160 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 
Lastly, the Government have started a new mill at Apapa, near 
Lagos, for cutting logs obtained near Akilla, on the Oni River, in the 
Abeokuta province, and the planing, grooving and recutting is done 
in connection with the Public Works yards and furniture-making 
establishment in Lagos. 
The Akilla work is run entirely by the Forestry Department. 
Trees are felled, cut into logs and brought to the waterside ; then, 
rafted with others, floated in kerosine tins on lighter wood to Apapa. 
A regular rate is charged per cubic foot. Work was started in August 
1914, and already several thousand logs have been delivered at Apapa. 
Ill. THe Permanent Forests orn Forest RESERVES. 
In the main, all Forest Reserves become the permanent forests of 
a country. So far as Nigeria, for instance, is concerned, certain definite 
and well-defined portions of the original forests have been set aside, 
by agreement with the natives, as Forest Reserves. If these areas 
had not been set aside, they would have been liable to destruction 
under the form of shifting cultivation which the local people practise. 
For instance, at Olokemeji there are several thousand acres in the 
middle of the Reserve which were cleared some years ago and have 
not yet grown up. This would have been the fate of the rest of the 
forest if it had not definitely been placed under the care and protection 
of the Forest Department. The same applies to other areas scattered 
over the country. 
It is somewhat hard to define the meaning of a Reserve. Essen- 
tially it is an area permanently set aside for the production of timber 
or other forest produce. In many cases, however, the trees or the 
forests have to be preserved in the interests of the climatic conditions 
of the locality. If it is found that by cutting down a forest the rain- 
fall decreases every year, the springs dry up, and the land becomes 
covered with grass, where ‘actual grass fires kill all young vegetation 
and even hinder farming operations, then the forest must be reserved. 
To take some examples: In the colony of Sierra Leone there is a 
Peninsular Mountain Forest, a large and valuable Reserve, 80 per 
cent. of which is covered with red ironwood, Lophira procera. Then 
in the Protectorate there are the Kambui Hills, Kennema, then Nimmini, 
and the Loma Mountain Reserve. In the colony and Protectorate of 
the Gold Coast there is the Dunkwah Reserve. Some of the most 
improved reserves in the southern province of Nigeria are in the Western 
Circle. There are Olokemeji, Mamu, Ilaro, Oshun, Owenna and Ondo 
Reserves. Again, in the Central Circle there are the Okumu, Obagie, 
Gilli-gilli, the Uhi, and the Ogba Forests. 
In the Eastern Circle there are the Oban, Ikrigon and Ajasso 
Reserves, in all aggregating about 2,000 square miles. 
Contrary to the usual idea, we have seen that a Forest Reserve is 
