32 
3. I beg to suggest that Messrs. Leigh and Dawodu's report be 
transmitted to the Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew. 
Fears DE SL ET Duy 
I have, &c., 
(Signed) GEORGE C. DENTON, 
Acting Governor. 
The Right Honourable 
Joseph Chamberlain, M.P., 
Secretary of State for the Colonies. 
le ATU sS bep e pr S, Mrs raton NO TUE T NADIE 
[ Enclosure. ] 
Botanic Station, Ebute Meta, 
SIR, July 28, 1897. 
WE have the honour to submit for the information of His 
Excelleney a general report of the work done during our absence 
in the interior. ; 
Leaving Lagos on the 8th February we proceeded to Ibadan, vid 
Epe, where we arrived on the 13th instant. Here we received 
definite instructions as to the exact nature of our mission. 
uring our stay at Ibadan, and before we received instructions to 
proceed further up country, we took the opportunity of visiting 
the Ibadan and Jebu forests, which are so rich in rubber an 
timber trees. We regretted to find that though both forests 
was still going on. We found the forests of all these countries 
to abound, more or less, in Ire rubber trees ; but we discove 
that all rubber-working had practically ceased even in these far 
off countries, a consequence due entirely to the overworking of 
the trees. 
As far as we could inspect them all the trees had been over- 
tapped, and consequently many of them were dying, as is the 
We thought it therefore our best plan, seeing the condition of 
their forests, to call together the kings, chiefs, and townspeopl 
of the different towns we visited, and conveyed to them the 
wishes of the Lagos Government with regard to the rubber 
industry. "m 
. We called their attention to the ruined condition of all the 
rubber trees in their forests, and pointed out to them the folly and. 
short-sightedness of the system of “killing the goose for 
golden eggs." — P 
