110 



As regards the exclusion of goats and sheep, it is not 

 meant that these animals must necessarily be kept out of 

 all wooded areas. This is not always possible or advisable: 

 what is meant is that wooded areas within which browsing 

 animals are allowed cannot be subiected to any regular 

 method of forest treatment. Money spent on works of 

 forest improvement in such areas will generally be wasted 

 and the best thing will be to abandon the area in question 

 as * forest.' 



Trees are not safe against injury from cattle, sheep, etc., 

 until they have attained a sufficiently considerable size for 

 their youn^ shoots to be out of reach. Even then damage, 

 especially as regards reproduction, is caused by the tramplino- 

 and hardening of the surface-soil. Not merely forests there- 

 fore which have been felled, but also those which are about 

 to be felled, should generally be closed to grazing in order 

 to enable the soil to attain the condition suitable for the 

 germination of seed. It thus follows that it is only in forests 

 which are exploited at a considerable age that grazing to any 

 great extent is possible. Coppice compartments exploited 

 at a low age, can at the best be only opened for a very few 

 years at a time. Forests worked by the selection method 

 ought, strictly speaking, to be always closed ; because repro- 

 duction is going on all over the area. Where total closure is 

 impossible, means must be taken in some cases to exclude 

 grazing from certain areas which are about to be felled. 

 Closure against grazing can, in the absence of fencing, only 

 be effectively carried out if the portion closed has good 

 natural boundaries, such as streams or deep ravines. Hence 

 the importance, for one reason, of closing as blocks 

 natural sub-divisions of a forest. Blanks requiring to be re- 

 stocked are often a serious source of difficulty in areas open to 

 grazing. The blanks cannot be re-stocked if grazing, which 

 may indeed have caused the blanks, be not excluded. It will 

 often be necessary in a working-plan to arrange for fencing- 

 such areas, or for separating by a fence those portions of a 

 forest which are open from those which are closed. 



It should not be overlooked that restrictive measures 

 should be introduced gradually. Their introduction is a 

 question of time and especially of tact. But the drier and 

 hotter the climate, the greater is usually the necessity for 

 closure. 



In addition to these measures efforts should be made to 

 develop the value of the forest produce by means of roads. 



