FORESTRY. II 



trees. The best known of these western plantations is that at 

 Tokai, which runs along the Table Mountain range from the 

 boundaries of the Muizenberg Municipality to Constantia. The total 

 area there planted to date is 2,371 acres, at a nett cost of 28,791, 

 so that the average cost of planting has been 12 35. per acre. 

 The revenue from this plantation up to December, 1904, was 

 16,766. The total area of the estate is 6,475 acres. Planting began 

 twenty-one years ago, in 1884. A preliminary valuation of the timber 

 made in 1900 worked it out to a total of 51,825. The revenue re- 

 alised from this plantation varies from half to two-thirds of the 

 expenditure, and this revenue is obtained from the sale of plants, 

 seeds and thinnings, none of the main crop being yet fit to cut, so 

 that the financial results of this plantation cannot be considered 

 otherwise than satisfactory. In the best portions of the estate the 

 growth of timber is scarcely exceeded in any portion of the world. 

 Thus, from a thirteen-year-old plot of Kari, Eucalyptus diversicolor 

 (Prinz Kasteel block) there has been a mean yearly yield of timber 

 amounting to 625 cubic feet. From a six-year-old plot of Kari 

 on Cedar Ridge there has been a mean yearly production of limber 

 amounting to 533 cubic feet. And similarly, another block 

 of Kari on Manor House Ridge has yielded a figure of 377 cubic 

 feet. The largest trees on the plantation are some particularly 

 fine specimens, now over 100 feet high, of Eucalyptus saligna. 

 These, at eighteen years old, showed a mean yearly production of 

 timber (acrim) amounting to 527 cubic feet. When one considers 

 that the best yielding forests in Europe the Spruce and Silver-fir 

 of Saxony do not average more than 150 cubic feet per acre per 

 year, it will be seen how satisfactory is the growth of timber at 

 Tokai. 



At Ceres Road, 84 miles from Cape Town on the main line of 

 railway, is another large Government timber plantation, which, 

 with the addition of the adjoining sleeper plantation, has nearly 

 the same area as Tokai, viz., 6,000 acres. The trees planted here 

 and the results obtained are similar to those at Tokai. 



There is a further large Government plantation on the Cape Flats, 

 also amounting to about the same area, viz., 6,000 acres. Here, 

 the soil being poor and sandy, the trees planted are almost entirely 

 tan Wattles and Cluster-pine. The tan Wattle used is mainly 

 Acacia saligna, though a little of the more valuable A. pycnantha 

 has been planted of late years. For the last thirteen years, how- 

 ever, the planting on this plantation has been confined to Cluster- 

 pine, designed to produce sleepers, firewood, and coarse Pine timber. 

 These Pine plantations are formed by the inexpensive process of 

 plowing the ground and sowing broadcast ; the total expenditure, 

 plus interest at 3j per cent., amounts to 64,104, the revenue with 

 interest to 26,047. The timber is now being valued. 



The fourth large Cape timber plantation is situated at Fort 

 Cunynghame on the Eastern line of railway north of King William's 

 Town. Here the area planted amounts to 3,000 acres, the total 

 expenditure to 35,408, while the revenue and estimated value of 



