PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS — SECTION C. 85 



tion of the dense forests, but the Falcate Yellow wood (P. falcata) 

 is peculiar to Pondoland and Natal. 



The distribution and occurrence of our forest trees is a 

 most interesting study, and one which has been little touched on 

 as yet. The field is a wide one, and should afiford plenty of 

 scope for investigation to members of the increasing band of 

 botanists now in the Union. 



The forests are managed under what is known as the " Selec- 

 tion System." Generally in this country one notices pine and 

 gum plantations are clean felled, and are either regenerated by 

 planting or from seed on the ground or from coppice shoots. 

 In the indigenous forests under Government control, on the 

 other hand, clean felling is avoided and only the mature, over- 

 mature and depreciating trees, or trees which for sylvicultural 

 reasons should be felled are removed, and their place is taken 

 in time either by self-sown seedlings or coppice growth. A 

 forest worked under this method looks to a layman viewing it 

 from outside as if it had not been worked. Trees of all ages, 

 from one year old to the oldest, are constantly represented over 

 the whole area and, theoretically, the work of selecting trees for 

 cutting extends at all times over the whole forest. In practice, 

 however, the forest is divided into series, and further into sec- 

 tions, which are gone over in turn, so that cutting returns to the 

 same section after 40 years. 



Systematic management was introduced into the Cape forests 

 in 1883 by a French forester, the Comte de Vasselot de Regne, 

 whose services were obtained for that purpose by the Govern- 

 ment. The broad principles he laid down were sound, but his 

 ideals have scarcely been attained for various reasons. The data 

 on which he worked were necessarily of the sketchiest nature, 

 the forests were in a highly abnormal condition, and trees, which 

 in the interest of the forests should have been removed, were 

 unsaleable, and left to encumber the ground and prevent the re- 

 growth of a better crop. 



It will take a very long time before the forests reach a nor- 

 mal state, and, meantime, the urgent need is a careful study of 

 the sylvicultural requirements of the different species compris- 

 ing the forest, for without more knowledge than is at present 

 available, progress in forest management is not hkely to be 

 rapid or sure. 



In Natal till Union there was never a settled forest policy, 

 and the forests were worked spasmodically without much system. 

 In the Transvaal before the Boer War there was little attempt 

 at control or conservation, and most accessible forests were 

 worked out. Since then most of the forests have been closed. 



Of all the species of trees in the indigenous forest the only 

 ones that produce timber that can be regarded as a substitute 

 for imported pine time are the Yellowwoods. 



The Yellowwoods attain large dimensions, the largest of 

 any trees in the forest. There are three kinds — the Real, the 

 Bastard, and the Falcate. The Real Yellowwood grows 80 to 

 100 feet in height, and occasionally to 7 feet in diameter. The 



