South African Forestry 619 



also have been very successftil. Forty years ago there were no 

 trees near Grahamstown, one of South Africa's educational cen- 

 ters, since that time P. insignis plantations have been established 

 which at 30 years produced 9,000 cubic feet of timber per acre. 

 Shipping timber to the mines from Grahamstown is now an im- 

 portant, and is evidently a permanent, industry. 



A plantation of eucalyptus begun after 1876 at Worcester, cover- 

 ing 70 acres, sold at about 32 years for $20,000. E. diversicolor 

 at 6 years had produced an average yearly increment of 533 cubic 

 feet per acre, at 13 years this average had risen to 625 cubic feet 

 per acre. E. saligna at 18 years had reached a height of 100 feet 

 and averaged an annual growth of 527 cubic feet per acre. English 

 oak {Q. pedunculata) thrives in the heavier rainfall regions of 

 some of the Cape Mountain Ranges, and the growth is much more 

 rapid than in Europe. At 21 years one plantation had reached a 

 height of 54 feet, a minimum diameter breast high of 6 inches and 

 had produced 231 cubic feet per acre. 



The eucalyptus, nearly 150 species of which have been tried in 

 the inconceivably numerous combinations of climatic, altitude 

 and soil factors in South Africa, have in some instances made 

 marvellous growth. E. maideni, in the Transvaal, at 9}/^ years 

 old (It is significant that in discussing these upstarts the forester 

 in Africa considers half years) was 70 feet in height. A 24-acre 

 plot, 10 years old, yielded from thinnings a gross revenue of $500 

 and a net revenue of $350. Extensive drift sand planting has 

 been carried out. One area, covering 5100 acres of sea-coast 

 dunes, was planted over a period of 16 years with convict labor at 

 a cost of $325,000. A railroad was built and the sands fixed by 

 distributing over the surface the refuse from the nearby city of 

 Port Elizabeth. The grasses used were Ehrharta gigantea, Psamma 

 arenaria and Eragrostis. Acacia cyclopia and saligna were planted 

 as soon as the grass established a stable surface, and on the lee 

 slopes Eucalyptus gomphocephala and diversicolor. The trees 

 have after 14 years grown to a height of 70 feet. Several thousand 

 acres of drifting sand have been reclaimed by forest planting with 

 wattles and pines near Cape Town. 



As in India, amongst the earliest commercial forest planta- 

 tions established in South Africa were those for railway fuel. 

 These were begun in 1876, when all the fuel was being brought 

 from the United Kingdom. When coal was discovered at the 



