69 



Growth not so slow as most of the other indigenous trees. 

 It is rarely planted, but the number of trees in the forest 

 is increased by special cultural operations in their fVvour. 

 Stinkwood has been justly termed the Oak of South Africa. 

 It is chiefly used in the Colony for wagon and cart building. 

 The choicest and most expensive furniture is also made 

 from it. The demand for this wood is greater thai the 

 supply. It coppices admirably and plantations of it would 

 be very valuable if they could be formed. 



Olea Europaea. THE CULTIVATED OLIVE. 



The cultivation of the Olive tree presents no real difficulty 

 in S. Africa, given a good soil and rainfall or irrigation. 

 The cultivated kinds will naturally not grow uncared for. 

 Drought or weeds soon destroy them, as many have found. 

 The Olive, though it can be raised from seed, is more 

 usually propagated from cuttings or from suckers. 01 ve 

 oil has been so much superseded lately by cotton seed and 

 other cheap oils that Olive culture is now less profitable 

 than it was. The finest Olive trees I have seen in the 

 Colony are at Cradock; but it is to be found here and 

 there on farms all over the South-western Divisions very 

 little cared for and sometimes ignorantly rooted up for fire- 

 wood. Such trees bear well, but the fruit is put to no use. 

 There are several species of wild Olive indigenous to 

 S. Africa. The European Olive has been grafted on to- 

 most of these. Mr. Fox, the Field-cornet of Still Bay, has 

 a grove of grafted trees. Should Olive oil again rise in price, 

 the tree would doubtless be more largely cultivated; 

 but, as was remarked in speaking of the Cork-oak, its 

 cultivation should be begun cautiously. The Olive thriven 

 best on soils which contain lime. The early Dutch 

 Governors made repeated, though unsuccessful, attempts 

 to introduce the general culture of the Olive into Cape 

 Colony. The smaller indigenous Olives yield durable 

 fencing posts, by some considered as durable as Sneeze- 

 wood. Olea laurifolia, or Black Iron-wood, is a large 

 timber tree of the moist evergreen forests ; but the wood, 

 though very hard, is not durable, and it is hardly worth 

 the serious attention of the tree-planter. 



