34 COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



causes. Large tracts of country have become depopulated, and 

 on such areas the forests have had a chance of effectively re- 

 occupying the soil before any great damage was done. Such 

 ill-effects are of course negligible on areas where the monsoon 

 currents are very pronounced, but as soon as the annual rain- 

 fall approaches anywhere near the 50-inch limit danger is to 

 be apprehended. 



Forests, so far as direct observations go, appear to have no 

 very marked effects on the quantity of rain precipitated over 

 areas covered by them, though their influence is more pro- 

 nounced in the tropics than it is in temperate latitudes; but 

 their action on the soil by protecting it against exposure to 

 sun, to desiccating winds and to the action of torrential rain, 

 and in preserving the moisture it contains and thus sustaining 

 and regulating the water supply of the country, as well as in 

 bringing about a high relative humidity of the atmosphere 

 in their neighbourhood, is of the first importance to plants 

 dependent on such conditions of the soil and climate. An abun- 

 dant rainfall is practically useless to hygrophilous plants 

 demanding a large supply of moisture both in the soil and air 

 if the former is rendered incapable by prolonged exposure of 

 holding in suspension the requisite supply for that type of 

 vegetation. It is this fact that explains the gradual modifica- 

 tions going on in the forests subjected to the reckless destruction 

 caused by the natives. The Government of India long ago 

 recognized the dangers following the practice of shifting 

 methods of cultivation, and had in some instances to restrict 

 its application by suitable legislation. The introduction of 

 such measures in West Africa is urgently called for if the 

 water supply of the country and other climatic factors are to 

 be preserved. Till land is actually required for cultivation 

 (under modern systems of agriculture and not the wasteful 

 methods of the natives) there is no better way of preserving its 

 fertility and even improving it than to keep it under dense 

 forest growth ; moreover, the portion actually taken up for 

 agriculture should be thoroughly developed and not abandoned 

 after a short period for another piece of forest land and so on, 

 thus involving an unnecessarily large extent of forest in waste- 

 ful destruction. 



After descending to the village of Dumanase one comes on 

 1o a low, well-watered plateau, the forests in the vicinity of 

 which have been cleared for cultivation. Here we came across 

 small nurseries of cocoa plants, a feature that we subsequently 

 found to be common to all the villages we passed through. 



The oil palm is fairly plentiful about here. The forest is 

 excessively moist, and, as usual in such cases, tree ferns 

 reappear on the scene. The arboreal vegetation is mainly com- 

 posed of TnplocJu'fon Johnsonii, Tticinndcndi-on africanus, Al- 

 ttonid conf/rnsis, Pentad etJira macropliylla, and a few Off rams 

 (Terminalia xttperbn) and Psevtlocedrelax. Portions of the forest, 

 especially where the plateau ends and the land rises up into the 



