Cape National Forests. ay 
has been almost obliterated by mismanagement, and it now remains 
to restore, as quickly and as economically as possible, a certain area 
by means of plantations. The railway system of the country, and 
the various centres of population indicate where these forests can 
most economically be placed. 
Following the example of Germany and Central Hurope, we 
should form: (1) Village plantations like that of Worcester, to be 
paid for on the £ for £& principle jointly by Government and 
Municipalities, to remain the property of the Municipalities, but 
always managed by the Government forest officers; (2) larger 
Government plantations, like those at Tokai and Uitvlugt, near 
Cape Town, at Ceres Road and Fort Cunynghame, adjoining the 
railways, and managed and owned by Government. Such plantations, 
to be economical, must be situated within minimum rainfall limits 
of 15 or 20 inches per annum. At some distance inland these 
rainfall limits can only be secured by going a certain distance from 
the railway on to the mountains. The Cedarberg mountains are a 
case in point. 
Is planting profitable? The Worcester plantation is the only 
one of the plantations that is as yet old enough to have produced a 
marketable crop. At the end of the first crop this plantation, which 
is only 60 acres in extent, showed a net profit of £4,338 after 
deducting all expenses of formation and management, or £3,438 
allowing interest at 3 per cent. on the cost of formation. 
As a further example of the profits derivable from a blue-gum 
plantation on a farm, the following extract from ‘ Tree-planting, 
1893,” may be cited: “As an illustration of the value of a blue-gum 
fuel copse let us take the case of a few acres planted near the 
homestead of a farm. An ordinary household in fairly well-to-do 
circumstances uses four or five tons of coal, or its equivalent, per 
year. One acre of blue-gum copse in fair growth will yield con- 
tinually ten tons (dry weight) of wood fuel per year. The cutting 
up of the small wood yielded by the copse is not expensive; but let 
us suppose that of this ten tons of wood nearly one-half goes in 
working expenses, and that from 1 acre of blue-gum copse we only 
obtain the net equivalent of five tons of coal: we arrive then at 
the conclusion that 1 acre of blue-gum copse will keep a household 
always comfortably supplied with fuel free of cost. What this free 
fuel means, in pounds, shillings, and pence, will of course depend on 
circumstances. To a household in the suburbs of Cape Town it 
means about £15 a year. In many other Colonial towns where 
wood has to be brought from a distance it means more. At Knysna 
the cost of transport makes wood fuel dearer than at Cape Town. 
