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act as boundary marks ; and they adorn the forest. The 

 establishment of such belts, the species to be preserved, etc., 

 should therefore be considered and if necessary should be 

 prescribed in the working-plan. 



Works of improvement. — The works of improvement re- 

 quired in coppice forests are generally limited to the re-stock, 

 ing of blanks, which are common enough in such forests, and 

 in some cases to the construction of ditches or fences for the 

 exclusion of cattle. Coppice forests are not likely to be form- 

 ed except for the supply of fuel in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of villages and of large towns, and therefore in situa- 

 tions exceedingly liable to trespass. A ditch or a wire fence 

 is often the cheapest way of putting a stop to cattle trespass 

 which, in view of the short intervals at which the stock in 

 coppice forests is renewed, is a grave danger. 



COPPICE-SELECTION METHOD. 



General plan- — The coppice-selection method of treatment, 

 a selection method in which reproduction is obtained by 

 coppice instead of by seed, is believed to be only applied in 

 India in the treatment of bamboos, of which the "culms" 

 may be compared to coppice-shoots. Such fellings may be 

 carried on simultaneously with those under whatever method 

 of treatment is applied to other species in the forest where 

 the bamboos are growing. The whole bamboo-producino- 

 area, or so much of it as it is desirable to exploit, may be 

 divided into two or three coupes which are visited in turn 

 every two or three years, as the case may be, care being 

 taken always to leave a certain number of shoots in each 

 clump. 



Such fellings are organized and prescribed by area, in the 

 way that would be followed for simple-coppice worked on a 

 very short felling rotation. The possibility regulates itself ; 

 and all that is required is to parcel out the area into two or 

 three coupes to be worked in regular rotation. 



