-SO^^K ASPECTS OF SOl'TH AFRICAN FOKKSTRY. 

 Bv I). K. HiTCHixs. F.R.Mkt.Soc. 



This paper was to have V^eeii on Forest Eduralion in South 

 Africa. We are at jtreseiit absokiteh devoid of any forest teachin<; 

 in South Africa. A proportion of Forest Officers in the Government 

 Forest Department now receive their training at the India Forest 

 School at Cowfiers Hill, England; but most mem. whether in the 

 Forest Department or out of it. acquire their knowledge haphazard. 

 At the Governmenl Agricultural Farm. Elsenberg. where there were 

 formerl\ lectures oii Forestry there are now none, though curiously 

 there are lectures on carpentry and wood-working. This is .something 

 like cooking your hare before you have caught it I On reconsider- 

 ation, however, I thought it better to alter the title of the paper to that 

 which it now bears " Some A.spects of South African Forestr} ." thus 

 making it of more general application and, I hope, utility. One is 

 apt to forget ihat in a British communitv there is too often a complete 

 ignorance of l'"orestr\ and to talk aboui it one has to start from the 

 beginning. 



Owing to historical reasons. England and South Africa are to- 

 dav practically without forests. In South Africa the reasons belong 

 to geological history. Thev have not vet beai fully traced. We know 

 from the coal-fields and fossil remains of trees that forest formerly 

 existed in South Africa, both where it is now too dry for it to flourish 

 and in well-watereKl [)arts. If we compare South Africa with West 

 Australia, we see that each has a highly .specialized Forest Flora 

 peculiar to itself: and a Flora within so restricted an area that it is 

 comparable to many of the weak Island floras of the globe. Owing 

 however to differences in the geological history of the two coun- 

 tries, whereas West Australia has still preserved its giant tertiarv 

 trees, the ancient forest of South Africa is gone, and the indigenous 

 forest of to-day consists of generally stunted ever-green trees confined 

 to sheltered kloofs and the most favourable localities on the moun- 

 tains facing the coast. The trees are, as a whole, semi-tropical 

 species, with a better development towards the tropics, while here in 

 the extra-tropics, they are slow of growth, delicate in constitution and 

 wnth a weak natural reproduction. It is probable that thev will 

 gradually be replaced, as they have in the Cape Peninsula, bv the 

 hardier members of larger forest Pdoras. In this respect, in appear- 

 ance, and in characHeristics "enerallv. thev much resemble the 

 " Shola " forest on the Nilgiri plateau of Southern India. There also 

 we have a small isolated e\tra-tro])ical country with weak semi- 

 tropical trees that are easily ousted l)y the stronger species of the 

 Australian extra-tropical forest flora. 



In England and Northern Europe the ajicient tertiarv forest of 

 giant Eucal\ pts is gone ; but England and Northern Europe in the 



