62 TREE PLANTING IN RHODESIA. 



in Rhodesia could be conducted with every prospect of success, 

 and the question of the estabhshment of a Forest Department 

 should have the earnest consideration of the British South Africa 

 Company at an early date. At the same time, it would well 

 repay farmers and others to set aside a portion of their land for 

 this purpose, for the work could he undertaken at very little 

 expense and without a great amount of supervision, while the 

 result would be the provision, not only of necessary shelter belts 

 for stock during winter, but also of timber of considerable 

 economic value, as well as of firewood. 



Climatic Conditions. — I should like to point out that the con- 

 ditions here are entirely different from those prevailing in most 

 parts of South Africa. At the Cape you have a rainfall ranging 

 from thirty-five inches to seventy inches, commencing in May 

 and ending about September, with occasional showers during 

 the summer months ; there is no frost, and the extreme summer 

 heat is tempered with a moisture-laden wind. Here the rains 

 may commence in November and go on until April, but we 

 generally expect the rainy season to commence about Christmas 

 and cease about March, with a total rainfall of about twenty-one 

 inches. The frosts may commence any time after March ; this 

 year the first frost recorded on the grass in the Matoppos was 

 on the 26th March, when one degree was recorded. As much as 

 ten degrees were recorded on the 6th April : this was an excep- 

 tionally low itemperature for the time of year. Last year the 

 frosts commenced on 14th April, and continued practically without 

 intermission until the middle of September, a period of twenty 

 weeks. Frost was recorded on twenty-eight days in May, twenty- 

 two days in June, twenty-six days in July, sixteen days in August, 

 and four days in September ; as much as twenty-one degrees of 

 frost were recorded on the 9th and 25th July. From the above 

 remarks the great difficulty may be realised that one has to con- 

 tend with in raising seedlings during this period, ]\Iarch to Sep- 

 tember. 



To turn to the dry season, very little rain falls between the 

 middle of March and middle of November. No precipitation has 

 been recorded in the Matoppos during the month of August for 

 the whole time that records have been kept there, a period of 

 eight years ; so that it is absolutely necessary to have the ground 

 thoroughly prepared ready for planting as soon as the first good 

 rains occur, as the planting season is so short and the cold, drv 

 period so long, and unless the trees are got out in the field early 

 they will have a hard struggle to survive. 



When the work was first undertaken in the ^Matoppos the 

 " pit " system was adopted ; this system was that which met with 

 great success in certain parts of India, the pits, about four feet 

 by four feet, being partly filled in with decayed leaves, etc., and 

 soil, and trees planted in these survived in most cases where some- 

 times the indigenous trees were killed by exceptional drought^. 

 Here, however, this method did not succeed, one of the chief 

 reasons being that it was almost impossible to keep grass-fires 



