37 



with regard to coppice forests, the principal product of wliicli, 

 fuel, cannot, owing to the expense, be carried to a long dis- 

 tance, or wbere, as in the Thana forests of Bombay and in the 

 Central Provinces, the people must be provided on a great 

 scale with fire-wood and small building timber. Local 

 grazing rights or privileges also play an important part in 

 determining the areas to be formed into separate circles; as 

 the closings and openings of blocks to grazing often deter- 

 mine the cultural treatment. 



Whatever boundaries are adopted should, as far as possible, 

 be natural features and not artificial lines cut througl» the 

 forest. Water-partings (in the hills), roads, boundaries of 

 forests or of forest blocks form the most convenient limits 

 of working- circles from all points of view. 



Where the size of working-circles cannot be determined 

 by the circumstances already described no very definite 

 rules can be laid down. If small, the number of separate 

 circles, and consequently of separate fellings or other oper- 

 ations, becomes inconveniently great, and the work of a 

 given year is correspondingly scattered. This may be ob- 

 jectionable from an administrative point of view. The size 

 is obviously closely connected with the average area of the 

 annual coupes, which in its turn usually depends on the 

 demand for the produce. As a general rule, more produce 

 than is saleable should not be felled, though this consideration 

 may be sometimes disregarded when it is sought to improve 

 the growth or to restore the forest to its original condition. 

 If the circles are too large, the area to be exploited in one 

 place or at each operation may be inconveniently extensive, 

 and the distance to which the material must be conveyed 

 too great; or more produce may have to be felled than can be 

 consumed in the centre of consumption to which it must be 

 transported if it is to be utilised at all. A middle course 

 should, therefore, be chosen. Generally speaking, where all 

 the produce of the fellings is saleable, the working-circles 

 would be comparatively small. Where, however, only one 

 or two species, which grow scattered in a mixed crop are 

 exploited, the size of the working-circles is necessarily very 

 large. 



It should be remembered that where equality of yield 

 from year to year is desired, such equality can be better 

 secured by forming a number of small, rather than a few 

 large, circles. 



Although each working-circle is subjected to a single 



