News and Notes. 453 



in other ways than from lightning were from sheer carelessness 

 on the part of campers, brush burners, land cleaners, etc. There 

 were a great number of conflagrations traceable, it is true, to 

 railways whose lines were nor cleared of brush, and sparks from 

 the passing engines set blazes in the debris by the right of way 

 with disastrous results to the surrounding timber. 



There were employed last summer over 150 forest rangers, 

 whose sole duty was to safeguard the standing timber and collect 

 and organize fire fighting parties in case of an outbreak. The 

 money expended on the work of these men ran up to $745,000. 

 There was burned over only 116,000 acres, with a total money loss 

 of $300,000. 



The report recently issued by the Chief Conservator of Forests 

 in South Africa for the year ending December 31st, 191 1, is 

 of considerable interest, and considerable credit is due to the For- 

 est Department for the efficiency already attained by this young 

 union in administration and fire-protection. 



The area of the Forest Reserves in the Union of South Africa 

 in December, 191 1, was 1,799,550 acres. Besides this, there were 

 also 42,587 acres reserved for growing railway ties, on which 

 railway funds alone were expended, making a total reserved area 

 of 1,842,137 acres. This area is divided into seven conservancies, 

 roughly speaking a conservancy to each province in the Union. 

 Each conservancy, consisting usually of several reserves, is ad- 

 ministered by a District Forest Officer and a technically trained 

 Assistant Forester. Under them are chiefs of reserves, forest 

 guards, rangers, etc- The more important positions are all filled 

 by technical foresters, usually highly trained men who have com- 

 pleted their course in the Oxford School of Forestry and in Ger- 

 many. The organization very closely resembles that of the Can- 

 adian Government forest reserves. 



Forest surveys are being made for the demarcation of new re- 

 serves, and existing reserves are being protected from fire by 

 burning or cutting fire-belts around the reserves and by planting 

 up their perimeters with trees of the less inflammable species. As 

 a result of these precautions, there were burned during the sea- 

 son of T911 only seven hundred acres or 0.04% of the total area. 



On the reserves themselves improvement cuttings are being 



