78 



It IB evident that, if an equal yield were required from year to year, the exoesg 

 ■Jelling rendered necessary by the superabundance of mature crops should be spread 

 over several years instead of being carried out la 1889-90. 



8. Conversioa of irregular forest into coppice.— In the fore- 

 going example -it has been, assumed that the forest had 

 already been under coppice treatment, and that coasequeatly 

 there existed on. the ground a more or less complete scale of 

 -age-classes. Generally speaking, howrev^er, this is not the 

 case in India ; and the crop to be dealt with not infrequently 

 consists of an irregular and inferior or partially ruined 

 seedling forest or scrub. 



In any case the forest must oEEer oae of two conditions. 

 The number of young trees in the growing stock is either 

 sufficient or insufficient in view of reproduction by coppice 

 shoots. In the former case the conversion of the crop into 

 coppice offers no difficulty. It will first be necessary to 

 decide on the age at which the coppice, when created, should 

 ba exploited. This, unless there -are in the neighbourhood 

 coppice forests of the same' kind, must be more or less a 

 Tnatter of guess- work. Haying decided on the age, the area 

 to be worked would be divided, in the manner already 

 explained, into as many coupes as there are years in the 

 rotations, and one of these coupes would be clean felled each 

 year, 



• In dealing, however, with a mature or over-mature crop 

 incapable of being regenerated by coppice shoots it is neces- 

 sary to regenerate by seed with a view to constituting a new 

 'crop which could be converted into coppice while still com- 

 paratively young. For this purpose the forest should, as in 

 the former case, be divided into as many coupes as there are 

 jears in the age at which it is proposed to exploit the cop- 

 pice; and the regeneration, either by natural or by artificial 

 means, of one or two of these coupes should be taken in hand 

 each year. In this way there would in due time be brought 

 into existence a complete scale of • age-classes which could 

 'then be converted into coppice as in the first example. In 

 both cases cuttings would be prescribed in a table of fellings 

 such as shown at page 77. 



9. Sapplementary regulations: preserving belts of trees.— It is 

 always useful to preserve belts of trees — which sDihetimes, 

 for climatic reasons, are of considerable breadth — along the 

 roads, main division lines of boundaries of the simple coppice 

 compartments. Such trees are useful in many ways; they 

 protect the coupes, furnish seed, and, when required, act as 



