HOW THE SAHARA HAPPENED 



This graphically shows what may be the result of neg- 

 lecting to form forest barriers when primitive methods 

 of shifting agriculture are in vogue. In the wake of a 

 destroyed forest large sandy wastes rapidly spread, and 

 the planting of trees is the only effective remedy for 

 holding up the shifting sands, and restoring the fertility 

 of the land. 



When, as a forest officer, I went into the Highlands of 

 East Africa I came across a tribe of Bantu origin, who 

 had earned for themselves the name of "Forest Destroy- 

 ers" because of their shifting methods of agriculture. 

 Their chief occupation was farming, but of an ex- 

 tremely elementary sort. Theirs is a system still common 

 throughout tropical Africa, namely the clearing of a 

 small patch of forest by matchet and fire, followed by a 

 short period of cropping, and then its abandonment in 

 order to continue the process elsewhere. 



These African people were childlike, simple and im- 

 petuous. Their immediate concern was to make farms. 

 Little did they dream of the value of the timber that they 

 were destroying. These primitive agriculturists had no 

 knowledge of the use of fertilizers, natural or artificial. 

 All they and their forefathers knew, was that, if they 

 wanted a plot of fresh soil capable of producing a crop 

 of food, they would find it in the heart of the virgin for- 

 est. Naturally, therefore, whenever the seasons came 

 round for sowing fresh grain and planting their sweet 

 potatoes, they would go into the thick forest, cut down 

 and burn the trees, even the priceless pencil cedar and 



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