﻿228 T. E. FELL — NOTES ON TSETSE-FLIES AND ON PROPHYLACTIC MEASURES 



this area, and this should eventually render the clearing effective and reduce the 

 cost of maintenance. Many years of continual weeding, planting, &c, will be 

 necessary before this result can be attained. In the dry season, as already 

 stated, the fly naturally disappears almost entirely. In the rains, scrub and 

 elephant-grass grow at such a rate that constant daily labour is required to keep 

 the ground in such a condition as to render the harbouring of Glossina impossible. 

 This land was originally elephant-grass, rank grass, scrub and " orchard " trees, 

 and it was not a question of clearing dense jungle, with which I shall deal later. 

 The planting of doubh grass over a forest clearing would be an infinitely more 

 difficult business than in the type of clearing at Sunyani. 



In spite of considerable efforts, I think that only two Glossina pupae have 

 been found at Sunyani by the medical officers. 



Forest Clearing. 



Clearings round villages (800 yards has been mentioned), round water-supplies 

 and at river-crossings on roads, have been advocated and instructions have been 

 sent to administrative officers to have such clearings made ; bnt in order to 

 carry these measures into effect, it would be necessary to bring some compulsion 

 to bear upon the native population. 



From personal observation I am satisfied that a forest clearing, not effectively 

 maintained, produces a scrub-growth which is more favourable to tsetse-flies than the 

 forest itself. In the rains, the season when the fly is prevalent, this secondary scrub 

 grows at an enormous rate and cannot be coped with, except with constant and 

 extensive labour. It is, to my mind, eminently undesirable to attempt to compel 

 a clearing larger than can be effectively maintained. In this matter it is easy to 

 produce a condition of affairs which might conceivably be more dangerous to the 

 population than that which has hitherto existed. 



The villages are small — populations of 500 to 1,500 or so — and I doubt 

 whether it would be practicable or possible for such a population to maintain 

 effectively a clearing even approximating to present requirements. It must also 

 be remembered that the season of prevalence, when clearing is most required, 

 is the farming, the rubber, and the snail season. It has been suggested that 

 farms should be made in the immediate vicinity of villages. I consider the only 

 local crop which would give thoroughly effective results would be ground-nuts, 

 and this is a product more of the open country than of the forest. Ground-nuts 

 are not grown, in Ashanti, for two successive years on the same ground. They 

 require a shallow gravelly or sandy soil, and are unsuitable as a forest product. 

 Sweet potatoes would no doubt be efficacious to some extent, but they are 

 strongly objected to by the natives on account of their rapid and spreading 

 growth, and they are said, with what truth I am unable to state, to afford 

 a special attraction to snakes. 



Clearing round Water-supplies. 



General instructions have been issued to obtain clearings round village water- 

 supplies ; but it is now generally recognised that, where these supplies are the 

 sources of streams, the removal of shade may have the effect of diminishing the 



