322 
Indian Forest Records. 
[VoL. 1. 
PART II. 
FIXIXG THE POSSIBILITY. 
The possibility in a selection-worked forest may be fixed either 
by area, by number of trees, or by volume. 
Sectiox 1. — Possibility by Area. 
The felling rotation and the size and position of the felling areas 
(or coupes) having been fixed in accordance with the considerations 
set forth in the preceding section,* each coupe is worked over in turn 
at the discretion of the marking officer, the fellings being limited 
purely by cultural rules. It is evident that this method can only 
be considered as a piixely temporary makeshift if the object of man- 
agement is to bring the forest into the normal condition, that is, if 
the constitution of the crop is to be such that the forest will yield 
an equal annual sustained yield. It is unnecessary to lay stress on 
the impossibility of attempting to estimate by eye the possibility of 
a selection forest, and subsequently to apply that imaginary yield 
’’n carrying out the markings in the annual coupes. Indeed, the 
method is only admissible under certain special conditions, which 
unfortunately only too frequently occur in India. Such a proce- 
dure may be permissible in the case of a protection forest where the 
object of management is a desire to retain the cover, dead and dying 
trees alone being removed : or, in abnormal and partially-ruined 
forests, such as frequently occur in India, in which the higher girth 
classes are very poorly represented in numbers and in quality : or, 
when the object of management is purely to tend the crop and to 
exploit the dead, dying and over-mature trees, whilst allowing the 
forest to grow up,t etc. 
Unfortunately the method of areas for selection forests, owing 
to its paper-simplicity, and the consequent expeditiousness with 
which working plans can be drawn up, especially when an equal 
annual return even during the period of the felling rotation is not 
attempted, has lately received considerable support in India. The 
* See page 37. 
t In parts of India such selection fellings are classed as fellings under the 
method of Improvement Fellings. 
