NIGERIA 167 



many failures owing to experiments on bad soil and seasons of 

 extreme drought, the growth of the trees gives the greatest promise 

 of mature trees, or at any rate merchantable trees, being grown in a 

 comparatively short period. Plantations have also been made at 

 Awka, Udi, Okwoga and Ida. 



Already on the old town site of Ijaiye, mahoganies have been seen 

 over 6 feet in girth which have grown up from self-sown seedlings 

 within a period of about sixty years. The soil in this locality is none 

 too good, and the rainfall on the average certainly does not exceed 

 50 inches per annum. Near 47 Benin villages small communal 

 plantations of mahogany have been made. 



All the mahoganies apparently, especially when grown in " pure " 

 plantations, are attacked by a leading-shoot borer, which so weakens 

 the leading shoot as to make it fall off, and the tree subsequently 

 grows with two leaders. Later on this forms a large fork in the tree, 

 which, when the time comes for felling, is by no means to be despised, 

 forming as it does usually a very good " curl." In other respects it 

 is disadvantageous in reducing the length of the single straight bole. 

 In this manner it has the effect of reducing the number of logs of long 

 length and even shajie and large size that can be obtained in one tree. 

 In many cases, a log can be cut above from each limb forming 

 the fork; but of course these are both much smaller than those from 

 the bole, and are usually' not nearly so straight, and one or other of the 

 limbs is liable to be broken when the tree is felled. In the original 

 forest only isolated trees are attacked by this leading-shoot borer, 

 whereas in a plantation nearlj^ all the trees suffer by its depredations. 



Various species are being tried for admixture with the mahogany 

 in order to hinder the spread of the attacks. At Olokemeji there 

 is a mahogany plantation largely interplanted with two species of 

 Mimusops multinervis and Mimusops Elengi. So far this appears 

 most suitable, as the soil is kept thoroughly covered by the dense 

 shade cast by the Mimusops, and there is a very considerable space 

 between each mahogany-tree. However, the mahogany grows faster 

 than the Mimusops, so that after the first few years it does not have 

 so much effect. Even so, it tends to keep the bole of the mahogany 

 clean and the state of the soil in mechanical and physical condition 

 such as to be most conducive to the growth of mahogany. 



A mixture occasionally seen in nature has yet to be copied — that 

 of mahogany and Chewstick {Anogeissus leiocarpus). To some extent 

 it is seen at Olokemeji, where the self-sown seedlings have come up 

 in a mahogany plantation, but of course they were rather too late to 

 effect the result, i.e. protecting the mahogany from the leading-shoot 

 borer. At Ilaro a most typical Mahogany Reserve, an isolated planta- 

 tion made amongst secondary growth, has more than held its own 

 with little or no tending after the first two years, and yet the trees 



