124 SYLVICULTURE IX THE TROPICS 



PT. II 



and the kind of danger which it may be exposed to 

 by invasion from animals. 



Round a permanent nursery it may be advantageous 

 to erect a masonry wall, which will keep out all animals 

 except monkeys ; or it may be sufficient to erect a wire 

 fence of three or four strands, whether barbed or not. 

 In places a live fence, preferably composed of thorny 

 plants, well clipped so as to make it impenetrable, will 

 suffice. Both in permanent and in temporary nurseries 

 where hares or porcupines are abundant the fence must 

 be made impenetrable for them. The cheapest will be 

 wire netting, which will also keep out small deer or 

 antelope. Where stakes are easily obtainable, a stockade 

 may be made round the nursery, consisting of posts of 

 a size varying according to the animals which have to 

 be kept out. In the case of elephants the stockade 

 must be stout, and may have to be strengthened by 

 means of struts on the inside of the stockade, and a 

 deep ditch may have to be made on the outside. 



A fence of barbed wire of at least four strands will 

 keep out most of the larger animals. Even elephants 

 dislike coming in contact with it. It may be of 

 advantage to make the strands more visible by means 

 of paint, as it often happens that pigs, deer, or antelope 

 charge blindly into a wire fence and sometimes break 

 through. Smaller animals will hop through the strands 

 or pass under them, and wire netting is required in 

 addition. When the nursery contains such plants as 

 Para rubber, this wire netting is particularly necessary, 

 as they have a great attraction for hares, porcupines, 

 deer, and antelopes, which not only eat the shoots but 

 gnaw at the bark of larger plants. In such places, the 

 wire netting should not merely be pegged to the ground, 

 but should be sunk into the ground with the lower ed^e 

 turned outwards. 



All trees overhanging a nursery should be cut down. 

 Although they would give a certain amount of shelter 

 to the young seedlings, the cover would, in many cases, 

 not be beneficial, and, especially in a country having 



