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prescribed in wliat has been called a "preliminary working- 

 plan," This is, however, a mistaken notion. A forest ex- 

 ploitation must have a definite purpose which cannot be 

 arrived at without considering what crop and capital is to 

 be created. This necessilates the determination of the ex- 

 ploitable age and the drafting of a general scheme of work- 

 ing for that age. 



^ Thus, suppose the working-plan for 1,000 acres of sal forest to be — treatment by 

 the selection-method with the object of gi'owing sal trees of two feet in diameter and 

 requiring 100 years to attain that size ; the possibility being 1,000 trees a year. 

 These prescriptions constitute the general plan. The regulation of the fellings for 

 a certain time, say for 10 years (that period having been adopted as the falling rota- 

 tion) and their allocation to definite areas or blocks, each about one-tenth of the 

 total area, would form the special plan or statement of fellings for the first felling 

 rotation. A better example is, however, afforded in the method of successive regene- 

 ration fellings in which the periodic blocks and the order in which they are to be re- 

 generated are prescribed in iht: general plan, n\\\\.e the special plan ■gxeSBxihe& in 

 detail the fellings to be made in each block during one period only. 



Provisional working scheme.— The possibility is based on 

 the condition of the existing crop ; and as this crop is pract- 

 ically always abnormal, being either insufficient or super- 

 abundant or irregularly arranged, the possibility also exhibits 

 corresponding divergencies from the normal standard. 



Thus a coppice of 500 acres is to be exploited at 20 years. The normal annual 

 felling would extend over 25 acres of coppice 20 years old. But, if there were no 

 crops of say 10 to 15 years old, it would not be possible during the first rotation to 

 follow the normal plan : either the area occupied by the crops aged from 16 to 20 

 years should furnish the fellings for the first 10 years, and then a larger area would 

 be felled, or crops of a lower age than 20 years should be felled during some years. 



It has by some been considered necessary to distinguish 

 between the actual scheme applied and the ideal one ; and 

 the former has, in consequence, occasionally received the 

 special name of provisional plan. This is, however, hardly 

 necessary ; because, in the great majority of cases, the only 

 plan with which we have- to deal is provisional, and there 

 can, therefore, be no confusion. 



Preparatory period.— The length of time required in order 

 to constitute the forest according to the normal condition is 

 sometimes called o, preparatory period. It is necessary to 

 adopt a preparatory period where the age-classes are defective 

 or irregularly arranged, where it is desired to hasten the 

 fellinc of over-mature material, or where immediate re- 

 generation of the crops cannot be undertaken. Theoreti- 

 cally the length of the preparatory period should be equal 

 to the exploitable age ; but, in practice, a shorter period 

 is generally adopted and the attainment of the desired end 



