FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 433 



This latter road, passing in part through the College Forest, has become a menace 

 to the adjoining property by reason of the brush which the contractor failed to burn 

 and piled alongside the right of way. It was, therefore, desirable, when the oppor- 

 tunity came, as a matter of self-protection, to secure the contract for the continu- 

 ance of the road, when the needful cleaning and burning of the brush could be 

 attended to and at the same time experience for future work could be gained at least 

 expense. Such road, entailing the clearing of three rods in width and turnpiking 

 one rod, with ditches on each side, passing over stony ground, which requires blast- 

 ing, can be built, it was found, in a thoroughly satisfactory manner, leaving the 

 edges free from all unsightly and dangerous brush and timber, at the rate of $1,000 

 per mile. 



Stoc^ Taking. 



The system of subdivision practised in the Wawbeek District rendered it possi- 

 ble to secure, in a much more accurate manner than is usual, estimates of the timber 

 standing. 



In European forest management a knowledge of the timber standing is usually 

 secured by means of actually measuring sample areas and referring the amount 

 found to the larger area, from which the sample areas were selected. In India a 

 modification of this practice exists, which has been imitated in this country in the 

 few instances where stock taking as a basis for arriving at a statement of the admis- 

 sible or desirable annual or periodic felling budget has been undertaken. This 

 modification consists in meandering through the forest and measuring or estimating 

 the stock in a belt of two rods, more or less, in width along the meander and then 

 judging from the contents of this sample the contents of the whole. It is, in fact, 

 nothing more nor less than the method employed by timber estimators, except that 

 chain measurement is substituted for pacing and calipering diameters of trees and 

 calculation of their contents, instead of relying upon judgment. 



Neither of these two methods appeared of practical utility, at least not for the 

 pursuit of the very simple policy proposed in the management, especially since with 

 nearly the same expenditure of time and money a very close estimate, near enough 

 for all practical purposes, of material actually standing on the different portions of 

 the property could be obtained. Hence, three competent estimators were employed 

 to go carefully over the Wawbeek District and estimate all timber standing, making 

 at the same time a description of the character of the ground and growth. For this 

 purpose, each estimator started independently on a given division line into a given 

 compartment, keeping himself oriented by the compass and pacing and the quarter, 

 mile lines and posts ; making sixteen stations in the same, as far as possible at even 



