WORLD'S TIMBEE EESOURCES 213 



Among the Wattles, the black feather-leaved and 

 best Australian varieties {Acacia decurrens and 

 A. saligna) succeed best, and in many districts 

 they have displaced the other varieties, although 

 both the Golden and Silver Wattles are grown 

 in some parts. In the Transkei alone over twelve 

 and a half million forest trees have been planted, 

 more than a miUion of these being Black Wattle. 

 Of the private plantations of this tree, the 

 largest are owned by the East London Wattle- 

 bark Company, containing 300 and 700 acres 

 respectively. The produce of these and other 

 plantations now supplies the tanneries of the 

 colony, and a considerable quantity of bark is 

 also exported to Great Britain. The local 

 demand for tannages is to some extent met by 

 using the leaves of "the Cape Sumach {Osyris 

 compressa) which, it is considered, produces a 

 finer and lighter coloured leather than Wattle 

 bark. . . . 



" In the neighbourhood of Port Elizabeth the 

 example of France and Germany has been suc- 

 cessfully followed in reclaiming tracts of drift 

 sand. In a little over four years some 2,500 

 acres have been planted with the West AustraUan 

 and Cyclopis Wattles, Pypgrass and Rushy Sea- 

 wheat grass, the seed being sown broadcast 

 and then covered with town refuse. The refuse 

 is conveyed by means of a Hght railway to 



