1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



35 



region may include three classes of trees : 

 (i) species of very rapid growth, giving 

 useful timber in 10 to 25 years (such as 

 Hardy Catalpa, Black Locust, Cotton- 

 wood, Largetooth Aspen, Silver Maple, 

 etc.) ; (2) trees of moderately rapid 

 growth, producing useful timber in 30 to 

 50 years (Red Oak, Yellow Oak, White 

 Ash, Beech, Kentucky Coffee-tree, Ameri- 

 can Elm, Rock Elm, Basswood, Shell- 

 bark Hickory, Bitternut Hickory, Syca- 

 more, Arbor-vitas, Larch, etc.); (3) 

 trees of slower growth, producing useful 

 timber in 60 to 100 years (White Oak, 

 Bur Oak, Swamp White Oak, Sugar 

 Maple, Black Walnut, Butternut, Black 



Cherry, Tulip-tree, White Pine, Red 

 Spruce, Red Cedar, etc.). 



In all cases, however, the economic 

 purposes of the planter must largely 

 determine the selection, since forest plant- 

 ing is mainly a matter of business rather 



O J 



than of sentiment. It may, therefore, 

 suit best the purpose of one to plant only 

 the first class of trees suggested, from 

 which quick, continuous cuttings for fuel, 

 fence posts, poles, etc., can be made. For 

 another planter's purposes a combination 

 of the first and second, or all three classes 

 of trees may be desirable. 



GEORGE B. SUDWORTII, 

 Dendrologist, Division of Forestry. 



Forestry in the Transvaal. 



BY THE CURATOR, JOUBERT PARK, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA. 



Looking at any good map of the Ti'ans- 

 vaal, we find a tract of flat, treeless table- 

 land, between ^ooo and 6000 feet above 

 sea level; and roughly speaking, 150 

 miles in extent from east to west, with a 

 breadth of 100 miles from north to south. 

 From this collecting ground, which has an 

 average annual rainfall of about 27 inches, 

 all the large rivers of South Africa may 

 be said to take their rise. The Vaal, 

 Crocodile, Olifants, Tugela, Sabie, Um- 

 felosi and Maputa Rivers, which water the 

 Cape Colony, Transvaal, Free State, Na- 

 tal, Zululandand Swaziland, all have their 

 beginnings on the high Veld. This table- 

 land is almost destitute of trees, except in 

 sheltered valleys ; and in a word I have 

 proposed to clothe this tract of land with 

 trees, and the certain, though distant, re- 

 sult will be that the whole of South Africa 

 will reap the benefit. 



At present we have a vast arid plain 

 covered with short grass over which 

 heavy thunder showers rush to find the 

 shortest way to the sea. The radiation of 

 moisture is excessive during the cloudless 

 day, and the cold is biting at night. Cover 

 the ground with trees, and you arrest the 



storm water to a great extent and replenish 

 the springs. The country is as bare of 

 clothing as the natives; such a project, if 

 carried out. means employment and a liv- 

 ing to. thousands of people, and a settled 

 industry for all time. 



To set such a gigantic business going, 

 the government alone is able and long-lived 

 enough ; for as M. Bagneris remarks, in 

 his Elements of Silviculture : " The state, 

 which is, so to speak, imperishable, is the 

 only body which is able to pi'oduce the 

 most useful timber, for private companies 

 are obliged to guard against the accumula- 

 tion of a large capital in the shape of 

 standing timber." 



I confess I have brought these facts be- 

 fore the government, but hitherto without 

 the smallest effect. All the timber used 

 for the mines, and for building and gen- 

 eral purposes, is imported at vast expense. 

 Even fencing poles of Acacia mollissima 

 must be largely imported from Natal. 

 Some time ago it was proposed to import 

 blocks of Eucalyptus diversicolor from 

 Western Australia for paving the streets 

 of Johannesburg, but the cost was prohibi- 

 tive. R. W. Adlam, Gard. Chronicle. 



