SoiUh African Forestry 613 



of the country by the establishing of plantations. Private planta- 

 tions may be placed under the Act for purposes of protection, and 

 all trees growing on road sides, if not private or mtinicipal property 

 are placed under the control of the Forest Department. 



Forest reservations are, after the Indian system divided into 

 demarcated and un demarcated. No great difference is apparent, 

 except that the demarcated include the more valuable and acces- 

 sible areas, the boundaries of which are more plainly established, 

 and offences in which are more severely punished. 



A sound organization has already been established for carrying 

 on the work. The Forest Service is under the Department 

 of State, and the Chief Conservator is responsible directly to the 

 Minister of Agriculture. The Union is divided into seven con- 

 servancies, each in charge of a trained Conservator of fairly long 

 experience, responsible to the Chief Conservator. The Conser- 

 vancies are divided into districts, each in charge of a District 

 Forest Officer. There are altogether 27 District and Assistant 

 District Forest Officers. The forest planting stations, or small 

 forest areas in each district, are each in charge of Foresters, of 

 whom there are 123. 



There has lately been added to the organization an office of Re- 

 search, the staff consisting at present of one Research officer. 

 The duties of this office are, of course, multifarious, including 

 silvical studies of indigenous forests, recording of the innumerable 

 experiments carried on in planting, finding uses for indigenous and 

 planted woods, coping with insects and diseases, organizing the 

 investigative forces of the whole service and introducing syste- 

 matic plans of working indigenous forests and plantations. The 

 whole of forestry in South Africa, even more than elsewhere, 

 is experimental, policies and principles must change rapidly 

 according to newly discovered facts. The Research office should 

 soon be largely increased. 



Every effort is being made to recruit from properly trained men. 

 A training school established under the Cape Government is car- 

 ried on by the Union Government. Here men who have passed 

 preliminary examinations and served apprenticeships are given a 

 nine months course, which increases their value for the grade 

 known as "Junior Foresters," to which they are appointed on 

 plantations and forest tracts under administration. 



The Assistant District Foresters are now appointed only from 

 men trained at accepted forest schools in Europe or America. 



