88 



3. Length of the felling rotation.— The first step towards 

 introducing order in the working consists in restricting the 

 locality to be worked over each year or period to a definite 

 area. The obgect of this is to keep the extent of each separate 

 felling within manageable limits ; to conduce to effective 

 supervision of the wo^k ; and to render the extraction of 

 produce easier and less expensive. Theoreticallyj every acre 

 of the whole area ought to be worked each year by the 

 removal of the exploitable trees. But tiis would not be 

 practicable ; as the trees to be felled would be scattered over 

 so large an area that it would not be profitable to remove 

 them. It is, therefore, necessary to decide what time may 

 be allowed to elapse between successive fellings in the same 

 place, and having determined this, to divide the forest into a 

 corresponding number of coupes, one of which will be 

 exploited e^ch year or period. 



"Where the possibility is calculated by the usual Indian 

 methods and prescribed by number of trees, it may be found 

 convenient to make the length of the felling rotation equal 

 to, or a sub-multiple of, the average number of years 

 required for trees of the lowest girth of the second class to 

 atfeiin the lowest exploitable size. In other cases it may be 

 found that the felling rotation should, in order that the 

 working-plan may be as simple in construction as possible, 

 be a su^-multiple of the exploitable age. This can easily be 

 done by slightly enhancing or reducing the calculated 

 exploitable age. There is nothing wrong in such an adjust- 

 ment ; for it is ridiculous to suppose that the calculated rate 

 of growth is so accurate that a variation of a few years either 

 way will make any material difference. 



Within limits, it is a matter of comparatively small im- 

 portance from a sylvicultural point of view at what intervals 

 of time fellings are repeated in the same" area. With a short 

 as compared to a longer interval, the area gone over at each 

 felling is larger, and the quantity of produce removed is less 

 per unit of area ; while the crop has a shorter time in which 

 to recover from any injurious effects attributable to the 

 operation of felling. Practical considerations, as regards 

 transport, supervision, etc., should for the most part deter- 

 mine the question. The interval should be long enough to 

 prevent injury to the crop as a whole from the too frequent 

 repetition of fellings in the same area, and should be suffi- 

 ciently short to enable dead or dying trees to be removed, 

 in good time.' In some Indian working-plans as long an 



