160 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



Lastly, the Government have started a new mill at Apapa, near 

 Lagos, for cutting logs obtained near Akilla, on the Oni River, in the 

 Abeokuta province, and the planing, grooving and recutting is done 

 in connection with the Public Works yards and furniture-making 

 establishment in Lagos. 



The Akilla work is run entirely by the Forestry Department. 

 Trees are felled, cut into logs and brought to the waterside ; then, 

 rafted with others, floated in kerosine tins on lighter wood to Apapa. 

 A regular rate is charged per cubic foot. Work was started in August 

 1914, and already several thousand logs have been delivered at Apapa. 



III. The Permanent Forests or Forest Reserves. 

 In the main, all Forest Reserves become the permanent forests of 

 a country. So far as Nigeria, for instance, is concerned, certain definite 

 and well-defined portions of the original forests have been set aside, 

 by agreement with the natives, as Forest Reserves. If these areas 

 had not been set aside, they would have been liable to destruction 

 under the form of shifting cultivation which the local people practise. 

 For instance, at Olokemeji there are several thousand acres in the 

 middle of the Reserve which were cleared some j^ears ago and have 

 not yet grown up. This would have been the fate of the rest of the 

 forest if it had not definitely been placed under the care and protection 

 of the Forest Department. The same applies to other areas scattered 

 over the country. 



It is somewhat hard to define the meaning of a Reserve. Essen- 

 tially it is an area permanently set aside for the production of timber 

 or other forest produce. In many cases, however, the trees or the 

 forests have to be preserved in the interests of the climatic conditions 

 of the locality. If it is found that by cutting down a forest the rain- 

 fall decreases every year, the springs dry up, and the land becomes 

 covered with grass, where actual grass fires kill all young vegetation 

 and even hinder farming operations, then the forest must be reserved. 

 To take some examples : In the colony of Sierra Leone there is a 

 Peninsular Mountain Forest, a large and valuable Reserve, 80 per 

 cent, of which is covered with red ironwood, Lophira procera. Then 

 in the Protectorate there are the Kambui Hills, Kennema, then Nimmini, 

 and the Loma Mountain Reserve. In the colony and Protectorate of 

 the Gold Coast there is the Dunkwah Reserve. Some of the most 

 improved reserves in the southern province of Nigeria are in the Western 

 Circle. There are Olokemeji, Mamu, Ilaro, Oshun, Owenna and Ondo 

 Reserves. Again, in the Central Circle there are the Okurau, Obagie, 

 Gilli-gilli, the Uhi, and the Ogba Forests. 



In the Eastern Circle there are the Oban, Ikrigon and Ajasso 

 Reserves, in all aggregating about 2,000 square miles. 



Contrary to the usual idea, we have seen that a Forest Reserve is 



