14 



such as their division into blocks separated by cleared lines or belts of heavy 

 evergreens. Along the railway line inflammable coniferous plantations have 

 too frequently been formed close to the railway line without a sufficiently 

 wide fire trace, and have suffered from fires in consequence. It would be 

 advisable in future, when planting cedar near the railway, to protect it by 

 means of a heavy evergreen belt along the sides of the line, supplemented if 

 necessary by a cleared fire-trace. 



The necessity of enforcing strict fire-protection in all forests requiring 

 it, and particularly in the cedar forests, cannot be too strongly emphasized. 



8. PLANTATIONS. 



13. The total area under plantations is not known, but it must be con- 

 siderable, since systematic planting has been undertaken each year in tracts 

 near the railway where the natural forest has been cleared for fuel, and a 

 certain amount of planting has been carried out in other forests. In clear- 

 felled railway fuel areas this work is in arrears to the extent of some 13,000 

 acres, largely owing to insufficiency of labour. 



Planting is done almost entirely with the aid of temporary cultivation 

 with maize or other crops, and the work is carried out efficiently and cheaply. 

 The cost of clearing, planting and initial weeding works out at about 1 an 

 acre, this being exclusive of the cost of staff and of raising the plants in the 

 nursery. With the view of cheapening the work still further, experiments 

 might be made to ascertain if species whose seed is plentiful and not too 

 minute could be raised by direct sowings, preferably in lines or evenly spaced 

 patches. 



In the earlier years of the Forest Department too much stress was laid 

 on the introduction of exotics, a procedure which has little to recommend it 

 in a country possessing so many superior timbers as Kenya Colony does. 

 Thus, numbers of cypress plantations have been formed which, judging from 

 their growth, will never have the value that plantations of the local cedar 

 will have. Pines, as a class, and indeed most exotic conifers other than some 

 of the cypresses and their allies, have proved a complete failure, the climatic 

 conditions being unsuitable. Many of the exotic trees mentioned in Appen- 

 dix III. of Hutchins' "Report on the Forests of British East Africa" (1909) 

 as suitable for the East African highlands must inevitably fail in that 

 locality. 



The criticism as regards the introduction of exotics does not, however, 

 apply in regard to the gums, wattles, and certain other Australian trees. 

 Some of these have succeeded admirably, certain species of Eucalyptus, and 

 in particular E. Globulus, showing remarkable growth. For fast-growing fuel 

 plantations, none of the indigenous trees yet tried can approach them. 



The Forest Department has been criticised for converting much of the 

 indigenous forest into eucalyptus plantations. These plantations have 

 been formed mainly along the railway, and are therefore much in evidence, 

 which accounts largely for the criticism. As long as the railway 

 consumes wood fuel the policy of forming them is a sound one, always 

 provided the steam raising capacity of the wood is proved. But 

 in many of the more recent plantations the eucalyptus is planted 

 merely as a nurse for the local cedar, in order to promote clean growth 

 and to afford protection, and in the course of a few years it will be 

 removed and plantations of cedar will remain. Several other indigenous 

 species of value are now being raised in the same way, and the craze for 

 exotics is giving place to the wiser course of encouraging the better local 

 species. 



