172 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
his usefulness, and are ultimately sawn up, the 
better quality going to Europe or America, and the 
remainder supplying building material to the East. 
Of late years there has been a very serious falling 
off in the quantity of teak available for export, and 
the reason is not far to seek. In former days the 
forest was full of “ girdled” timber of all sizes, await- 
ing the pleasure of the ruling Government, while 
there was also a surplus stock of over-mature trees 
of so large a size as to be difficult to utilize with- 
out special appliances. The yearly outturn therefore 
was at first larger than the increment of the forest 
at that time, and when this excess supply was 
exhausted the outturn naturally fell considerably. 
It is doubtful if in the future such large-sized trees 
will be available in as great a quantity as in the 
past ; when new areas are opened out, the over- 
mature trees found therein will probably yield a 
certain number of magnificent logs, but after their 
removal the future working of the forest will seldon 
be based on a much higher girth than seven and 
a half feet, and such a size, though commercially 
useful and financially remunerative, will not supply 
those immense squares so often seen in former years, 
when the giants of the forest were eagerly handled 
by European firms who had the men, the elephants, 
and the machinery, to cope with them. 
It is probable, then, that the teak harvest of the 
future in Burma will consist principally of medium- 
sized but well-grown and sound timber, in quantities 
gradually increasing as the forests respond to 
organization and protection; but whether the demand 
for teak at a price that will afford a fair remunera- 
