72 FELLING AND CONVERSION. 



be adopted only when the quantity and quality of the work turned 

 out can be rigidly tested and gauged. The cutting back of coppice 

 and the execution of cleanings and thinnings are best done by daily 

 labour. 



Whether the men aj-e paid by the day or by the amount of work 

 done, they should be divided into gangs, each under a headman or 

 master-workman elected by the gang and approved of by the em- 

 ployer. The headman should, in the case of daily labour, be paid 

 somewhat higher wages than the rest of the gang, and he should be 

 responsible for all his men. The gangs should be just large enough 

 to be within the control of a single man ; and hence it should also 

 not be too small or there will be waste of power. 



The amount of work to be done will often vary above a certain 

 known minimum. This minimum will fix the permanent strength 

 of the combined gangs, and for any work above this minimum occa- 

 sional workmen must be employed. These occasional men are best 

 distributed amongst the existing gangs and not organised into sepa- 

 rate gangs — a plan that will obtain from each headman the greatest 

 amount of usefulness of which he is capable, and keep up every 

 gang at its highest point of efficiency, by making the new men 

 work side by side with those who have been accustomed to it, 

 and by enabling the employer to get rid of inferior men without 

 weakening or breaking up his gangs. 



No organisation can be successful unless there exists a definite 

 set of working rules, which prescribe the working hours and days, 

 the kind of work to be done, the rates to be paid, the mode and 

 days of payment, the obligations of the workmen, the punishments 

 to be inflicted for infringement of those obligations, and the special 

 concessions, if any, accorded by the employer during good behavi- 

 our or under certain specified circumstances. Under the head of 

 obligations of the men, enter, among other things connected directly 

 with their work, the following matters : — Their camping grounds 

 or villages, as the case may be, sanitary arrangements, abstention 

 from avoidable injury to the forest or forest area, immediate report 

 of injury by others, liability to be called out to extinguish forest fires, 

 or to help the establishment in tracking and arresting offenders, 

 and so on. The punishments may take the form either of forfeiture 

 of wages earned or of longer hours, or of curtailment of privileges, 

 without prejudice, in serious cases or to deter habitual offenders, 

 to prosecution under the forest or other law. Among necessary 

 concessions due from the employer are payments to sick men, 

 especially sufferers from accidents ; advances under certain circum- 

 stances ; special rewards for extra good work ; arranging for sup- 



