103 



Modifications of the mixed method.- Several modifications 

 have been recently introduced in Prance into the appli- 

 cation of the method of successive fellings. The principal 

 of these consists in the establisliment from the fir«t of 

 annual coupes, instead of leaving the position of the coupes 

 to be fixed from year to year by the controlling officers 

 according to cultural requirements. The whole area is 

 divided off into as many permanent annual coupes as there 

 are years in the exploitable age. The coupes are made 

 fau-ly equi-productive, by deduction of blanks and by asses- 

 sing the fertility of the great natural divisions of the 

 forest m the manner already explained for coppice. The 

 coupes being formed, the preparatory or seed felling's are 

 then prescribed by area, one of the coupes being taken in 

 hand each year for this purpose. The same system is 

 followed with regard to the thinnings and cleanings, which 

 are made by area in regular succession in one of tlie annual 

 coupes. But the basis of area has to be somewhat departed 

 from as regards the secondary and final fellings -which 

 depend on the state of reproduction and on the development 

 of the seedling crops. These fellings must be regulated 

 by volume as in the old method, and for this purpose the 

 coupes in the block under regeneration are grouped together, 

 and the volume to be felled each year in this block is then 

 calculated in the manner already explained. 



Application of the method to irregTilar crops. — None of our 

 Indian forests could be subjected directly, in their present 

 condition, to the method of successive fellings, as they do 

 not as yet contain definite groups of age-classes. Should 

 it be decided to apply the method to any of these forests, 

 it will, therefore, first be necessary to transform the crop 

 into one of the type required, that is to say, one containing 

 a regular series of age-classes. For this purpose the first 

 thing to be done is to lay down the general frame-work of 

 the plan according to the method of successive fellings 

 which it is hoped eventually to apply. The general working 

 scheme would be framed and the circles and periodic 

 blocks or coupes corresponding to this frame-work would 

 be laid out. Until this is done, and the place which each 

 portion of the forest will occupy in the final scheme is 

 known, the cultural rules to be applied to each crop cannot 

 be prescribed. The general working scheme gives the order 

 in which the various portions of the working- circle are to be 

 taken up for transformation during each successive period. 



