POUMATION OF COMPAETMENTS. 67 



However it be, it is not a matter of indifference how large or 

 how small the compartments are. It is clear that if each of the di- 

 visions is to be homogeneous throughout and bounded by natural 

 lines, they cannot all have the same area. Still it is necessary to 

 remain within certain limits. If the compartments are too small, 

 they become too numerous, and the result of this may be confusion 

 in the prescriptions of the Organisation Project ; at the best diffi. 

 culties in carrying out these prescriptions can never fail to occur. 

 It is desirable to have a whole annual cutting within the limits of a 

 single compartment, and experience shows that the area of a com- 

 partment ought never to be under 13 acres at the least, even at 

 the sacrifice of homogeneity. Hence if we have at first marked 

 gut any compartment that is too small, it is easy to judge after- 

 wards with which one of those surrounding it, it ought to be incor- 

 porated, considering it as a mere dot or patch on a uniform ground. 

 Those officers who have afterwards to execute the Organisation Pro- 

 ject, being necessarily foresters by profession, will be easily able to 

 modify their cultural operations as required, whenever they meet 

 with such patches. 



If the compartments are too large, it is impossible to determine 

 the treatment of the various standing crops and to prescribe the 

 order of the exploitations in a sure and precise manner. The 

 series of successive operations in one and the same compartment 

 soon becomes complicated, a circumstance which is a fruitful source 

 of disorder. Hence the necessity of so arranging, that no compart- 

 ment may be subjected Jto a single class of operations for more 

 than a few years at a time. Without this, the homogeneity of a 

 large compartment would probably soon be destroyed. On this 

 point, experience has shown that no compartment should exceed 

 125 acres. If a larger area of homogeneous forest is found, it is 

 always easy to split it up into two or more compartments. 



The division of a forest into compartments requires chiefly a 

 good deal of walking about round it and through it. The Amena- 

 giste should avoid tiring himseif, so as always to have his eyes open 

 and his head clear, in order that no fact may escape his observation^ 

 The work does not call for any involved process of reasoning, for the 

 characteristic features which separate one compartment from an- 

 other are facts that immediately strike the sense of sight. But to re- 



