120 THE MANAGEMENT OF WOODLANDS. 



factory network of roads, and then to form compartments of 

 convenient form and size according to the configuration, slope, 

 and aspect of the land to be planted. 



To be of normal condition each working-circle should have, 

 for the given rotation with which it is worked, a regular series of 

 age-classes on equal (i.e., equally productive) areas, with a normal 

 density of crop and a normal increment ; while the annual (or 

 periodic) falls should be so distributed as to lie in the proper 

 direction of the fall against wind. It is neither necessary nor 

 desirable that the annual or periodic falls should all lie con- 

 tiguous ; but the various groups formed of compartments be- 

 longing to the same working - circle should be as near each 

 other as is practicable, though this ideal condition can seldom 

 be attained in practice. 



The Size of a Working - Circle may vary greatly. The 

 higher the rotation, the larger must be the area to give con- 

 tinuously any fixed annual falls. 



, For example, say an owner wishes to cut 30 acres a-year, with a rota- 

 tion of 50 years, such a Conifer working-circle would need an area of 1500 

 acres ; but for a 60 years' rotation it would require 1800 acres. 



The Allocation of Annual Falls, and the Formation of 

 Felling Series. The total woodland area, having been divided 

 into compartments and the different kinds of crops grouped into 

 working - circles, and the crop measurements and estimates 

 having been made and tabulated (pp. 96-102, 126-132) and the 

 rotation fixed for each working-circle (thereby also fixing the 

 Annual Fall), one must then consider where the Annual Falls 

 should be located. All timber- crops, and especially Conifers, 

 are more or less exposed to damage from wind, frost, drought, 

 fire, vermin, game, insects, and fungus diseases. Hence it is 

 desirable to allocate the Annual Falls so as to give the best 

 security against what seems the greatest of these dangers ; and 

 as in all except young crops this is usually Wind, it is gener- 



