870 NATURAL REGENERATION RY SEED. 



quired at any time need be felled, whereas the other methods, which 

 include preparatory and seed-fellings, are totally impracticable in 

 the presence of a widely fluctuating market. This extreme elas- 

 ticity of jardinage makes it of special value to us in India with its 

 ruined inaccessible forests and the absence of a market for any but 

 a few species of timber trees, so that the employment of any other 

 method of natural regeneration by seed is, in the majority of cases, 

 entirely excluded, at least for the present. 



Other important advantages afforded by jardinage are 



(i) Constant maintenance of the leaf-canopy in as full a condi- 

 tion as the prevailing conditions alloiv. Hence jardinage is the 

 best, and often the only method to employ in forests or belts of 

 forest kept up for the protection of slopes, for shelter against 

 storms, cold and hot winds, &c., and in forests exposed to climatic 

 extremes, as at high altitudes, on the crests of ridges, in the midst 

 or on the borders of deserts, &c., where an open growth would be 

 fatal to the very existence of the forest as forest. In all such 

 forests trees belonging to class (a) alone will, as a rale, be taken 

 out. 



(ii) Constant maintenance and improvement of the soil. This is 

 a consequence of (i). Whence the special applicability of jardinage 

 in forests growing on very rocky, stony, shallow or dry soils. 



(iii) Continued greater or less freedom of the soil from invasive 

 weeds and brushwood. This is also a consequence of (i) and renders 

 reproduction easy and reduces the risk and destructiveness of 

 forest fires. 



(iv) Certainty of regeneration. Advantages (i), (ii) and (iii) all 

 contribute to this end, which is further assured by the time for 

 regeneration being unlimited and by the fact that the leaf-canopy 

 is interrupted only after, never before, young growth has made its 

 appearance. 



(v) The little skill and experience required in the application of 

 the method. The working of the forest may be reduced almost to 

 mere rule of thumb. Thus the entire working of a forest may 

 often be expressed in a short formula like the following : " In 

 each coupe cut out 500 teak trees 6 feet and upwards in girth, 

 those nearest their decline being preferred." If an intensive form 

 of jardinage can be applied, the rule will prescribe the number to 

 be cut in each diameter-class and it may also fix the respective pro- 

 portions of the various species in each class. And so on. The 

 advantage here considered is of immense importance in a backward 

 country like India, where for many years to come the net revenue 



