NOTE ON BABUL. 



It may here be mentioned that the tree pollards well. Young Babul 

 .seedlings are fairly hardy, and it is never necessary to raise them in a 

 nursery. They suffer a good deal from frost in districts where this 

 occurs, but more often than not, put out fresh shoots. 



Another foe to young plantations is a Lamiid beetle, Ccelosterna 

 scabrata, Fab., commonly known as the Babul root-boring longicorn. 

 The Forest Zoologist states that this is a pest of the first importance, 

 since it is capable of obtaining a complete mastery over a young plan- 

 tation. It attacks the stems- and roots of young plants, usually in the 

 second or third year, and plants seriously attacked are certain to die. 

 The Sind forests do not appear to suffer from the attack of this 

 insect, details of whose life-history together with instructions for pre- 

 servative and remedial measures, can be obtained from the Forest 

 Zoologist, 



(d) MANAGEMENT. 



Seeing that Babul tends to form pure even-aged crops, and that 

 the regeneration of the species, as has been explained above, usually 

 presents no difficulty, the management of such forests is quite simple. 

 Typically, the clear felling method, with a rotation of 30 or 40 years, 

 followed by artificial regeneration, is applied, and this gives excellent 

 results. In cases where the primary object of management is the pro- 

 duction of bark for tanning purposes, the rotation should be much less, 

 say, 10 or 15 years. 



In districts where the tree coppices well, the coppice-with-standards 

 method has been adopted with varying success. Surat and Anantapur 

 are examples of such districts, and the Guntur and Tinnevelly forests 

 were also worked according to this method, for some years, on a 20-year 

 rotation, but the treatment was found unsatisfactory, and abandoned 

 in favour of selection fellings. 



III. Timber. 



(a) DESCRIPTION AND PROPERTIES OF THE WOOD. 

 Heart-wood and Sap-wood. 



The heart-wood is pink, and turns reddish-brown on exposure, 

 being mottled with dark streaks. It polishes well without absorbing 

 much polish. The sap-wood is yellowish white in colour, and, in mature 

 trees, forms a small proportion, say, less than 20% of the total 

 volume. The annual rings are not very distinctly marked. 



