of the same species, 

 that one should be preserved which belongs to the predominant 

 age or size-class, unless the difference between them is very slight, 

 in which case the larger of the two will of course be kept. 



(v) All trees with low spreading crowns should, if possible, be 

 got rid of. But if their removal creates too large a gap to close 

 up within a reasonable period, or if the neighbouring trees are too 

 young or too little developed to become fertile in proper time, 

 they must be spared, the undue spread and lowness of their crowns 

 being corrected by judicious lopping and pruning. With one and 

 the same density of growth, the ground is better lit in proportion 

 to the distance of the mass of foliage above it. A low crown 

 generally means also a deep crown, and a high crown one that 

 possesses little depth and lets abundant light filter in through it. 

 Moreover, a deep and spreading crown has, in the soil below, its 

 counterpart in a deep and spreading mass of roots, which, under 

 the most favourable circumstances, must oppose the growth and 

 establishment of seedlings within the area they occupy. 



(vi) The taller the crop and the more raised above the ground 

 the leaf-canopy, the smaller must be the gaps made ; and vice 

 versa. The reason is evident from what has just been said under (v) 



