96 SEASON FOB FBlIiNO AND OONVBRSION. 



Section IV. — Season for felling and conveesion in 



THE FOEEST. 



(1). Season for felling. 



On the season in which trees are felled depend the technical 

 properties of the wood, and even the possibility of carrying out the 

 work, for labour may not be available in suflBcient quantity and at 

 reasonable cost throughout the year, and malaria or heavy rain or 

 snow may be a bar to all operations. 



To prevent cracks timber should be allowed to season slowly. 

 Hence it should be felled in damp and cool (if possible, even cold) 

 weather. Where there is. a true winter, felling in winter also 

 preserves the wood from fermentation of the sap, from infection 

 by fungus spores, and from the attacks of insects. With regard 

 to durability alone, the theoretically best time for felling occurs 

 when the trees contain their minimum of reserve materials (see 

 page 25, para. 3), that is to say, generally just after the new flush 

 of leaves is out. But this season can be observed only when it 

 does not coincide with the appearance of new seedlings, which the 

 felling and export operations are bound to destroy ; or with the 

 season of heavy rains, during which the ground would be soft and 

 muddy and the advance growth, if there is any, full of tender and 

 easily-injured shoots. It may of course be observed in coupes that 

 are to be clear-felled and then re-stocked artificially. For the safety 

 of young growth the best time for felling is the season of repose, 

 when the plants are least fragile and possess their greatest recu- 

 perative power ; but on the higher ranges of the Himalayas the 

 snow lies too heavy for felling to take place then without risk to 

 human life, and, as export must take place during the following 

 summer, most of the trees have to be cut in spring, while the seed- 

 lings are only just sprouting or coming up from seed. 



As regards firewood, we know that the quicker it dries, the 

 better it is ; also that it is heavier the more full it is of reserve 

 materials. Hence in felling for firewood, the best time of the year, 

 provided sylvicultural exigencies do not bar it, is when dry, warm 

 weather prevails ; and if this coincides with the season of repose, so 

 much the better. The time for felling coppice is limited, by purely 

 sylvicultural considerations, to this season, the only exception being 

 when bark for tanning is the chief produce sought, in which case 

 the felling must be effected during the first three or four weeks of 

 the season of vegetation, unless the trees are barked standing, or 

 this period falls within the rainy season. In the case of charcoal- 

 making, the charcoal-burners must have a sufficiently long spell of 



