South African Forestry 611 



partment, responsible direct to the Minister. The head office 

 of this department was located at a comparatively inaccessible 

 spot in the midst of the most important Cape Forest area. The 

 pressing need for definite action led in 1881 to the creation of a 

 special separate Forest Department, under charge of a French- 

 man, Comte de Vasselot, a student of Nancy who had extensive 

 experience in reforestation in Gascony. His report recommended 

 the passing of a forest law, the establishment of a technical forest 

 department, the demarcation of the indigenous forests to be 

 managed under working plans as permanent forests, and the forma- 

 tion of extensive forest plantations to meet future needs. 



D. E. Hutchins, the pioneer of South African forest planting, 

 a man who has done more than any other living forester in the 

 transfer of forest species to new lands and in fighting the cause of 

 forest planting in a treeless country, was transferred from India 

 to the Cape Forest Department in 1883. The native forests 

 were demarcated and set aside under a forest act passed in 1888, 

 modelled upon the 1882 Madras Act. In 1891, following the 

 Indian practice, administration of the Forest Department was 

 divided among four conservators, each reporting directly to the 

 Government on matters affecting his district. This arrange- 

 ment continued until 1903, when a Chief Conservator was ap- 

 pointed whose responsibilities extended over the whole colony. 



The Cape Service grew rapidly; in 1905 the staff included 26 

 conservators and assistant conservators and 84 European foresters, 

 the latter corresponding somewhat to rangers and guards in North 

 American practice. Several men had been sent to Cooper's Hill 

 for training and a primary forest school had been established 

 in the heart of the Tokai plantations, near Cape Town. Over 

 $3,500,000 had been expended in forest plantations, and the 

 continents of the world had been searched for forest species likely 

 to succeed under Cape conditions. 



The other crown colony. Natal, did not make such progress. 

 Rich YeUowwood forest areas, limited in extent, existed in the cen- 

 tral part of the Province. As early as 1886, a Cape forester re- 

 ported; another report was made by a German forester a few years 

 later, but nothing was done. A modification of the Cape Forest 

 Act was put into effect by government regulation, the office of 

 Conservator of Forests was twice created and twice abolished, and 

 very little was accomplished. From 1908 to Union in 1910, 



