514 KEI'LAl 1:MENT of THE ANCIENT E. AFKRAN EUKEST 



f(jnner is sufficient, outside the forest, to enable tlieni to dispense 

 witli tlie latter. Inside the forest the tendency of shade is to 

 keep them back, and of sunlii^ht to bring them on. In cultiva- 

 tion, they would probably nearl}' always need either initial 

 shade or tilth — -or water. 



The effect of a large antel(ti)e po|)ulation on adxancing 

 forest can best be noted where the former still exists. Buck 

 mostly avoid forest. The little "blue-buck" (C. nioitficola 

 inhabits it. and Intshbuck be uj) in it. Inn feed outside. The 

 stomach, examined by myself, of an individtial that thus haunted 

 the .forest, contained recognisable remains only of ])lants of tlie 

 grass-veld outside. 



A Sitgf/estioii. — AIa_\' it not jjrove i^ossible, for certain pur- 

 ])oses, to utilize our already-established pasture-trees as nurse 

 trees in artificial afforestation, at any rate under favourable 

 conditions of rainfall, situation, etc.? 1 do not know whether 

 it lias been attemi)ted. i have myself, as a very small exj^eri- 

 ment, ])lanted gums ( (V. botryoldcs ) in a Uapaca grove under 

 conditions api;arcntly imfavourable lo them — a high and dry 

 spur, with mixed shale and saiidstmie right on the surface and 

 no i)rc]niration beyond holes that would just take the roots — and 

 they have over-tO]j])ed and are killing the Uapacas; but gums, 

 not needing shade, and being worse than useless for the ptu-pose 

 that this sort of i)lanting might be particularly used for, are not 

 so much to the i)oint as the other o])ser\ations 1 ha\'u described. 



The pasture-trees make good shelter for stock, and contain 

 a few really useful species, and one would be sorry to sacritice 

 the gorgeous si)ring tints of the Brachystegias — a landmark in 

 the year ; Ijut the type of forest is, all the same, a relatively use- 

 less one, and, where not near mines and towns, is tending to swamj) 

 the ]jasture. 1 have referred to its i)rol)able inefficiency in the 

 matter (^f water-conservation, llie humus is more or less burnt 

 off' annuallv, the cano])y is connnonly so thin and broken that it 

 fails ade(|uately to protect the ground (from the sun and check 

 evaporation, or greatly to lower the temperature, and the wood- 

 ing is so open below and around that the drying winds blow 

 through unchecked. Air. llutchins. if i remember rightly, sug- 

 gested many years ago that the moisture exhaled from the leaves 

 ])robably greatly exceeded that retained by the shading, and 

 this, for most of the s])ecies, seems likel\' enough. It is doubt- 

 ful, again, whetlier, on a steep slo])e. the thinning of the grass 

 that takes place vmder a close grove does not lead to greater 

 waste than is prevented by the roots of the trees — at anv rate 

 where the fallen leaves are Ijurnt. I'inally the drving-u]j of the 

 springs of a slope in which 1 am interested has gone on coinci- 

 dentall}- with its bectjming more and more completelv clothed 

 with this type of woruling. 1 do not connect the two ])henomena 

 necessaril}-, but I doubt whether it would have hapijcned to at 

 all tlie same extent uii<ler jiine or ("liiritida-like forest. 1 ha\e 

 several times heard tlie cutting of this oi)en wooding denounced 

 as likely to " dry up the springs " or " diminish the rainfall," 



