57 
y 
the rubber and other trees if the Government, acting through the 
authorities of the country, will take upon themselves the super- 
vision of all the forests. 
` eg to suggest that Messrs. Leigh and Dawodu’s anpa be 
transmitted to the Director of the sw Gardens, Kew. 
I hav 
(Signed) gu C. DENTO 
Acting ovaio. 
The seh Honourable 
Joseph Chamberlain, M.P., 
Salidoury of State for the Colonies. 
[ Enclosure. ] 
Botanic iter Ebute Meta, 
8, 1897. 
SIR, . 
E have the honour to submit for the information of His 
Excellency a soe report of the work done during our absence 
in the inte 
Leaving Tagos on the ae poca we fsb ope it to biete vid 
pe, where arrived o e 13th instant. Here ived 
definite inatiratitiofia as to thé sen fate of our insta: 
During our stay at Ibadan, and before we received instructions 
^ proceed further up country, we took the opportunity of visiting 
e Ibadan and Jebu forests, which are so rich in rubber and 
tapped, and the forests have in consequence been ruined. Large 
numbers of trees have died from sheer exhaustion, and those that 
survived were in a very poor condition, and would take a couple 
of years to recover themselves. 
As all ae working had practically ceased in the Ibadan 
and Jebu forests owing to the destruction of the trees, we were 
instructed by Hi is Excellency to proceed further up country 
where rubber-working was still going on, and teach the people. 
e 
irees may be preserved and the industry made a permanent one. 
We accordingly left Ibadan on the 21st of March, and Dem 
first to the Ekiti countries, where we understood r 
was still going on. We found the forests of all these Peserai 
abound, more or less, in Ire rubber trees; but we discovered 
that all rubber-worki ng ed practically ceased even in these 
off countries, a consequence due entirely to the overworking of 
the ein 
far r hes could inspect them all the trees had been over- 
So onsequently many of them were dinp: as is the case 
with the pow and Ibadan forests. 
