&0 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



given the following account of what I have seen, not in 

 one forest alone, but in many widely dispersed over the 

 colony of the Cape of Good Hope, supplying illustrations 

 of the first, the second, and the final stages of the devasta- 

 tion thus occasioned : 



Under a system of forest management which, borrowing 

 a term employed in works on forest science in France, I 

 may call primitive Jardinage, the forests in the colony have 

 been long gradually disappearing. The system followed 

 was to cut down trees such as might be required, leaving 

 others standing, but doing nothing to promote their growth, 

 or to replace those which were removed. 



I have before me a chart of the forests of the Tzizi- 

 Kamma. From information supplied to me by Captain 

 Harrison, the Conservator of forests in the district, I have 

 gathered the following particulars, which I give, as illus- 

 trative of what I may call the first stage of the work of 

 destruction under the treatment which I have called 

 primitive Jardinage. 



On the west bank of Storm River there is or was at 

 that time a piece of what may be described as virgin 

 forest, in which operations were begun about ten years ago. 

 On the east bank of that river is a patch of scrub destitute 

 of timber. 



Below this is a large piece of ground in two divisions, 

 which is mostly private property, and in which the Crown 

 property had been denuded of timber previous to Captain 

 Harrison entering on his duties as conservator of forests 

 in the district. 



Continuous with this, and at the mouth of the river, is 

 a patch in which wood-cutting has been actively carried 



tions, by the physical geography or general contour of the country, and by arborescent 

 productions in the interior, with results confirmatory of the opinion that the appro* 

 priate remedies are irrigation, arboriculture, and an improved forest economy ; or the 

 erection of dams to prevent the escape of a portion of the rainfall to the sea, the 

 abandonment or restriction of the herbage and bush in connection with pastoral and 

 agricultural operations, the conservation and extension of existing forests, and the 

 adoption of measures similar to the rebois -merit and gazonnement carried out in France, 

 with a view to prevent the formation of torrents and the destruction of property occa- 

 sioned by them. London : C. Kegan Paul & Go. 1876. 



