NIGERIA 173 
Ilaro and Mamu Reserve, it is less frequent in the Ikrigon Reserve. 
In the Sokode it was quite unknown. This last-named place is in 
Togo, and the plantation is situated in a latitude of over 9° North. 
In the Tlaro and to a lesser extent in the Mamu Reserve it has been 
remarkable how rapidly the Iroko increases in girth when given plenty 
of space after being freed from the surrounding forest trees. In these 
trees, when showing a girth of from 4 to 8 feet, the diameter increment 
is most rapid. In most cases it averages over 6 inches in girth, and 
in one case at Ilaro it was as much as 11 inches in one year. This 
rapid growth in girth is all the more valuable as the trees of this size 
growing in the high forest have usually nearly completed their height 
growth. Thus the bole is comparatively long and clean, and the 
extra growth is put on evenly all the way up, tending to make it more 
cylindrical than before. 
With the protection of the forests alone as Forest Reserve both 
in the evergreen and mixed deciduous forest zone, not only are many 
Iroko-trees preserved and allowed to grow to their full size, but also 
large numbers of self-sown seedlings come up in the abandoned ground 
and augment the value of the forests. This is an additional reason why 
the farming in a Reserve cannot be continued for any length of time. 
The old farms become more and more filled up with valuable young 
Iroko-trees, which would be at any rate damaged, if not killed, by 
the farming operations. 
Even without taking into consideration the number of planted 
trees, the Forest Department has practically guaranteed certain future 
quantities of Iroko timber in the number of small trees which have 
been preserved and the potential value of the little ones grown up since 
the Reserves were made. Only in one part of the country is this any- 
thing like the case, and that is in the Ahoada district, where the natives 
use the Iroko-tree as a boundary mark between the different village 
lands and also between many farms. To a minor extent this can be 
seen in the Onitsha district, where the Iroko-trees have been preserved 
inside the villages, thus giving them the appearance of being the woods 
of the. country while the rest of the land is bare. It is, however, just 
the reverse. They form the towns and villages amongst the trees, 
which are thus preserved from the axe and fire of the local farmer. 
Despite the fact that a fair number of large oversized Irokos have 
been cut each year in the Olokemeji Reserve, there are many more of 
the smaller size now coming on than were in existence when the first 
fellings took place. 
Another tree which has received a considerable amount of atten- 
tion is the Cigar-box Cedar (Cedrela odorata), and to a lesser extent 
the Toon (Cedrela Toona). Although both are exotic trees, the former 
especially shows very quick growth. Despite the unevenness with 
which it is liable to come up from seed, the rapid growth of the 
