184 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



about fifteen years' work, it will only go to show the vast potentialities 

 and resources that may be eventually created, or preserved from 

 destruction, in Nigeria. 



V. The Forest Department.* 



European Forest Officers are of two ranks, the scientifically trained 

 Conservators of Forests and the executively trained Foresters. 



The scope of this paper will only cover the former, as very few 

 of the latter are Europeans, and most of them Nigerians. 



From Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh, graduates in Forestry 

 can usually be procured. The training at these centres covers roughly 

 a year or a year and a halfs work on the elementary subjects, such 

 as Botan}^, Mathematics, Geology, Mensuration, Surveying, and 

 Political Economy. In addition, a year or two years' work on the 

 professional subjects, Silviculture or the growing of Forests, Forest 

 Protection, Forest Utilization, Forest Botany, Forest Entomology, 

 Forest History and Forest Policy is required. At the end of the 

 course, six months' practical work in Scottish or English forests 

 follows, during which period working plans and market conditions 

 are especially studied. 



After being accepted for appointment in Nigeria, a further three 

 months' course is taken at the Roj^al Gardens, Kew ; and six months' 

 practical work on the Continent v/as (before the war) usually required. 

 At Kew, the object is to acquire a working knowledge of the most 

 important Botanical Orders which contain the African trees. The 

 continental course shows the student forests which have been under 

 a definite scheme of management for over a hundred years. It takes 

 one, in fact, right through the life-history of a tree from a seedling 

 in the nursery-bed to the well-grown financially mature tree, marked 

 ready for the axe, a period of about eighty years. 



The initial appointment is for three years on probation, after which 

 it may be confirmed. The initial salary of an Assistant Conservator 

 of Forests is £300 per annum, rising by increments of £15 to £400 

 per annum. The first appointment dates from the day of sailing, 

 the passage being paid by the Nigerian Government, and salary on 

 half-pay begins from the date of departure until the arrival in Nigeria, 

 when full salary begins to accrue. Intending candidates should bear 

 in mind that an early selection for appointment entitles them to 

 seniority over other candidates who, owing to their being fully 

 qualified, are appointed immediately, and thus reach the Colony 

 before them. Locally, a commuted travelling allowance of £42 per 

 annum is drawn to compensate for the extra cost entailed in inspecting 

 the forests. A limited number of carriers, or other means of transport, 



* Reprinted by kind p?rmission of the Editor of United Empire. 



