122 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
but this is outweighed by the seasoning of the 
timber and the growth of the young crop; for 
the overshadowing by the dead stems is prac- 
tically next to imperceptible. 
This system seems worthy of a trial in Britain, 
because it has the additional advantage of not 
rendering sale of the timber necessary immedi- 
ately after barking. The barked trees could 
remain standing till a suitable purchaser bought 
them, or till it was most convenient to fell and 
log them for sale; and the longer they stood the 
better would they season, and the more should 
their wood rise in value. 
Seasoning thus on the stool in the open air 
would also be much more thorough and more 
rapidly effected if the method of ringing or 
‘girdling,’ which obtains in Burma with re- 
gard to teak trees, to season them and render 
them floatable, were at the same time adopted. 
This consists in cutting into the stem all round 
the trunk at the felling height, so that a ring of 
sapwood is entirely removed and the cut enters 
clean into the heartwood. The cleaner and deeper 
this wedge-shaped incision is made into the heart- 
wood, the more rapid and the more thorough is 
