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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

[graphic]

CHIR (PINUS LONGIFOLIA) PLANTATION, 17 YEARS OLD. SOWN BROADCAST
AND UNWEEDED. NOTE FROSTED SAL. SUPKHAR, BALAGHAT DIVISION,

2,500 FT. CENTRAL PROVINCES

NATURAL REGENERATION OF SAL-ANNUALLY CUT BACK BY FROST-BALAGNAT, C. P.

D. O. Witt, photo.

D. O. Witt, photo.

[graphic]
[graphic][merged small]

17 YEARS. THINNED: AVER. HEIGHT 28.8 FEET. SUPKAR,

SAMPLE PLOT,

NATURAL

SEOWARI,

RAIGARH R. BALAGHAT, C. P. MAY, 1924

REPRODUCTION OF SAL COMPT. 15D, SINGBHUM FEBRUARY, 1920. BIHAR

ON HOED STRIPS AT
FORESTS.

AND ORISSA

PHOTO. 26

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:

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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

This experiment is well worthy the careful study of Forest Officers. Too much time and too much money have been wasted in the past in endeavouring to get up valuable species in derelict areas subject to frost or drought, or covered with heavy weed growth. Nowhere perhaps is a better illustration afforded of these conditions and the way they have been dealt with during the past seventy years or so than at Tronçais. Many other lessons of high utility to the Forest Officer, whose work lies in the teak and sâl areas of India and Burma, are to be assimilated in this great forest.

In

4. The System in Bengal.-In the Darjeeling Division clear felling and artificial regeneration was introduced in 1921. areas which are unsuitable to the growth of field crops planting on payment has to be resorted to after the clear felling.

5. The System in Assam.-Sowing in lines after clear felling has been started in the Poba Reserve of the Sadiya Division. The unmarketable trees are removed by the Assam Sawmills and Timber Company. The trees which are left are of small girth and climbers are plentiful. Naga coolies are employed to convert this material into fuel, which is sold to the Sawmills at about Rs.14 an acre. The refuse is burnt, and seed of Terminalia myriocarpa, Morus laevigata, Cedrela toona, Lagerstræmia Flos-Regina, Chikrassia tabularis and Bischofia javanica is sown broadcast in lines 20 feet apart. Terminalia seed is abundant and is used as a nurse for the other species. The sowing is done to prevent weed growth. The lines are first cleared of any rubbish and lightly hoed. The intervals become filled with a certain amount of coppice and tall upright grass 15 feet to 20 feet high which assists in drawing up the plants. The seeds are mixed in the proportion of Terminalia, 12; Tun, 2; Lagerstroemia, 1; and Chikrassia, I, part. This method has proved successful, and now (1925) the whole 80-acre coupe is sown up. The cost of formation is covered by the sale of the fuel, when this is saleable. Sowings at stake do not give as good results as broadcast, and require cleaning during the rains. As regards growth, a plot of pure Terminalia sown in 1921-2 is now (three growing seasons)= 20 feet; 1922-3, Terminalia, Morus and Tun (two growing seasons) = 9 feet to 14 feet; 1923-4, the same (one growing season)=3 feet to 4 feet; Terminalia, broad cast (one growing season) = 4 feet to 5 feet.

6. The System in Bihar and Orissa.-In three of the Chota Nagpur (Singbhum) Divisions, Saranda, Kolhan and Porahat, the regeneration of sâl presents no difficulty over considerable

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