SILVICULTURE IN TRINIDAD. 



^35 



on germination grows so fast, as compared with a young tree in 

 our climate, that it is enabled to get a fair start from the bush 

 surrounding its little hole, and with a minimum of "cutlassing" 

 it is soon able to struggle for itself. 



This method then, from the cursory examination which was 

 all that was possible in the time, and from information gathered, 

 would appear to be the one most suited to Trinidad conditions 

 of growth and the object in view, and at the same time it 

 happens to be the least expensive. 



Quite apart from the three methods which I have outlined 

 above is the cultivation of teak {Teclona grandis) imported from 

 Burma. So far there are only some small experimental areas 

 amounting to a few acres in all, but from the amazing rate of 

 growth, and the obvious strength of the young trees, one cannot 

 help thinking that some day teak may occupy a prominent 

 position on the export list of the colony. With a rainfall of 

 60-70 inches a year on a red clay soil overlying a formation 

 known as porcelainite, a most uncompromising medium for 

 growth it looked, I saw young trees 18 months old and 18 feet 

 high. These trees, planted at 8 ft. by 8 ft, were very regular, 

 being most attractive with their enormous leaves. Passing from 

 the youngest to the oldest I found an area under lo-year-old 

 trees; average height, 50 feet; average girth, 2 ft. 8 ins. (over 

 bark). Planted at 8 feet apart, they had never been thinned, 

 and yet the canopy was perfect, and there were not too many 

 trees on the ground for proper development. Here the soil 

 was a light yellowish sandy clay. 



Another very valuable tropical tree is Honduras Mahogany 

 {Swietenia macrophylla). This appears to grow very well in 

 certain localities in Trinidad, and although it was absent from 

 that area of the Government Forest Reserve about which I have 

 written, it is increasingly being used on private estates, both for 

 windbreaks and in " Policies," as well as to fill up those small 

 pockets to be found occurring here and there on every cocoa 

 estate, where the soil is not sufficiently rich to produce cocoa. 



These notes are submitted in the hope that the methods 

 evolved by the forest staff of a small but not unimportant 

 British colony, in an endeavour to suit its own local tropical 

 conditions, may prove of some slight interest to the Scottish 

 forester. 



