FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 237 



preclude the hope that their aim may reach the 

 countries bordering on our Colonies where the 

 disposal of land remains in the hands of the re- 

 spective Kings, supported in each grant by the con- 

 currence of the chiefs and elders. It would be no 

 hardship and would prove highly advantageous to 

 impose as one of the conditions of lease, that in 

 clearances for farm purposes, certain trees of known 

 value should be uninjured, as far as is practicable, 

 either by axe or by fire. 



So far as I can now advance, land is worked, on an 

 average, ten years, after which it is deserted for virgin 

 soil. This period is made up as follows : — four or 

 five years continuously to clearance, cultivation and 

 harvest, two or three years to lie fallow, and the 

 balance of time to re-cultivation and fresh harvest, 

 when the land is considered by the people as " worn 

 out." 



Without going into the dry detail of Statistics, it 

 must be very evident to most people that forests 

 exert a considerable influence upon the climate and 

 upon the condition of the water supply. How shade 

 is sought for and appreciated even by the brute 

 creation is a fact that presents itself daily in the 

 tropics to any observer. Forests are appropriately 

 called condensing apparatus, and Nature's guards 

 against droughts which have proved such a curse to 

 countries in the past where ignorance was not removed 

 in time, or there was allowed to have its way the 



