COMMITTEE ON COLONIAL BOTANIST'S REPORT. 21 



require stinkwood; how many cubic feet can you furnish Dr.j.c. Brme*. 

 annually?" There is not a man in the Colony who can tell. Aug. 21, ises. 

 " How many stinkhout trees of three feet diameter have you ?" 

 Not a man in the Colony can tell whether there are a thousand 

 or a hundred thousand. " What is the extent of your forests ? 

 Are there a hundred square miles, or six hundred square 

 miles?" It is the same. We cannot tell any customer 

 what we have. In order to obtain proper reports on this 

 subject, it would be perhaps necessry to get surveys made 

 by professional men ; but this done, the various forest 

 rangers might furnish accounts of the different clumps, at 

 very little expense. I have here a map of the Knysna forests 

 by the Surveyor-General, with the particulars of their con- 

 tents furnished by Mr. Bain; but when we get beyond this, 

 between the Knysna and the Tzitzikama forests there is a 

 large space of unexplored forest. Of the Tzitzikama forest 

 I have a similar chart, with annotations, furnished by Capt. 

 Harison. But of the intervening forest, nobody can tell what 

 is its extent, or what it contains. Nobody has ever been 

 through it; although 1 believe Mr. Bain has offered to take a 

 pack ox, and, with six coloured men, cut his way through and 

 report. And even the Knysna forest is but little known. A 

 gentleman from the Knysna writes to me by last mail that he 

 observes that in the Government returns the property 

 in that district is valued at 77,000, but he says if the 

 Government would open up the forest, it would be worth, 

 perhaps, 400,000. It is very desirable to have some 

 accurate information on this subject. The reports which 

 I suggest would entail some expense for surveys ; but 

 the rangers could provide the particulars as to the 

 contents. Secondly, I recommend the preparation of a 

 report on the fitness of the timber of different trees 

 growing in this Colony for employment in turning, veneering, 

 and other modes of manipulation, founded on experiments to 

 be made by some properly qualified person. I believe there is 

 a great deal of information available on this head which only 

 requires to be collected and tabulated. This would incur 

 some little expense, but not great. And, thirdly, I recommend 

 the procuring information in regard to the most approved 

 measures of forest economy which are applicable to the 

 management of the forests of this Colony by commissioning 

 some one acquainted with these forests to visit the forest 

 schools of Germany, and, if it be thought desirable, to visit 



