93 
Indian Forest Records. 
[VoL. I. 
Thus far we have considered a forest that is to be brought into full pro- 
duction; but the above system of fixing the annual yield can be applied just as 
well and with the same degree of certainty to forests which have also to fulfil 
other purposes besides supplying wood. For instance, the given forest area 
may have also to furnish grazing for a certain number of head of cattle; the 
maximum amount of tree-growth that may be maintained without detriment 
to the production of the required amount of herbage being known, the annual 
yield will be less than, equal to or exceed the current increment, according as 
the existing amount of grazing is more than sufficient, just sufficient or in- 
sufficient. 
The annual fellings are made in both stories of the crop operated upon. In 
the upper story, that formed by the three largest diameter-classes, they combine 
the nature of a regeneration felling and of a thinning, in the lower that of a 
thinning and of a cleaning. The lower story should be taken in hand only 
after the work has been finished amongst the trees above, as it is only then that 
the individuals to cut out or foster can be selected with certainty. Moreover, 
the felling of the overhanging trees invariably injures some of the good stems 
below, and the lower crop cannot evidently be touched until all fear of such 
injury is over. In operating in the lower crop there should be no hesitation 
in removing these injured stems, as well as all brushwood and spreading and 
defective growth, and in thinning out patches that are too dense. Nevertheless 
on the pretence of doing this last, promising patches of advanced growth ought 
not to be interfered with, as it is only advance growth which comes up in patches 
that is worth anything. In the case of species that coppice, the injured and 
defective growth, provided the stem is not too thick, should be carefully cut 
back in order to shoot up again. At the same time as the cutting is being 
proceeded with, weU-placed young individuals should be encouraged to grow up 
rapidly and straight by means of judicious pruning of side branches, correcting 
of forked growth, pinching oS of superfluous buds, snapping off a too-luxuriant 
branch and so on. It should be remembered that only a very few of the number- 
less individuals of the undercrop can be preserved until they reach exploitable 
size, and no special attention given to these few can ever be considered wasted 
labour. 
Dead and fallen trees and those cut by oSenders should be utilised at once, 
wherever found, and their volume deducted from the quota of the regular felling 
when this arrives in due time. 
The chief objections to Gurnaud’s method (defects which have 
led to its abandonment) may be briefly alluded to. Foremost 
among these may be mentioned the utter impossibility in practice 
of obtaining correct increment figures for a whole forest by re-enu- 
merations carried out at intervals of 6 or 8 years. In an experi- 
mental sample plot such valuation surveys can be made with great 
accuracy, but in an ordinary enumeration survey carried out over 
large areas by the ordinary establishment, mistakes which may even 
amount to 4 per cent, are not uncommon, and the results obtained 
under Gurnaud’s method would in consequence be wholly incorrect 
Further, the personal element, whereby the “ fixing of the yield 
is made a matter of pure discretion,” enters too greatly into the 
final calculation of the possibility. 
