GROWING GOLD 



mercial possibilities of unknown timbers when once in- 

 troduced to the market. 



The soft woods have been left untouched, though 

 many of them would make excellent paper pulp. There 

 are also woods which might be utilized more extensively 

 in the manufacture of plywood; they might also be 

 used for veneers and matches. There are many soft wood 

 trees of a normal size found throughout the Rain and 

 Fringing Forests. The cotton tree may be taken as repre- 

 sentative of this class. 



Apart from the soft woods there are numerous hard- 

 wood trees of excellent quality, such as Lophira procera 

 and Afzelia africana. There is also an intermediate class 

 of Medium soft woods represented by Triplochiton sp. 

 This has recently been exported for the manufacture 

 of plywood, and for a time there was a considerable 

 demand for it in Hamburg. I would suggest that this 

 wood would also do for backing furniture. There are 

 large supplies to be had near floating rivers. 



If Silvicultural experiments are to be introduced on 

 any extensive scale it will be necessary to find markets 

 for all such wood, for be it ever remembered that an 

 unutilized forest is unproductive, the growth merely 

 keeping pace with decay. It is only by economic harvest- 

 ing, the introduction of silvicultural systems, and by 

 planting that we are able to perpetuate the forest for 

 generations to come. 



Looking back over the last eight years of my work 

 as Forest Officer in Equatorial Africa, I regard my silvi- 



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