Cape National forests. 61 
at Uitvlugt would cost 1ld., or 2s. 7d. creosoted on the spot, at 
Knysna rates :— 
Bo Sa Gl. 
Plantation charges 00)" 1-92 
Felling, dressing, and loading into trucks (Worcester rate 
of 1:3d. per cubic foot) : oye we 0 O 3:20 
Transport as above 0 0 2 
Sawing 8 feet superficial ‘at 3s. 6d. per 100 feet OT Or 
Creosoting, vide quotation for half-round sleepers .. OF 1-8 
Total Se Ep so E50) 4 WAI 
The Uitvlugt Forest Reserve may be expected in thirty-five years to 
yleld 7,733,600 sleepers at a cost to the country of 2s. 7d. each. 
The same sleepers imported have cost 5s. 6d. each. (Average cost 
from May, 1882, to January 1891, vide report of Superintendent of 
Sleepers for 1891.) Blue-gum and black-wood sleepers cut from 
local forests in Tasmania are produced. at a cost of 2s. 6d. each 
delivered on the railway. The actual yield from seventy acres of 
mixed forest, of medium quality, at Uitvlugt, is reported thus by the 
district forest officer: ‘‘An area of seventy acres mixed pine and 
wattle plantation has been cut over; only half the wattle was cut, 
as the bark on the remainder was too light for tanner’s use. The 
yield was 60,630 lb. bark, and brought in a net revenue of £45 9s. 6d., 
or 13s. per acre. The firewood from the barked wood from 30: 
acres has been sold, fetching £64, or £2 2s. 8d. per acre. The value 
of the Port Jackson bark on trees still standing, I estimate, is worth 
6s. per acre, and the wood 18s. The cluster-pine, taking its value 
as firewood only, I estimate at £2. Adding these amounts together 
gives £5 19s. 8d. as the present selling value of the crop of this class 
of plantation. The plantation is ten years old, so the annual income 
is 12s. per acre.”’ 
So much for the vigorous-growing common woods. Special trees 
are being grown in the Government plantations to meet special 
wants. There is no really elastic wood like ash or hickory in South 
Africa. Various kinds of ash are now being cautiously tried. When 
we cross the Gamtoos River and say goodbye to sneezewood, the 
only other durable natural timber in South Africa is Clanwilliam 
cedar. For bridges, fencing-standards, and other outdoor work a 
durable timber is in constant demand. Imported pine, even when 
creosoted, is but a temporary expedient for such imperishable 
timbers as sneezewood and Clanwilliam cedar. While those two 
woods are not being lost sight of, we are growing, as durable 
timbers, in the plantations: jarrah, karrie, rostrata gum, sugar gum, 
tereticorni gum, iron barks, and other durable gums, as well as the 
