REGENERATION' BY STOOL-SHOOTS. 383 



add tnat tools should at all times be sharp enough to cut one's 

 finger, and for this reason they should never he struck Into the 

 earth, and a grind- or whet-stone should invariably accompany the 

 workmen out in the forest. 



THE ACTL'AL CUTTING. The felling of the tree and the shaping 

 of the stool should never, if it can be helped, be two distinct opera- 

 tions, hut every stroke of the axe, hatchet or bill-hook intended 

 for bringing down the tree, should also contribute towards shaping 

 the stool, and vice versa. This recommendation is especially im- 

 portant in India, where every woodcutter, unless specially restrain- 

 ed, will first fell the tree high above the ground, and only then 

 think of cutting back the stump and shaping the stool, so, that if the 

 stem is at all thick, he takes at least thrice as much time as he 

 would do if he combined both objects in a single operation. Cutting 

 as low as is required far coppice will be found a little irksome at 

 the commencement, but untrained men* will soon get into the way 

 of working properly, and an ordinarily skilful man will accomplish 

 the double work almost as quickly as if ho had nothing more to do 

 than to merely fell the tree. 



In finally trimming off any imevenness or irregularity in the 

 stool, the blows should always be- delivered from outside inwards, 

 incline,! at an angle of 10-15 degrees with the circumference ; 

 otherwise either the stool will split or the- work progress slowly and 

 the tool he quickly blunted- 



In whatever way the work is done, every endeavour should be 

 made not to split the stool or to separate the- burk from the wood. 

 A split stool dries up quickly and decays more rapidly than a 

 whole one, and wherever the bark separates from the wood, the 

 dormant buds get broken off or killed, rain and dew collect 

 in the crevices and decomposition progresses rapidly downwards 

 along the cambium. To minimise the shaking of the roots, small 

 stems should be cut through in as few sharp blows as possible, and 

 to prevent their being split, they should be support ;d, on the side 

 opposite to that on which the blows are delivered, with a portable 

 block of wood pressed up against them. For this purpose a tool 

 shaped something like a tent mallet (Fig. 121) will be found very 

 convenient. 



Stools felled flush with the ground should lie at once covere 1 

 up by drawing the soil and dead leaves over them. This protects 

 them from the sun and, to a certain extent, also from dec nnposi- 

 tiou. When the stools are cut inside the ground or completely 



