74 SYLVICULTURE IN THE TROPICS 



PT. I 



clumps, or bark certain trees for medicine, but they do 

 a lot of wanton damage, and vent their spleen more 

 especially on objects of a white colour. For example, I 

 have known Asiatic elephants to destroy a number of 

 whitewashed boundary pillars, which after that had to 

 be coloured grey ; but in Africa not only have I seen a 

 large number of white notice-boards torn off by them, but, 

 in the adjoining forest, where there were a considerable 

 number of white-stemmed Acacia Seyal var. Fistula, 

 nearly every one of them had been uprooted or broken 

 wantonly and without any indication that they were 

 the favourite article of diet. It is, therefore, desirable 

 that these animals should be kept out of young forests ; 

 they can be scared, for a time at least, by beating drums or, 

 at night, by lighting fires, which, however, may be more 

 dangerous to the forest than the elephants unless they 

 are carefully watched. For young plantations a strong 

 barbed wire fence may be quite sufficient, both for 

 elephants and hippopotami, these pachyderms having a 

 sensitive skin. If that is insufficient a stronger fence 

 must be put in with the stakes driven well in and 

 propped up on the inside, as elephants use their weight 

 in pushing and not in pulling. A ditch, 2 metres deep 

 and 2 metres wide, with vertical sides, should also keep 

 out elephants, which are not capable of jumping, but 

 the banks should be kept vertical and in good condition. 

 Where the soil is loose, therefore, such a ditch is not 

 sufficient, as the elephants will soon make an inclined 

 plane by breaking the earth down with their fore-feet, 

 and a fence is necessary on the inside bank of the ditch. 

 In order to clear the neighbourhood of these animals it 

 may be desirable to encourage the hunting or catching 

 of elephants. 



Among the most mischievous and destructive 

 animals in the Tropics are monkeys. And they are not 

 only destructive, they are wasteful. Anybody watching 

 monkeys feeding will see that when, after pulling off 

 a handful of leaves and shoots, they begin to eat it, 

 they at the same time see another, apparently more 



