606 Forestry Quarterly 



extent unknown to other forest services. The indigenous forests 

 covering now only half a million acres in a country of 430,000 

 square miles, are poorly stocked and contain only hardwood 

 species of slow growth, belonging to genera which have never 

 yet been under forest management, and concerning which it 

 has already been learned that natural reproduction is slow of 

 growth and difficult to obtain. The most important forests of the 

 future must be established by the introduction of timber trees 

 from other continents. Rule of thumb methods, carried bodily 

 from other lands, have helped foresters in many new regions — 

 they are of little use in Africa, the country where the forester 

 must rely upon science alone, largely meteorological as well as 

 silvical, in developing his plan of campaign. 



Physiography and Climate 



The progress and present situation of forestry in South Africa 

 may be more readily understood if a slight digression is made 

 here to outline the climatic and physiographic conditions. A gen- 

 eral outline map would show the six broad regions into which 

 South Africa has been divided by the important influences con- 

 trolling plant growth. The salient feattues of these types are as 

 follows : 



1. South-west coast. A desert-like strip, 40 to 60 miles wide, 

 reaching from sea level to the 3,000 foot contour, extending 

 through late German South-west Africa southward along the 

 South Atlantic coast to the Oliphants River. The soil, sandy 

 near the ocean, becomes a mixture of sand and clay inland toward 

 the mountains; the only break in the topography is furnished by 

 low rolling hills. The average annual rainfall over a period of 10 

 years varied at two stations from 23^ to 4J^ inches, 80 per cent 

 falling in the winter six months. The temperature ranges from 

 a minimum of 32° F. to a maximum of 108° F. Vegetation is 

 sparse and trees few, the latter confined to scattered Tamarix, 

 Acacia, Combretvun and Euclea, of no economic value, 



2. South coast. This is another littoral strip, extending about 

 50 miles wide from the Oliphants River eastward to near Port 

 Elizabeth, a distance of 500 miles. This coastal belt rises in steps 

 by a series of escarpments, to a height of about 3,000 feet. This 

 is a region of winter rains, varying from 40 inches annually near 

 the coast to 20 inches inland. The temperature varies from a 



