16 



speedily kill off all the ground herbage, and keeping the 

 soil clean stop the progress of forest fires. 



A mixture of Pine and "Wattle is commonly seen on the 

 Cape Flats. Nothing could be worse. At first the 

 Wattles dominate and kill the Pines : then a few Pines 

 struggle through the dense covert of the Wattle bushes 

 ana begin to dominate and kill the Wattles ; at the same 

 time showing in their own form all the evils of the sparsely 

 grown or isolated tree. Vide page 11. 



Certain trees, such as some of the Gums and Cypresses, 

 take a fairly presentable form when grown alone. Others, 

 such as the Jerusalem Pine, the Kostrata Gum and the 

 Macrocarpa Cypress, must be kept closely packed when they 

 are young and thinned out very cautiously afterwards, 



In these matters the practical man's best guides are his 

 own eyes. The tree planter should make up his mind 

 before he starts planting ; not only what trees and where 

 he is going to plant, but how, viz. : in what manner his 

 trees can be grouped to the best advantage. This may be 

 remembered. That till we know more about Forestry in 

 8. Africa, it is safer to lay down pure than mixed planta- 

 tions. Much disappointment has been caused in S. Africa 

 by attempting mixed plantations, or by allowing an origin- 

 ally pure plantation to get mixed in replacing failures or 

 filling up vacancies. In Forestry all species are classified 

 into two groups : (1) Light-demanders ; ( 4 2) Shade- 

 bearers. A good mixture would be one where the light- 

 demanding species were quicker-growing, and thus would 

 early dominate the shade-bearing species. 



Thinning. 



To thin a plantation too severely is nearly as bad as to 

 plant it too sparsely > A plantation too much opened by 

 thinning will soon begin to show the evils enumerated 

 above under sparse planting. As a rule, plantations in the 

 Colony are either thinned too severely or not at all. The 

 latter is the less evil of the two. 



Various trees and varying circumstances demand different 

 thinning. It is best to take advice or conduct careful 

 experiments oneself. The only general rule that can be 



