368 
Indian Forest Records. 
[VOL. I. 
In exploiting a forest of this description, that is, a forest in which one 
species alone, in this case teak, has a marketable value, but which is mixed 
with many other species, only one method is possible, namely, the selection 
method, which here will take the form of selection girdlings. These girdlings 
will be confined to certain areas and will be arranged so that the whole area is 
gone over in a reasonable time, those areas which are ripest for girdling being 
taken in hand first. 
The rate of growth of the teak was determined by borings with Pressler’s 
gauge and by counting the rings on stumps. Full details are given in Appendix 
III and a summary of the results here. 
Size class. 
Age of 
trees of 
lowest 
dimension 
of class. 
Number of 
years re- 
quired to 
pass into 
next class. 
Age of 
trees of 
highest 
dimension 
of class. 
Eemaeks. 
Up to 3 feet girth . 
10* 
63 
73 
*The number of 
years required by 
3 to 4| feet girth 
73 
33 
106 
a seedling to es- 
tablish itself. 
4^ to 6 feet girth . 
106 
41 
147 
6 to 7 feet girth 
147 
30 
177 
The counting of annual rings on stumps of trees below 3 feet girth gave 
79 years as the age of a tree 3 feet in girth; the counting of rings on stumps of 
trees from 3 to 7 feet in girth gave 191 years as the age of a tree 7 feet in 
girth, while the two together gave 188 years as the age of a tree 7 feet in girth. 
If account is taken of the countings made on larger stumps, the age becomes 
182 years. Comparing this with the results attained by the gauge, it will be 
seen that it would not be far wrong to take 180 years as the time required by 
a teak tree to attain a girth of 7 feet. 
It has been shown in para. 11 that most of the area is covered with moist 
forest, and for practical purposes it may be taken as all moist forest. In this 
class of forest a girth of 7 feet has been fixed as the lowest girdling limit, as 
after attaining this size the trees are apt to decay and lose vitality, while trees 
below this size have a much smaller market value. The time taken to attain 
a girth of 7 feet may, therefore, be taken as the age of exploitability, and 
it has been shown in the preceding paragraph that this time is 180 years, which 
is therefore the age of exploitability. 
This age of 180 years has been divided into 6 periods of 30 years each, 
during each of which girdling operations must extend over the whole area. A 
shorter period than this would be awkward from an administrative point of view 
and a longer period would leave mature trees standing too long. Moreover, 30 
years is a very convenient period as it agrees with the time taken by a tree of 
the lowest dimensions of the II Class (6 to 7 feet girth) to attain to the lowest 
dimensions of the I Class. Each of these periods has been divided into five 
sub-periods of six years each. 
As has been stated before, the general idea is to go over the whole area in 
30 years, taking in hand first the areas which have most need of attention and 
extracting as much mature timber as a forest can yield without deterioration 
and without a subsequent diminution of the yield, steps being at the same time 
take 1 to increase the stock on such areas as may at present hold less than their 
