68 BRITISH ESTATE FORESTS [CH. ix 



^. road or ride along one side, and should be of five to twenty 

 acres in extent. Working-circles will then be formed, and the 

 crops in each will be classified by age and condition into say 

 five age-groups of about twenty years each. 



Most of the crops of about eighty years old or over will be put 

 into Block I to be dealt with during the first period of twenty 

 years or thereabouts. The general working scheme may be 

 rather less rigidly laid down here than it is for a large State 

 forest worked on a long rotation. 



Block I, then, will be composed of all the old mature or over- 

 mature crops, which are often numerous in neglected woods, 

 and other areas which are in such an unsatisfactory state that 

 they too should be soon cleared and replanted. An estimate will 

 now be made of the volume of material to be extracted by 

 successive annual or periodical fellings during the first period. 

 A tabular felling statement showing the areas to be taken in 

 hand year by year will be drawn up, and the allotment of the 

 different areas will be made in consideration of the condition 

 of each crop, and the urgency of clearing it. A second table will 

 be drawn up for cultural operations, and works of improvement, 

 cleanings and thinnings, in the other parts of the forest. 



Simplicity and economy should be the chief features of the 

 plan, which should result in a steady progression, annual or 

 periodical, towards clearing and replanting in systematic 

 succession, with equahsed working. No unregulated fellings for 

 estate or any other purposes should be permitted. No high 

 theory, nor abstruse calculations are required, but only a 

 common-sense programme of operations; if, as will most often 

 be the case, the re-stocking of the cleared areas is to be artificially 

 carried out by sowing or planting, an annual plan of these opera- 

 tions will be required, and provision should be made for a 

 nursery of adequate size in the most suitable locahty. Cultural 

 considerations to be followed should be clearly indicated, but the 

 prescriptions should not be too rigid in matters of detail. 



