that pure teak in a second rotation is too grave a risk (and would any Forest Officer be prepared to put money of his own into the undertaking ?). Perhaps this method might be tried, the intervening spaces being sown or planted with other species. An underwood of bamboo is also suggested. In any event the point which requires early solution by the Sylviculturist, as also by the Mycologist and Entomologist, is the fundamental one as to whether the cultivation of pure teak, or pure sâl and certain other species for that matter (the worship of the single species, in other words) is sound sylviculture in the Forests of India! At Nilambur small experimental areas have been sown up with Lagerstroemia Flos-Regina and Terminalia tomentosa. În the extensions these two species and rosewood have been interspersed in small patches with the teak. Bombax malabaricum is also being used. Clear felling is also practised in the Mount Stuart Forests, the areas being sown up chiefly with teak; where the soil is too waterlogged they are sown up with Terminalia tomentosa. These operations were started on a small scale in 1919. By 1923-4 some 863 acres had been stocked with an established crop, in parts of which Adina cordifolia has come in naturally as an understory. In the Upper Godaveri, after clear felling, the debris is stacked in heaps and burnt, and these areas sown up with teak. The Gumsur Sâl Forests (Ganjam) Working Plan prescribes clear felling and cutting back of the young growth and burning, a good young crop being thereby obtained. 2. The System in Bombay.-Some three years ago a commencement was made in the North Kanara Division with clear felling and artificial regeneration. Under the new Working Plan now being completed by Mr. Davis areas have been selected in each of the two Working Circles, which are to be worked under this method. The total area selected (the areas are not contiguous) is sufficient to last for twenty years, which is the period which will elapse between the Improvement Fellings made in any block, the rest of the forest being worked under the Selection System. Practically speaking, these areas therefore form Periodic Block I of the total area to be worked under concentrated regeneration by the Quartier Bleu method. The Working Plans Officer is unable to indicate even roughly the areas which would fall into Periodic Block II, owing to the fact that the bamboo may flower and seed some time during the twenty years and this will influence the selection of areas for the latter Periodic Block. A one-year-old plantation was seen (in March, 1925) in company with the Divisional Officer, a contiguous area having been already cleared and burnt in readiness for planting this season. The method is to plant alternate lines with one-yearold teak seedlings, grown in a dry nursery, the intermediate lines having teak seed dibbled in, the distance in each case being 6 feet. The growth in the one-year plantation was remarkably good, due it was said to the long and heavy rains of 1924. A good burning of the refuse on the area is regarded here as essential to the future success of the young plants, and the fiercer the fire the greater the assurance of success. This is a most interesting departure in the Division and, with the experience which a few more years should give, promises to be very successful. In this instance, again, it was suggested that the teak would probably give better results if it were either grown in mixture or interplanted within the first few years, and the Divisional Officer is going to experiment in this direction. For such work a Sylviculturist is badly needed in Bombay. Another plantation of a slightly different nature is the Nagargali plantation in the Belgaum Division. It is one year old and the results are so far successful. It has been mentioned above that a good burning is essential before sowing or planting teak on a cleared area. Here, owing to the demand for material for the coupe, insufficient material is left on the area to ensure a fierce fire. The procedure is therefore to collect the tops and refuse and spread them over patches of varying size and then burn the mass. Only the patches which have been so burnt over are then planted up with one-year-old teak seedlings. The intervening spaces become filled up with other species, teak, blackwood and other coppice shoots, and a full crop appears to be assured. At present only teak are planted out on the patches, any number up to 200 or so, depending on the size of the patch, the planting distance being 6 feet. It appears possible that it would be advisable to put out a mixture on the larger patches, using Xylia which is in leaf when the teak is leafless or the valuable blackwood and so forth. Of course, under the method the resultant crop will be a mixture in any event, and this is certainly in its favour. One of the troubles noted in this plantation was bison, a herd of which had gone through it the preceding night. These animals browse down the blackwood CHIR (PINUS LONGIFOLIA) PLANTATION, 17 YEARS OLD. SOWN BROADCAST AND UNWEEDED. NOTE FROSTED SAL. SUPKHAR, BALAGHAT DIVISION, 2,500 FT. CENTRAL PROVINCES D. O. Witt, photo. NATURAL REGENERATION OF SAL-ANNUALLY CUT BACK BY D. O. Witt, photo. SAMPLE PLOT, CHIR PINE (PINUS LONGIFOLIA) PLANTATION. AVER. NATURAL REPRODUCTION OF SAL ON HOED STRIPS AT SEOWARI, COMPT. 15D, SINGBHUM FORESTS. PHOTO. 26 FEBRUARY, 1920. BIHAR AND ORISSA coppice shoots of which they are particularly fond and bite off the leaders of the teak seedlings, thus giving rise to forked trees. These latter are cut back in order to get up a strong coppice shoot. It was noted that the teak coppice shoots from the stools were already above the reach of these animals. But the damage a herd can commit in a single night has to be seen to be credited. In all Circles clear felling in high forest is undertaken, followed by sowing and planting of teak. In addition to North Kanara, Belgaum, the Dangs and Peint may be instanced. Nurseries are maintained to provide the plants. At times the latter supplement natural regeneration, teak and mohwa (Bassia latifolia) being raised artificially. 3. The System in the Central Provinces.-A very interesting experiment, which perhaps finds its place here, is the use which is being made of the chir pine (Pinus longifolia) in the Central Provinces. It has a parallel in the great oak and beech forest of Tronçais in the Department of Allier in France where the Scots Pine is grown for very much the same purpose, i.e. to clothe and clean frosty areas covered with the Agrostis grass and make them suitable for the introduction of oak in the next rotation. The chir pine is being introduced in the Raigarh Plateau of Balaghat, where the failure of the sâl to reclothe the large and extending areas of blanks is largely due to frost. At Supkhar it was observed that what appeared to be promising regeneration was yearly cut back by frost and never reached the pole stage. A plantation of chir pine was commenced here, and has proved successful; the following tabular statement (Ann. Rep. For. Res. Inst., 1923-4, p. 27) shows that the growth compares favourably with that of this tree in other Provinces: Volumes per acre figures for small wood from sample plots laid out are: Age 13=1917 cubic feet. Age 17=2075 cubic feet. III-2 F |