366 NATURAL REGENERATION BY SEED. 



plished. It may vary from 100 to several hundred feet, but 

 the forest is wanting in uniformity and the fellings assume some- 

 what of the irregular character that characterises them in the 

 group method, it ought generally not to exceed the height of the 

 crop through which the strip runs. 



If any dangerous wind blows, the strips will run at right angles 

 to it and, beginning from the further end of the forest, will succeed 

 one another in the opposite direction. Otherwise they will be 

 so aligned, as to take in the several parts of the forest as nearly as 

 possible in the order of the urgency with which their regeneration 

 is demanded. If a hill is situated inside the forest, this order will 

 generally be secured by following more or less closely contour 

 lines (Fig. 117). The work of distribution will often be facilitated 

 by adopting two or more series of successive strips as shown in 

 Fig. 118, a procedure that indeed becomes obligatory when the 

 forest is so narrow or so large that a single strip could not include 

 the aggregate area of one year's fellings. These separate series of 

 strips, besides satisfying cultural exigencies, should be so located as 

 to serve separate markets and possess separate export lines, thereby 

 securing easier distribution of the produce and higher selling rates. 

 VALUE AND EMPLOYMENT OF THE METHOD. This method enjoys 

 all the advantages of the uniform method, while, owing to its 

 always keeping the ground well covered, it prevents the risks 

 which, in that method, necessarily accompany failure in regenera- 

 tion. It can also be adopted in storm-beaten localities where the 

 uniform method would result in wind-falls on a gigantic scale. In 

 these two respects, and in that it can be adapted to the regenera- 

 tion of even irregular forests by narrowing the strips and utilising 

 every patch of advance growth, it resembles the group method, to 

 which it is superior in that the work is concentrated within a well- 

 defined narrow strip of ground, which, if level enough, would itself 

 form the most advantage ous export line. It is particularly suitable 

 for forests in which a more or less complete advance growth comes 

 up, without any special seeking, during or soon after the middle 

 age of the crop (as in most forests of sal, Pterocarpus Mar&up'mm-, 

 Ilardwickia binata, Terminalia tomentosa, 4"<?.) ; in which case a 

 single clear after-felling will often be all that will be required. 

 Lastly, the strip method requires much less skill and care, and 

 not more labour, than the uniform method. Its adoption, however, 

 like that of the uniform method, presupposes a demand for all or 

 most of the produce the forest can yield, as it is not so elastic as 

 the group method. 



