88 THE SAWMILLER. 
A Vhirty or Forty Years’ Interval for the Miller.—There will be 
little thinning till about the period of the mid-rotation, which means 
that when an area is milled now there will be taken out from that forest 
all the timber fit *to cut for the next thirty or forty years. (See 
“Conservative Lumbering.’’) Of course, here it 1s the forester who 
judges what trees are fit to cut, and he, in marking the trees fop 
felling, has to keep one eye on the future of the forest and the other 
eye on the requirements of the sawmills. Naturally, experience and 
judgment are required in marking a coupe or cutting-area. Usually 
the superior forest officer himself checks personally some 10 per cent. of 
the timber-marking. I have had many days doing this—days that were 
long and weary at the time, but pleasant in their after-memories, 
> 
PracricAL Workina or THE “‘ Bush ’’ in Soutru Arnica, 
The following is a popular account of the marking of the timber for 
felling in a South African forest (Knysna) where the climate and forest 
are almost exactly like those of northern New Zealand. It was written 
by myself (part of a popular lecture) when in charge of these Knysna 
forests, and has been preserved in the official publication, Sim’s ‘‘ Forest 
Flora of Cape Colony,’”’ p. 67 (Lands Department Forest Library, at 
Wellington). These Knysna forests are far from being in as good a 
condition as Waipoua. They were worked heavily for some fifty years 
before the advent of a Forest Department in 1883, and destroyed or 
degraded. Forest-work began there as far back as 1782. They have one 
timber as valuable as Kauri—‘‘ Stinkwood ’’—but that is getting yearly 
scarcer, and was never as abundant as Kauri at Waipoua. 
To understand the following extract it should perhaps be explained 
that the Knysna forests are worked by jardinage or ‘‘ selection ’’ fellings 
with a rotation of forty years, for a time shortened to twenty years. 
Of course, at the end of the rotation the series of fellings comes round 
to where they started. These jardinage fellings at Knysna are intended 
to be a step in the conversion of the wild forest to the normal forest. 
consisting of even-aged compartments which in number will be equal to 
the number of years in the final rotation. The experience of thirty 
years has clearly shown that it would have been better in South Africa 
to have adopted the final or normal rotation from the start, and to 
have put each compartment (‘‘ section ”’) into complete order at the 
cutting of the virgin forest or what stands for it. The scheme here 
drafted for the Kauri forest is for conversion of the wild forest to the 
normal forest in one rotation (pp. 82 and 95.) 
The Knysna forests are logged entirely by millers and license-holders, 
not by Government. The system has faults, but is, on the whole, more 
economical than Government working. France has this same private 
logging 3 Germany and Japan, Government logging. Australia has 
recently introduced conjoint logginge—virz., private and Government work- 
ing side by side. Thus the working of each can always be compared. 
The matter is largely one of public policy, and I shall revert to it under 
the chapter on ‘‘ Forest Policy ’’ in Part IT. 
The hauling at Knysna is all done by cattle. This is undoubtedly 
the best system where the timber is scattered. and especially where the 
oxen and *‘ bullockies ’’ are so good as they are at Knysna. (See p. 4%: 
Waipoua Kauri Forest.”) Jt has been mentioned (p. 87) that the 
log-hauling tracks, whether Steam-haulers, cattle, or horses are used. 
