ki';i'LAci':.Mi';\T oi' riii': AXeii^Nt k. ai'Kuan fokicst 51 1 



to be, (Ml the whole, re])ressive. He shifts his liardens e\erv few- 

 years, and wherever he makes a new one he first lojxs off the 

 l)ranches. piles them round the base of the trunks, and, firinj^' 

 them, destro3's a patch of bush. Some of the trees of the wooded 

 ])asturcs bear favourite fruits, or support edible cateri^illars. 

 Im])rovident of the goose that lays his "'olden eg-gs, he frec|uentl\- 

 chops these (Unvn to collect the " e_ggs " more easily. He is a 

 far more efficient dis])erser of the seeds of edible fruits than is 

 the white man, but he fails to keep down the buck that eat down 

 the seedlings. He even reinforces them — with goats. 



Idle white man, on the other hand, chops down some of the 

 mature forest-trees but prohibits the cutting of vounger growth. 

 He protects the forest from the annual fires, and tries, if any- 

 thing, to extend it.''' But he also conserves the relatively useless 

 ];asture-trees that are making his agriculture expensive and will 

 gradually reduce his grazing. Jealous of his proprietary rights 

 he forbids the native to cut them ; an efifective and blood-thirsty 

 hunter, he destroys the buck that kei)t them down ; his earlier 

 fires let them make a start, and his sheep and cattle (more fre- 

 (|uently kei)t than goats) definitely encourage them by replacing 

 only the grazing antelopes and keepiny' down chiefiy the trees' 

 competitor and fire-bringer, the grass. And so, if he is not so 

 near a town or mine as to be able to cho]) all down and sell it, his 

 land reverts to wooding — of a verv poor kind, whether you look 

 at it from the point of view of direct utility (as compared with 

 wliat can be obtained from a (|uite small plantation of better-class 

 timber), or from that of its influence on soil conservation and the 

 springs. The latter is probably ///'/, or worse. 



6. Recon'ouest ny Forest. 



I am nowadays commencing to see a definite, if incipient, 

 acKance on the part of a considerable line of forest as the result 

 of having protected Chipete and my section of Chirinda from 

 the fires ifor fifteen years ])ast, and the process is worth de- 

 scribing. 



The sub-community represented b\- the uiitskirfs j)lants has • 

 made the first and great advance. The green fringe of Hypo- 

 cstcs ai'istafa has pushed in ])laces as much as 40 or 50 yards into 

 the grass and is supplanting it, the luxuriant climbers Dioscorca 

 Schimpcriaiia and Hcliints iiivstaciiius are in places wandering out 

 and smothering it, and the large shrubs Venwnia podocoma 

 and raiigiicria apiculaia and small, labunmm-Iike Calpnrnia 

 lasiogync are following up this advance and making a tliicket. 

 Ab)st i^rominent of all, however, is the semi-tolerant sjjecies Albh- 

 ::.ia fasfigiafa chlrindeiisis. While the fires lasted, this tree hugged 

 the forest, but now it is thrusting out boldly into the grass-veld — 

 individually up to eighty and a hundred yards, and closer growth, 

 already forming clumps and little woods, u]) to tliirt\- and forty 



* \t Cliiriiula I think wo recot>nisc our ohligntions towards the fores;!. 

 I'.ut it nnisl 1)e admitted that ihe ahovf has not hix-n \hv altitude <it" ihr 

 wliite man in all countries. 



