70 FELLING AND OONVBR8I0N. 



CHAPTER III.— FELLING AND CONVERSION. 



In utilizing a forest we must be guided by the extent of the use- 

 fuhiess and value of the produce it yields, and, so long as no 

 injury accrues therefrom to the productive powers of the forest, 

 also by the condition and demand of the market. As the circum- 

 stances of the market are very different according to the nature of 

 the district and to the local manners and customs, these require to 

 be very carefully enquired into and intimately known. 



The subject of the present chapter will be studied under the fol- 

 lowing heads : — 



I. — Organisation of labour. 

 II. — Agency by which work is carried out. 

 III. — Tools employed in felling and conversion. 

 IV. — Season for felling and conversion in the forest, 

 v.— Felling. 

 VI. — Conversion. 

 VII. — Seasoning and stacking. 



Section I. — Obganisation of labour. 



The productiveness of any industry is in direct proportion to the 

 sufficiency, competence, and organisation of the labour engaged in 

 it. In the case of forests the efficiency of the labour employed in 

 realising its yield not only determines the extent to which the 

 products turned out satisfy the requirements of the market, but 

 also influences the amount of outturn in money as well in produce, 

 and not unfrequently even the success of the treatment adopted. 

 The men must be tractable, sober, industrious, strong, hardy, and 

 enduring, inured to the climate, accustomed to life in the forests, 

 and thoroughly skilful in the use of their tools. India has this 

 great advantage over most other countries in that its labouring 

 population being almost purely agricultural, nearly everyone from 

 his boyhood is more or less expert with the axe. 



The best men to get, if they are otherwise suitable, are those 

 living inside or immediately round the forests. Such people are 

 from their childhood accustomed to a forest life, are not afraid of 

 wild beasts or the climate, know the trees and their characteristics 

 and, from long familiarity with the place, take an interest and often 

 a pride in the welfare of the forest to which feeling imported 



