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PART III.-COMPILATION OF THE WORKING-PLAN REPORT. 



CHAI'TfiR I.— INTRODUOTOKY REMARKS. 



It is desirable, especially in India where frequent 

 changes in the forest staff are unavoidable, that working-plan 

 reports should follow generally a fixed pattern. Uniformity 

 not only lessens the labour of mastering the contents of 

 individual reports, but without it systematic scrutiny of the 

 plans is well nigh impossible. The fact that each report^ 

 deals with essentially different local conditions is no impedi- 

 ment to grouping and discussing together, under suitable 

 headings and in logical sequence, the various subjects. 



The general order to be followed in working-plan reports 

 is indicated below. This is the arrangement prescribed at 

 present by the Government ; and it is only necessary to add' 

 that each report, while containing sufficient information to 

 enable the soundness of its provisions to be tested and the 

 ideas of its compiler to be followed, should be as brief and 

 as simply written as possible. Lengthy descriptions and 

 discussions of sylvicultural questions, mathematical calcula- 

 tions and complicated tables of statistics should, as far as 

 possible, be avoided. The information deduced from 

 statistical tables can generally be explained in a few words, 

 and the application of mathematical formulae in connection 

 with Indian forests is liable to lead to erroneous conclusions. 

 Some plans have never been applied, owing to the neglect 

 of such rules. These monuments of misdirected energy 

 represent, however, a large amount of labour, and, it must 

 be added, a very considerable amount of expense, all of 

 which, with the exception of the experience so bought, has 

 been wasted. 



