7S COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



is :i decided tendency on the part of the natives inhabiting 

 licit side to favour trees .it these two genera l>y leaving them as 

 si;iii(l:H-(ls " when clearing the hush for fai'ins, makes the forest 

 areas of Western Ashanti far more valuable to the forester than 

 tho.se along the Cape Coast road within the limits of area now 

 being dealt wit h. 



Tin's state of affairs in south-east Ashanti is, however, by no 

 means to he deplored. The people east of the railway are keen 

 tanners, they have gone in extensively for cocoa cultivation in 

 an area that appear- to he eminently suitable for that plant, and 

 they will nap the full benefits arising from the proximity of the 

 ra.il way to their farms; in short, under the circumstances, it is 

 preferable' iii every way that this land should be taken up for 

 Agricultural purposes. 



The farms belonging to the important town of Fomena extend 

 for a long distance round that place, and the whole locality gives 

 one the impression of being an excellent agricultural centre. The 

 country is well watered, in fact exceptionally so, and should suit 

 plant-: such as cola and cocoa admirably. 



I was glad to see that the cultivation of the indigenous rubber 

 tree I'untnin'm i/i/,--f/nt has also been taken up by the natives in 

 this part of the country. In the wild state it is rather sparsely 

 distributed about here. 



The Proposed Dampia Reserve. 



'This reserve was meant to include the area situated between 

 the -Jyin Iviver and the crest of the Dampia range; it being 

 bounded on the south by the boundary of the Ashanti Gold- 

 lields Corporations land and on the north by the junction of the 

 Moiiisin hills with the Dampia range. From the Kwisa rest- 

 house, which is situated on a high spur of the Moinsin hills, Mr. 

 Burbridge, Curator, and myself, were able to obtain a very good 

 panoramic view of the upper basin of the Jym River and a por- 

 tion of the forests that it was proposed to take up as a reserve. 

 Excursions to the eastern watershed of that river, right up to the 

 crest of the Dampia range and along it for some distance, as 

 well as through the northern portions of the forests situated 

 1 >et \\-oen the river and the hills, showed us that: (a) the forests 

 are very extensively cut up with cocoa farms, some of wliich are 

 actually situated at the foot of the main range; almost all the 

 villages situated along the right bank of the river possess farms 

 within the area proposed to be taken up as a reserve ; (b) plants 

 of economic importance are comparatively scarce in these forests, 

 which are particularly poor in the more important timber-trees 

 -'irii as i he mahoganies and cedars; the Odoum (Chlorophora 

 excelsa) and the shingle wood tree, the Off rani, are practically 

 the i 1\ valuable timber-trees to be met with in any abundance: 

 these two species are, however, universally distributed in 

 Ashanti, and it would hardly be justifiable to take up a reserve 

 here solelv because the forest is rich in them; the Pebedum 

 (Lovoa Kl<i!nc,ni,!\, a good timber-tree, is sparsely distributed 

 about here: (c) the upper .Jym "River, north of the point where the 

 Cape Coast road crosses it, is scarcely of sufficient size to enable 



