12 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
capital, and it is in order to prevent such illicit 
operations that the working plan is framed in such 
detail. It is possible, even with a carefully-devised 
plan, to do such injuries to the stock that many 
years are required to rectify them, and it is for this 
reason that professional experts are required to 
administer the plan so far as its silvicultural pre- 
scriptions are concerned ; but even given the amount 
of the various kinds of produce to be removed, there 
remains the problem of how this shall be brought to 
market in the most effective manner. It may be 
possible to obtain purchasers who will themselves 
cut and remove the timber and other produce, and 
this is, of course, the most satisfactory manner of 
working ; it may be incumbent on the Forest Officer 
to arrange for the felling, and then to sell the out- 
turn in the forest; or, lastly, everything, including 
the felling, carting to depot, sale, and delivery, may 
be duties imposed on him in order to convert his 
harvest into money; and under such conditions much 
of the time is occupied that would more profitably 
be spent in other works of which the large area 
under his charge is so badly in need. 
The winter and early spring is generally the most 
busy time during the year, for then the forests are 
least unhealthy, and work is not so much hampered 
by malaria and epidemics. With the withdrawal of 
the labour gangs and the cessation of road-making 
and building the forester’s work is, however, not 
complete ; he has to watch through the dry season 
till his forests have become green from the monsoon 
rains, and not till then can he return to head- 
quarters, after eight months or more of jungle life. 
