71 



It is evident that, if an equal yield were required from year to year, the excess 

 felling rendered neceBsai^ hy the Buperahundance of mature crops should be spread 

 over several years instead of beiug carried out in 1889-90. 



Conversion of irregular forest into coppice. — In the fore- 

 going example it has been assumed that the forest had already 

 been under coppice treatment, and that consequently there 

 existed on the ground a more or less complete scale of age- 

 classes. Generally speaking, however, this is not the case in 

 India ; and the crop to be dealt with not infrequently con- 

 sists of an irregular and inferior or partially ruined seedling 

 forest or scrub. 



In any case the forest must offer one of two conditions. 

 The number of young trees in the growing stock is either suflB.- 

 cient or insufficient in view of reproductionby coppice shoots. 

 In the former ease the conversion of the crop into coppice 

 offers no difficulty. It will first be necessary to decide on 

 the age at which the coppice, when created, should be 

 exploited. This, unless there are in the neighbourhood 

 coppice forests of the same kind, must be more or less a 

 matter of guess-work. Having decided on the age, the area 

 to be worked would be divided, in the manner already ex- 

 plained, into as many coupes as there are years in the rota- 

 tion, and one of these coupes would be clean felled each 

 year. 



In dealing, however, with a mature or over-rnature crop 

 incapable of being regenerated by coppice shoots it is neces- 

 sary to regenerate by seed with a view to constituting a new 

 crop which could be converted into coppice while still com- 

 paratively young. For this purpose the forest should, as in 

 the former case, be divided into as many coupes as there are 

 years in the age at which it is proposed to exploit the cop- 

 pice, and the regeneration, either by natural or by artificial 

 means, of one or two of these coupes, should be taken in 

 hand each year. In this way there would in due time be 

 brought into existence a complete scale of age-classes which 

 could then be converted into coppice as in the first example. 

 In, both cases cuttings would be prescribed in a table of 

 fellings such as shown at page 70. ^ ,^ „, tx • 



Supplementary regulations : preserving belts ot trees.— It is 

 always useful to preserve belts of trees— which sometimes, 

 for climatic reasons, are of considerable breadth— along the 

 roads, main division lines or boundaries of the simple cop- 

 pice compartments. Such trees are useful in many ways : 

 they protect the coupes, furnish seed, and, when required. 



