358 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



1902) it furnishes one of the most convenient and practical means of 

 fixing and utilizing the sun's energy. The fixation of carbon, in a 

 quick growing Eucalypt or Wattle plantation in South Africa, is about 

 fifteen times that of a similar plantation in Europe. To-day, near 

 ('ape Town, it is less costly to plow the ground and produce wood 

 fuel in a plantation of Wattles or Gums than to import coal fuel 

 oversea, or by a long journe\ overland. If, on the World's surface, 

 we take latitudes below 40° and rainfalls above 40 inches, and 

 imagine this covered with forest, either with tropical forest or the 

 quick-growing Eucalypt and Acacia forest of the extra-tropics, I 

 calculated that there could l)e produced \eariy. at the lowest computa- 

 tion, thirty times the world's present consumption of coal ! Details 

 of this calculation are given in one of the forest pamphlets which 

 are on the table for distrilnition. , 



CAPE COLONY S J IMBER BILL AND THE MEANS TAKEN TO MEET Tl". 



During 190J the imports of timber to Cape Colony amounted in 

 round numbers to half a million pounds sterling. Previous to the 

 war the a\erage for some years was a quarter of a million. South 

 Africa is a poor drv countrw It cannot afford to go on sending these 

 enormous sums out of the country to |>ay for foreign wood, hence 

 the existence of forestry at the Cape. In its Forestry Cape Colony 

 now stands at the head of every British communih-. Speaking recent- 

 ly Dr. Schlich (who occupies at this moment the position of the 

 highest authority on forest matters amongst Englishmen) stated that 

 amongst the British Colonies and dependencies, only India and Cape 

 (Colony had seriously considered the forest question. India is a 

 tropical country with vast areas of ])oorly stocked pestiferous forests 

 and a comparatively small area of well-stocked, healthy extra-tropical 

 forest on the Himalayas. For some \ears past Ca])e Colony has 

 spent, on an average. ^60.000 vearly on Forestry. Of this amount 

 between ^40.000 and ^50,000 is spent on timber plantations, com- 

 posed mainlv of Eucalvpts and Pines. The Inilk of the Eucalypt 

 planting is to nroduce sleepers for the Railwaxs. The C'ape Govern- 

 ment Railwavs require annually about one million cubic feet of timber 

 and literallv train loads of imported sleepers, mostly Jarrah, can be 

 seen now l)y any traveller on the Cape Railways. These Jarrah 

 sleepers come from West Australia and cost at the rate of 5/- per 

 sleeper delivered here. The Cape Government Railways have now 

 to spend nearly ^100,000 yearly for imported sleepers. It is thus 

 a matter of great importance to produce this timber at home, espec- 

 iallv when it is considered that we have an exact duplication here of 

 the climate of Australia, where these Eucalypt sleepers are produced. 

 Eiiccil ypiiis marg'mata, or Jarrah, is the sleeper now most in favour. 

 Some time back metal sleepers were used, but these have turned out 

 as unsatisfactorv here as in most other places where thev have been 

 tried ; and the creo.soted pine sleepers require the extra expense of 

 a plate to j)revent them being cut into bv the heavv rails and rolling 



