MEN OF THE TREES 



from personal observation I should estimate that there 

 are sufficient supplies available to keep up a sustained 

 export in pencil slats until such time as forests which 

 might now be planted will be ready for exploitation, 

 say forty years. Unfortunately, owing to the ravages 

 of a fungus, Fomes uniperinus, which has not yet been 

 brought under control, logs of the East African pencil 

 cedar are often hollow, or contain pockets which have 

 rotted out; accordingly large dimensions of timber are 

 more scarce than they would otherwise be. Apart from 

 the consequent wastage this is not a serious drawback, 

 for the most convenient sizes for export are either slats 

 or billets. 



When in charge of the Forestry Headquarters in 

 Nairobi soon after my arival in the Colony, specimens 

 of this wood were sent to the School of Forestry, Cam- 

 bridge, and it was favourably reported upon. Keen 

 interest was aroused both in England and America, and 

 today thousands of slats and billets are being exported 

 and a considerable revenue to the colony is being de- 

 rived from this source. 



A parallel case is that of the Boxwood, which has 

 been, and still is, popular for turnery purposes, and the 

 making of printers' dyes. There is a shortage of the sup- 

 plies of this wood from the old sources, and we might 

 well find a substitute for this amongst the Coast woods. 

 Again, Ebony has its well-known uses and the demand 

 for this never flags. There is a substitute for this also in 

 the well-known African Blackwood or Kenya Ebony. 



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