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CHAPTEK III. 



THE MAKING OF A WORKING-PLAN. 



LARGE woodland estates cannot be worked economically unless 

 under some definite Working-plan or Scheme of Management 

 showing the present condition of the woodlands and forecasting 

 as simply as possible the annual operations during the next ten 

 or twenty years (felling, thinning, planting, &c.). The data 

 required for such a working-plan are, in the first place, accurate 

 estimates of area, growing-stock, and increment or rate of growth ; 

 for it is only when these are known that the best method of 

 treatment and the most suitable rotation can be fixed. The 

 6-inch Ordnance Survey Maps are well suited to form the basis 

 for a working-plan ; but if there be no proper network of roads 

 and paths, and no sub-division into compartments, all of these 

 ought to be arranged for, in order to form the permanent frame- 

 work upon which the scheme of management must rest. The 

 most convenient size for compartments must vary according 

 to circumstances, but is usually about 20 to 30 acres in large 

 woodlands. A register has to be made out of all the crops, 

 arranged according to method of treatment, and giving age and 

 area (Age-Classes), and allotting them to working- circles accord- 

 ing to the method of treatment required, each working- circle 

 comprising one complete series of age- classes of all the woods 

 or crops subject to similar treatment e.g., Ornamental Woods, 

 Coppices, Highwoods ; and, of course, for highwoods worked by 



