of twenty to thirty square miles for tins purpose. The matter 

 is ;in important one, and every effort should be made to acquire 

 such a piece of land as a reserve. 



Another good locality now that the Tarkwa-Prestea line has 

 hcen started is the (fad of country drained by the Mansi River 

 :ind its feeder. <h<- ()])<) n River. A reserve somewhere about 

 here would be accessible from both railways. The forests in 

 this district are very rich in mahoganies and cedars, but most 

 of the land close to the streams mentioned above has been leased 

 to timber merchants and contractors, and some difficulty may be 

 experienced in acquiring a sufficient area for a reserve. The 

 selection should be made with great care after full consideration 

 of the requirements, and had better be postponed till a Forest 

 Department has been established. 



F. Forest Plantations. 



Plantations of all the more valuable economic species should 

 be started in the reserves and augmented every year under the 

 provisions of a w T ell thought-out plan of operations. Efforts 

 should also be made to induce the native communities to take up 

 the planting of the indigenous rubber tree, Funtumia elastica, on 

 a large scale, and the members of the native forestry staff should 

 be freely lent out to the different districts for the purpose of 

 instructing the inhabitants in the best methods of cultivating 

 that species. This system has been attended with the happiest 

 icsults in the Central Province of Southern Nigeria, where a 

 large number of rubber plantations belonging to the natives are 

 now in existence. 



G. The Inspect/ion and Supervision of Timber Concessions and 



Licensed Areas. 



It will be an important part of the duties of every forest 

 officer to exercise adequate supervision over the working of 

 timber concessions and licensed areas, and to check as often 

 as possible the work done by their subordinates. In addition to 

 this, which will require frequent tours of inspection, it will be 

 necessary to keep a watch on rubber nurseries and young planta- 

 tions, and to make adequate provision for their annual extension 

 and their protection. The various points requiring attention may 

 be enumerated as follows : - 



(a.) The infringement of flic minimum yirtli rule. Any 

 cases of undersized felling by concessionaires or 

 licensees should be immediately reported to the 

 Conservator. 



dt.} Carelessness of felling ami the causing of injury to young 



ijmirtfi. The concessionaire or licensee should be in- 

 formed in writing of any cases of this sort that are 

 brought to the notice of the forest officer, and he 

 should be warned against recurrences of such acts. 

 Cases of persistence in such carelessness should be 

 reported to the Conservator. 



