17 
Part IY.] Shebbeare: Artificial Regeneration of Sal. 
growth of the tree is approaching its limit. Estimates of the final 
results of these crops are perhaps hardly justified in the present state of 
our knowledge but it is believed that, with proper thinnings, it may 
be possible to grow 40 sal trees to the acre averaging 6 feet in girth 
in 60 years. In the case of soft-wood species the rate of growth is of 
course much faster, such trees as Lampati (Duabanga sonneratioides) 
and Gomari (Gmelina arborea) attaining 5 or 6 feet in height in their 
first 12 months and, if spaced six feet apart, forming a complete canopy 
some 14 feet above the ground during their second year. The rotation 
proposed for the fast growing species is 40 years. 
21. A comparison between the cost of extraction by carts under 
Clear-felling and Selection working has been possible this year as depart¬ 
mental extraction has been carried out in both types. The cost of fell¬ 
ing, dressing, loading and carting one day’s journey (under ten miles) is 
four annas a cubic foot for clear-felling against six for selection, the diff¬ 
erence being due to delays in clearing temporary cart-tracks and loading, 
which is done by the carters themselves working in parties of five or six. 
It is not possible yet to give figures for a comparison between the cost 
of extraction by mechanical means and that of extraction by carts and 
manual labour as the former has been introduced too recently but it 
seems likely it will pay us, now that we have gained sufficient confidence in 
the taungya system not to be afraid of extensive clear fellings, to employ 
methods on the lines of American lumbering operations. A company for 
the manufacture of ply-wood and other products in the Buxa division has 
put in a light railway fed by three American skidders but the area of 
the annual coupe in this case is about three square miles and conclusions 
drawn from their results will not necessarily apply to the much smaller 
coupes, averaging about 70 acres, necessitated by local conditions in 
most parts of Northern Bengal. A siding from the Darjeeling Himalayan 
Railway (2ft. gauge) has this year been laid into a clear-felling coupe of 
46 acres and, if successful, will be extended into each annual coupe in this 
felling-series. By this means sal logs are railed to the terminus of the 
metre-gauge line (shortly to be converted into broad-gauge) where a sale 
depot is being established. Fuel is booked to various destinations on 
the narrow gauge, mostly to Kurseong, a station at an elevation of 5,000 
feet, where, in spite of the heavy freight inevitable on a mountain railway, 
it competes with local fuel which has to be carried in by coolies. On 
this siding a steam hoist borrowed from the railway has been used as a 
“ skidder ” for dragging logs to the rail and loading them on trucks at 
a cost of less than half that of carts and hand haulage. This same useful 
engine has been tried for dragging a stump-jumping disc-plough of Aus¬ 
tralian design and, if a satisfactory system of anchoring the cable blocks 
c 350 3 c 2 
