FORESTRY IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



BY D. E. HUTCHINS, F.R.MET.Soc., CONSERVATOR OF FORESTS, 



CAPE TOWN. 



THE INDIGENOUS TIMBER TREES. 



" / am as certain as I stand here that Nature intended wide tracts 

 of South Africa to be forest country." (Lord Milner's farewell 

 speech, Johannesburg, March 3ist, 1905.) 



Of the great variety of indigenous trees in South Africa only 

 three have much importance for timber, and two for the peculiar 

 value of their wood. The six chief trees are : 



j Podocarpus elongata. The large or Outeniqua Yellowwood. 



j Podocarpus thunbergii. The small or Upright Yellowwood. 

 Ocotea bullata. Stinkwood. 

 Olea lauri folia. Black Iron wood. 

 Pteroxylon tittle. Sneezewood. 

 Callitris arborea. The Clanwilliam Cedar. 



Of these, the two Yellowwoods yielded nearly all the house- 

 building timber used by the early settlers in the Colony for many 

 years ; and Yellowwood still represents about three-quarters 

 of the commercial timber in the belt of dense indigenous forest 

 which stretches in a much broken belt along the slopes of the 

 coast mountains from Cape Town to the north-east of the Transvaal. 

 From Yellowwood being the only large timber tree, the dense 

 evergreen indigenous forest of South Africa is commonly known 

 as the " Yellowwood forest." In recent years the Knysna forests 

 have yielded 100,000 Yellowwood sleepers yearly for the Cape 

 Government Railways. Yellowwood sleepers when creosoted 

 are not surpassed by Jarrah, creosoted Baltic pine, or any sleeper 

 known, but it is as a flooring board that Yellowwood timber finds 

 its most valued use. 



Ocotea bullata (Stinkwood). The timber of this tree has a higher 

 value than that of any other timber in the indigenous forest. 

 Stinkwood, however, is rarely a large tree, and the timber is chiefly 

 used for furniture and in wagon-making. Stinkwood furniture is 

 most beautiful, but its cost confines it, at present, to the houses of 

 the wealthy. 



Olea laurifolia (Black Ironwood). This tree reaches the stature 

 of a medium-sized or large timber tree, but the wood is excessively 

 hard and not durable in the ground. It is chiefly used for wagon- 

 making and is occasionally exported as an ornamental hardwood. 



