What Brown Earth gave to the Blue 



Such was the sad tale of destruction told us 

 by the old pioneer. So the brown earth was 

 robbed for the blue, and the forest of Bloemhof 

 paid tribute to the priceless gems that glitter 

 on fair fingers in the Avenida, the Bois, Fifth 

 Avenue and Hyde Park. And like the prophet 

 Jeremiah, in place of a plentiful country, full 

 of fruit and goodness, we find a wilderness and 

 a land of drought. 



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It is an astonishing fact that the art of 

 afforestation seems to have synchronised with 

 the rise and fall of Van der Stel. He encouraged 

 the early settlers to plant trees. But that was 

 over two hundred years ago. To-day you may 

 travel in South Africa by rail or waggon over 

 measureless spaces of treeless plain. And there 

 is a sadness rather than a spice of humour in 

 the story of the townsman who was visiting his 

 country cousin somewhere in the western Trans- 

 vaal. The sun-splashed, unhindered veld swept 

 to the distant horizon. A solitary blue gum 

 stood out like a lonely sentinel beside the setting 

 sun. " I planted it," the farmer said. " How 

 long have you lived here ? " the shopman 

 asked. " Thirty years," came the proud reply ! 



The beneficial influence of the forest on the 



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