76 EDITORIAL NOTES. [Junk 



East African Forestry. — Two distinct tree zones may be 

 traced up the Shire river to ]\Iount Zomba, the site of the Church 

 of Scotland Mission Station. Below elevations of 2000 feet, the 

 Baobab nourishes, and with it is associated the Mimosa and Tamarind 

 trees, while at the higher elevations of 3000 feet the Napaca kirhii, 

 whose native name is Msuku, Kahya SenegaUnsis, or the Mbawa, help 

 to give an unique scenic character to the mountain ranges. The blue- 

 tinted young leaves of the tree from which the native bark cloth is 

 chiefly taken, are visible for miles. There is no proper forest, 

 except in the jungles and ravines down the mountain-sides ; while 

 on the plains there are few large trees, though viewed in the 

 distance they appear well wooded. Mr. John Buchanan, from 

 whom we quote, states that on tlie plain near Lake Shirwa, as well 

 as on the river, lines of acacias, often in a foot of water, lifty yards 

 wide, run at right angles to the banks, while the intervening space 

 is grassy plain, on which at wide intervals may be seen a stunted 

 shrub. In the villages on the Shire river, the huts are built closely 

 together, and overshadowed by stately Baobabs, as well as higher 

 native trees, whose trunks rise straight for some forty feet or so. 

 Before the huts, women are scattered here and there pounding 

 sorghum, while their liege lords may be basking on mats in the sun, 

 or tying a grass fence round the family mansion. A stockade ten or 

 twelve feet high, composed of cuttings which have since rooted, and 

 are now a live fence, surrounds the encampment. The entrance 

 to it only admits one man at a time, and it is surrounded 

 by an arch of Euphorbia entwined with lovely climbers, which 

 indeed may be met everywhere in the jungle on one side of the 

 village. 



When to cut Timber. — The Albany Country Gentleman, from 

 forty years' experience, endorses an opinion lately published by 

 Professor Budd, as the result of numerous trials made at tlie instance 

 of the Eussian Government, and given forth at a forestry convention 

 in Moscow, that the best time to cut trees was near the end of June, 

 while the bark would peel freely. Eails of young bass wood, 

 summer cut and seasoned, become nearly as hard as horn ; while 

 winter cut is worthless, rotting in a few years. Professor Budd 

 found i)oles of box-elder, cut in June, when peeled, dried, and set 

 as posts for fences or sheds, had lasted sixteen years; while 

 others similarly treated and used, but cut in winter and set green, 

 rotted in four years. 



