Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 4).djvu/93

] way, rights to extract definite quantities of forest produce, rights of grazing fixed numbers of cattle. Subject to the rights and privileges specified in the notification, a reserved forest is the exclusive property of the State and is strictly protected from injury and trespass. The extraction of timber, principally teak, from reserves is regulated by elaborate working plans which provide for the exploitation of the forests by compartments and for due reproduction, so as to ensure a permanent supply. The extraction of timber is effected partly by contractors working directly under Forest officers, partly by large firms who hold leases of forests and pay royalty on the timber brought out. Among the most important and valuable teak forests are those on the slopes of the Dawna Hills and in the Thaungyin valley in Tenasserim; on the sides of the Pegu Yoma; on the hills east of the Sittang river; in Upper Chindwin, where thirty-three separate forests are recognized; in the Yaw drainage; in Bhamo, Katha, and Mandalay; in the Shan States and Karenni. The northern limit of teak is about 24° 30′ N. lat.; the southern limit between 15° and 16° N.

Teak is so intimately associated with Burma and so valuable a product that some space may be devoted to a description of the method of its extraction. Before teak can be extracted, the tree must be quite dead and dry. Almost always it has to be floated down streams; and green teak does not float. Therefore, two or three years before a forest is to be worked, a Forest officer goes through it, accompanied by a gang of coolies, and selects the trees which he considers fit for felling, taking care to leave a fair proportion of good seed-bearing trees for the purpose of regeneration. Each tree selected is ringed or, as it is technically called, girdled. The bark of the tree and the sap-wood are cut out in a circle so as to expose the heart-wood all round, the flow of sap being thus prevented. The trees are then left usually for three years till dry. Each of