96 



transport, supervision, etc., should, for the most part, deter- 

 mine the question. The interval should be long enough to 

 prevent injury to the crop as a whole from the too frequent 

 repetition of fellings in the same area, and should be suflfi- 

 ciently short to enable dead or dying trees to be removed in 

 good time. In some Indian working-plans as long an inter- 

 val as 30 years has been adopted. Usually, however, not 

 more than 10 or 16 years is taken ; and, where the demand 

 is intense, even a shorter interval may be adopted with 

 advantage. 



This determination of the rotation of the fellings and the corresponding division 

 of the forest into coupes is essential to methodical working. In some cases, in India, 

 the application of the selection method has merely consisted in the prescription of 

 certain cultural rules without any annual coupes. Such plans miss the point : they 

 do not serve what ought to he their chief purpose, namely, the introduction of order 

 into the working. 



Selection fellings.— The fellings should always be pre- 

 scribed for one or more complete felling rotations, as in that 

 period they should pass over the whole area of the working- 

 circle. 



The area to be taken in hand is determined, as has been 

 described for simple coppice, by dividing the working-circle 

 into as many areas of equal forest resources as there are 

 years or periods of years in the felling rotation. There is, 

 however, this difference that these areas are often,"for ins- 

 tance in a mixed crop for which one species out of many is 

 exploited — exceedingly large ; so that instead of each block 

 containing a number of coupes, each coupe may, in some 

 cases, include a number of blocks. 



The order of the fellings is of less importance in the 

 selection method of treatment than in any other. It will, 

 however, generally be convenient — and there will rarely be 

 reasons for adopting another course — that the felUngs 

 should follow one another in regular order on the ground. 



Whatever system be adopted in order to calculate the 

 possibility, the fellings should be prescribed in a simple 

 manner and according to the principles of the selection 

 method. The general rules for the application of those 

 principles may, where necessary, be supplemented by cul- 

 tural prescriptions for each compartment. 



Restoration of an incomplete crop — It is of frequent occur- 

 rence that the crop to be dealt with is so abnormal that the 

 selection method, pure and simple, cannot be directly applied 

 to it. In such cases the crop should be subjected to fellings 



