GOLD COAST REPORT ON FORESTS. 155 



liable to the formation of ring shakes and cracks when it is 

 felled. The improvement in this respect is very marked. 



Reverting to the Waw-icaw and the Dahomah, these trees are 

 so plentiful and universally distributed that it will be possible 

 to place their woods, by the local use of mechanical appliances, 

 on the home markets at a less cost than it is possible to do in 

 the case of the rarer mahoganies and cedars. Even if they 

 command such a low price as two-pence per superficial foot it 

 should pay to extract them. Xow that American and other 

 hardwoods are getting scarcer every year these two species 

 should have a great future before them. 



E. The Training of the Subordinate Staff . 



An early opportunity should be taken of opening a forest 

 school to which members of the native staff can be sent for a 

 course of training in their duties. Such a school should be 

 situated within a reserve in an easily accessible locality, and in 

 the reserve practical lessons in plantation work, thinnings, 

 girdling, felling, coppicing, &c., should be given to the pupils 

 as well as elementary instruction in the conditions affecting 

 plant growth, in the measurement of timber, surveying, the 

 forest laws, and the preparation and submission of forest reports. 



Pending the formation of such a school, which is urgently 

 required for the general use of all the Colonies and Protectorates 

 of British West Africa, the Assistant Conservators will have to 

 undertake the training of the men placed under their charge. 

 A few months' course of instruction at one of the botanical 

 gardens would also be a very desirable thing for newly-joined 

 men. The reserve selected as the site for the school should be 

 specially managed with a view to furnishing examples of all 

 the operations described above, and some very useful informa- 

 tion can thus be collected regarding the reactions of the different 

 species experimented on towards these various methods of treat- 

 ment. 



Plantations both pure and mixed of the timber-yielding 

 species should be started and careful records kept of the methods 

 of planting adopted and of the results, as well as a general 

 history of all these operations from year to year. 



" Regeneration fellings " to stimulate the natural regenera- 

 tion of the different species of trees should also be carried out. 

 and records kept of the results thus obtained. 



In fact, the reserve selected should serve as a centre not only 

 for teaching purposes, but for research work in connection with 

 the sylvicultural requirements of tropical West African plants, 

 of which but little is known at present. 



The reserve should be situated somewhere on the Sekondi- 

 Kumassi Railway, for preference in Ashanti, say between 

 Dunkwa and Oboase. Unfortunately almost the whole of the 

 land on either side of the railway has in that direction been 

 leased for mining purposes or as timber concessions. Xeveri lir- 

 Icss it may be possible to come io some arrangement wiili fin- 

 lessees arud lessors with a view to Government ac<]uiriutr an area 



