620 Forestry Quarterly 



Cape, planting was stopped. Later, in 1902, it was taken up 

 again, this time for sleeper production. South Africa is de- 

 pendent on outside sources for sleepers for over 11,000 miles of 

 Government line. The railroads, practically all of which are 

 owned and managed by the Union Government, began with a vote 

 for railway sleeper plantations of $50,000. The work was car- 

 ried on as a separate Railway Forest department for some years. 

 By March, 1915, 20,343 acres had been planted at a cost of 

 $750,385. The average cost of establishing plantations has been 

 about $50 per acre. 



The whole work of establishing and managing railway sleeper 

 plantations has been turned over to the Forest Department which 

 receives a specific vote from the Railway Department for this 

 piu-pose. The annual vote for this purpose before the war was 

 $125,000. 



The composition of the plantations for railway sleepers is, 

 eucalyptus 58 per cent, P. pinaster 25 per cent, the remainder con- 

 sists chiefly of acacia, cupressus and Quercus. 



The eucalyptus planted are chiefly pilularis, resinifera, panicul- 

 ata, saligna and sideroxylon. The eucalyptus grew sufficiently 

 rapidly to make sleepers in a very few years. It is doubtful if 

 when the trees reach sleeper size the wood, in view of the very 

 rapid growth in South Africa, will be sufficiently mature to pro- 

 duce non-splitting durable sleepers. A great deal remains to be 

 learned concerning both the rotation at which eucalyptus should 

 be cut for sleepers, and the best means of producing serviceable 

 sleepers from the many species under trial. 



Though the South African Forest Department has succeeded 

 admirably in securing a volume of timber production on many 

 different sites at widely scattered and violently differing regions 

 throughout the Union, an immense variety of technical questions 

 yet await solution. The selection of various species to be grown 

 for special purposes in different parts of the country is fairly well 

 in hand. The experimental work of the past 40 years, during 

 which time over $6,000,000 has been spent by the government on 

 forest planting, has been chiefly directed towards selection of 

 species that tmder the different combinations of site factors will 

 produce a satisfactory volimie of timber. Much attention needs 

 yet to be given to the utilization of many of the species, par- 

 ticularly of eucalyptus. With this problem, is involved that of 



