610 Forestry Quarterly 



areas, otherwise nothing would be left. As it is, few tracts re- 

 main which have not been heavily cut over in the past century, 

 almost to the extinction of the principal species. Such small 

 areas of virgin forest as remain owe their salvation to the ex- 

 tremely high cost of moving the comparatively small quantities 

 of valuable timber either to the seaboard or to centers of popula- 

 tion. 



The original African timber forests contained 108 species, of 

 which a few were very valuable, nearly all slow growing hard- 

 woods, admirably adapted for vehicle construction. Chief among 

 them are Yellow wood (Podocarpus thunhergii and elongata), 

 constituting three quarters of the stand. Assegai (Curtisia faginea) , 

 Stinkwood {Ocotea bullata) Black ironwood {Olea laurijolia), 

 White ironwood {Toddalia lanceolata), White pear {Apodytes 

 dimidiata) , Kamassi-wood {Gonioma kamassi), Clanwilliam cedar 

 {Callitris arborea), occurring scattered over 200 square miles, 

 Sneezewood {Ptaeroxylon utile), and Cape Box {Buxus macowanii). 



Wherever forests existed wheel-wright and vehicle works were 

 established to supply the wagons so extensively used in South 

 Africa. It is doubtful if any American vehicle woods possessed 

 the strength or toughness of some of the African woods. The 

 selection of the forest for this use, the cutting of mining timbers 

 and railway sleepers, together with repeated fires, and constantly 

 encroaching clearings made by shifting ciiltivators have sadly 

 reduced the indigenous African forests. About 450,000 acres 

 remain, nearly all cut over and in a state of regeneration, of which 

 about 400,000 acres is in Goverimient forest reservations. 



Development oj Forestry 



An extensive forestry program was under way in Cape Colony 

 and much was actually accompHshed long before the Union. 

 Forestry in the other provinces before the Union, and over the 

 whole of the coimtry imder the present Union Government, is a 

 direct offshoot of the pioneering days of the old Cape Colony 

 Forest Department. The problem of forest administration first 

 engaged the attention of Cape Colony in 1819 when a Superin- 

 tendent of Lands and Woods was appointed. This appears to 

 have been similar to what has been so common in Canada, chiefly 

 an office administration, until 1876, when forestry received further 

 recognition by the creation of a Forests and Plantations De- 



