General
Fundamental science
Silviculture
Mensuration and surveying
Industry and trade
Forest products and their utilization
Forest policy
The items appearing here are condensed selections of news thought to be of interest to readers of UNASYLVA. They are grouped alphabetically by countries under headings currently used by the Forestry Division for reference purposes. FAO assumes no responsibility for statements in news items accepted in good faith from outside contributors.
CEYLON
· A recent issue of Sri Lanka published by the Government Information Department in Colombo is taken up entirely with a well-illustrated description of forestry research and education in Ceylon. The report describes the value of forests to the country, the need for and scope of forestry education, including the current status of the Forestry Field Training School, as well as the work being done on silviculture, utilization and timber research. The latter group of studies, especially with regard to seasoning, preservation and wood working of previously little-used Ceylon timbers, is of particular interest.
JAPAN
· Japan's schooling system has been reformed during the postwar years as follows:
1. 6 years in elementary school;
2. 3 years in junior school;
3. 3 years in senior high school (including vocational high school);
4. 4 years in the university.
In elementary and junior schools attention is paid to developing an understanding of the forest through the "greening" campaign and school forests. Senior high schools for agriculture and forestry aim at training junior forest technicians. In some schools, silviculture and general forestry are included in the general agricultural course, while forest experts are trained only at university level. The number of universities teaching forestry is as follows:
State universities - 18 (annual graduation- 506)
Public universities - 3 (annual graduation - 100)
Private universities - 2 (annual graduation - 230)
MEXICO
· El Servicio Forestal de los Estados Unidos, by Ing. G. Borgo, a Mexican forester, is the result of almost 12 months' work with the United States Forest Service during which the author travelled 28,000 kilometers visiting different regions of the country. There is no other comprehensive study in Spanish on the organization and work of the U.S. Forest Service, it should be of interest and assistance to Latin American foresters and provide those who are Spanish-speaking with a handy reference to many phases of forestry. The book consists of a factual description of what the author saw during his time in the United States and is divided into four parts:
1. the organization of the U.S. Forest Service;
2. silviculture and various other activities in the national forests;
3. forest research;
4. suggestions for conservation and better utilization of the forest resources of Mexico.
NEPAL
· The following is a description of a day's journey south from Khatmandu by an FAO officer:
"Towards 10 a.m. we set out to climb to the summit of Chandragiri (2,500 m.). The forest was heavily exploited and reduced to scrub in the lower regions and more gentle slopes; as we got further from the village (Thankot), trees became more frequent, but were misshapen and only suitable for fuelwood. At 2,000 m., the level at which the fog belt started, trees were covered with moss and lichens and were for the most part species from dry climates, in particular evergreen oaks (Quercus semi-carpifolia, Q. lanuginosa).
"We found here, as in numerous other districts of this part of Nepal, the vegetation of dry and wet zones growing side by side - particularly on the rainy slopes and in the fog belt. This is explained by the feet that during three months of the year about 2,500 mm. of rain falls on the western slopes, but during seven months it scarcely rains at all, apart from occasional winter rain. It is clear that such a mixture of species could only occur in a forest which is sufficiently dense to remain moist throughout the greater part of the year. But even in the densest areas there was no true forest. The oaks were used for provender during the dry season; they were, therefore, misshapen, being stripped of their leaves and branches each year, and in general, old and incapable of producing good seed. Indeed, regeneration was non existent, and the forest as a whole was unproductive of wood, its main purpose being to supply grazing.
"After we reached the pass, the forest changed to a dryer type, consisting solely of oaks well-spaced with grassland between them, the trees becoming scarcer towards the inhabited areas. In general, the mountain summits of this region consisted of pastureland, for two reasons:
1. the presence of fog over a certain altitude, which provides the necessary degree of moisture to keep the grass fresh over a long period;2. relatively gentler slopes towards the summits, producing good permeable soil.
There were several stands of Pinus longifolia, well-grown but limited in area. Descending the valley, the forest gradually died out, giving place to sparse pastureland, annually swept by fire. However, I saw no trace of erosion in the valley, not even soil denudation, since grazing cattle have created a network of paths following the contour lines, thereby slowing up water runoff.
"After three hours' walking in the valley we began to climb the Chisapani (8,000 ft. or 2,700 m.). The forest began at approximately 6,000 ft. (1,800 m.) and was composed mainly of Quercus mixed with Alnus nepalensis in the moister depths and various species of Michelia and rhododendrons in the less damp regions. As on Chandragiri, trees were misshapen and there was no regeneration".
The officer went on to describe the transport difficulties of Nepal, typified by this region. The road he followed was the only one from Khatmandu to India, much of it inaccessible to motorized transport and goods were therefore carried on the backs of coolies. Consequently it is impossible for Nepal to export any products of the high mountain regions, in particular forest products. The luxury of transport by lorries at Khatmandu and in the valley represents a cost to the State of 50 million rupees per year, or approximately half the value of the exports.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· Dr. Raphael Zon, formerly director of the American Journal of Forestry and director of the Lake States Experimental Station at University Farm, has been awarded the Gifford Pinchot medal, given for outstanding services to the forest industry. The award was made in Montreal at a joint meeting of the Society of American Foresters and the Canadian Institute. of Forestry.
Dr. Zon is the father of the great forest belt planted across the plains states during the drought of the 1930's to prevent erosion of top soil. Born in Russia, he emigrated to the United States in 1897 and graduated from Cornell University with a degree in forestry. He was a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot and other prominent conservationists, and has long been associated with FAO.
AUSTRALIA
· After early and spectacular successes with Pinus radiata and P. pinaster on good soils in Australia plantings were extended to poor soils which were more abundant and open to forestry against the competitive demands of agriculture. In due course, many of the latter plantings proved to be unhealthy and were very slow growing. Thus, over a quarter of a century ago, investigations of the causes of ailments and possible remedial measures were undertaken in Western Australia, taking the form of applications of inorganic materials. About 30 substances have been tested, of which two, phosphorous and zinc have been of value. Tests were made, both in correcting and improving ailing stands, and as a preventive when establishing new plantations on poorer soils, particularly those of the coastal sands. In the course of the work, methods of application, which vary for established and newly planted stands, have been worked out and considerable information has been obtained on optimum dosages for different soils and tree species, although further work needs to be done in that respect.
The effect of a corrective treatment is lasting if it induces sufficient growth to close the canopy and impose complete control of the site, and satisfactory growth following a single treatment has been maintained for as much as 16 years. Similarly, natural regeneration of P. radiata has been prompt on a fire-killed area previously treated with zinc, whereas on similar untreated soils regeneration failed.
Improvement in growth following chemical treatment has resulted in many commercial stands which, without treatment, would have stagnated or died at the height of a few feet; among them is the commercial development of 3,000 acres (1,200 ha.) of plantations on coastal sands, the success of which is entirely due to superphosphate, the cost of which is only one percent of the total cost of the stands to date.
Since forestry will be chiefly restricted to poorer soils, both because of competition from agriculture and because such soils are abundant near the main markets, the results of the studies are of the greatest significance in Australia, and use of zinc and superphosphate has now be come standard practice when dealing with the types of soils on which their use has been proved beneficial.
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
· Plant physiologists have known for some time of the existence of substances, chiefly in the upper buds of stems, tips of roots and seeds, which promote growth. It was only after these substances were isolated in their pure state, known as heteroauxin, and could be produced synthetically, that their application in stimulating plant growth became of practical importance. Heteroauxin was found to be betaindolilucacetic acid, already known to chemists.
Soon, after some experimentation, it was found that plant growth can be stimulated also by other organic acids such as alpha-naphtolacetic, dichlorphenacetic acids, and others.
In 1947, the Institute of Plant Physiology of the Timiriazev Academy of Sciences in Moscow undertook systematic experiments to determine the effect of growth stimulating substances upon the restoration and development of the root systems of transplanted trees, and on the rate of growth of the whole tree. The experiments were carried out on seedlings of lime, oak, ash, larch and other species, and on 18 and 40 year old lime trees. Heteroauxin, dichlorphenacetic and alpha-naphtolacetic acids were found most effective in repairing the roots damaged in transplanting, in increasing the survival and in stimulating the growth of seedlings as well as of large trees. In the case of transplanted seedlings of lime, oak, ash and others, treated by these acids, their roots at the end of the first vegetative season increased from two to three times in comparison with those which were not treated.
The enlarged root systems in turn affected the growth intensity of the whole tree. Lime seedlings for instance, after treatment, showed a 40 percent increase in both height and diameter compared with untreated ones. This accelerated growth was maintained during the second and third year. The effect of treatment was particularly pronounced in the case of transplanted 18 year old lime. The volume of their roots increased ten times, their height growth 147 percent, and their growth in diameter 300 percent compared with the untreated ones. This acceleration continued for the next three years. Similar positive results were obtained in treating some 1,500 transplanted 40 year old lime trees.
The treatment itself is comparatively simple. In the case of small seedlings, bundles of seedlings before transplanting are submerged to the depth of the root collar for 24 hours in a solution of heteroauxin or dichlorphenacetic acid of 0.001 percent concentration (diluting one gramme of acid in 100 litres of water). One gramme of the stimulator is enough for the treatment of 5,000 small seedlings. In the case of larger trees, instead of a liquid solution, a paste of clay and peat is used. The larger the tree the thicker the paste. In the case of very large trees, all roots that were cut in taking the tree out of the ground and which protrude from the ball of dirt that envelops the root system, are smeared with this paste. After the tree is planted, a liquid solution is poured into the ground, about 10 to 20 liters for small trees and 50 litres for each of the larger trees. The use of stimulators assumes greatest importance in planting difficult sites or in regions of deficient rainfall.
CAMBODIA
· The Cambodian forests may be divided into
1. inundated forests, comprising the mangroves (Rhizophora conjugata and K. mucronata) bordering the sea; the rear mangroves (Melaleuca leucadendron); the forest on the borders of the Great Lake; and the riverain forests;2. the non-inundated forests comprising low-altitude forests subdivided into dense and open forests and high altitude forests.
The low-altitude dense forest is considered the basic forest type of Cambodia; it comprises 1 million ha; of equatorial type (rain forest) and 2 million ha. of monsoon type (seasonal forest) and delivers all large dimensioned timber utilized in Cambodia.
This presents difficult regeneration problems once the balance of nature in the virgin forest is disturbed by human action, and an area of probably 3-4 million ha. has thus been transformed into open forest which now covers a total of 5 million ha. and is the subject of frequent fires and of laterization of the soil. In the high altitude forests (400-1000 m.) the most remarkable stands are those of Pinus merkusii extending over 50,000 ha., and of Podocarpus cupressinus (or Equisetifolia) and Dacrydium elatum (800-1,000 m.) equally about 50,000 ha.
The problems of regeneration of the open forests and of bamboo, but in particular of the dense forests as well as transformation of the mixed teak forests into pure teak, and management of the pine forests, are at present being studied.
CANADA
· A note in Unasylva Vol. VI No. 2 page 88 described a regeneration survey carried out in Canada. This survey was, carried out by the Forestry Branch of the Department of Resources and Development, and the results are embodied in Silvicultural Research Note No. 92 "Reproduction on Cut-over and Burned-over Land in Canada". No work was in feet done within the montane, coast or Columbia regions, and no sampling was undertaken in the interior plains sagebrush-grass grassland formations or tundra formation.
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
· Three years (1949-1951) since the inauguration of the ambitious afforestation plan is too short a period by which to judge its success, yet certain weaknesses of too rapid expansion of the programme becoming evident, which will become more marked as time goes on. The real work is in securing a high survival of the trees planted and in providing continuous care for the plantations over many years. As a result of the lessons already learnt by hard experience, there is a change in emphasis and a new approach. Although there is no perceptible slackening in the annual rate of new planting, efforts are now being directed toward greater care for the plantations already established. The slogan today is: "without intensive care for the young plantations, there can be no successful planting in the prairies".
On the credit side the showing made by forest planting during the last 3 years is high, amounting to 2,066,000 ha., including 1,033,200 ha. of shelterbelts around cultivated fields; 45,300 hectares on the state-wide forest barriers; 56,200 ha. of commercial oak plantations; 216,000 ha. of gullies and other eroded areas; 220,300 ha. Of shifting sands and 495,300 ha. of other miscellaneous planting. In addition, about 15,000 million seedlings were grown and 127,000 tons of seed of different tree species collected.
On the debit side of the picture are these facts: in the shelter belt plantations, where oak is the principal species planted, and in other oak plantations only 54 percent of the areas planted have a satisfactory stocking (5,000 seedlings per ha.); 21 percent of the oak plantations have only a fair stocking (from 2,500 to 5,000 oaks per ha.) and needed additional planting during the spring of 1952; 14 percent of the areas planted have unsatisfactory stocking (fewer than 2,500 seedlings per ha.), and 11 percent have to be completely replanted: thus 46 percent of the total area is in need of either supplemental planting to fill in the unsuccessful places or of complete replanting. In the light of these results the field force has been instructed, as of 1952, to shift the emphasis from pushing new planting to taking care of the earlier plantations and to bringing them up to the accepted standard of stocking. The afforestation project thus enters a new stage in its development.
GERMANY
· The volume tables (Massentafeln) by Grundner-Schwappach which have served for more than half a century as the most reliable basis for forest surveys and related scientific investigations have now been brought out in a tenth edition. The present edition is the result of years of detailed research work in Austrian and German Forest Research Institutes, and in addition to ordinary mensuration tables contains auxiliary tables for the establishment of different assortments of logs, the valuation of single stems and stands, and the production of high quality timber. There are also tables for the application of height curves to simplify height mensuration, as well as new volume tables for red oak and Japanese larch.
AUSTRALIA
· The consumption in Australia of timber primary products of all types in 1950 was about 420 million cubic feet (12 million m3) in terms of round lumber, true measurement, of which approximately 31 million cubic feet (900,000 m3) were imported. About 240 million cubic feet (7 million m3) of this were sawn, the bulk being used for housing and other building and construction. Manufacturing industries such as furniture, agricultural implements, turnery, cooperage etc. utilized about 38 million cubic feet (1 million m3) and wooden cases about 30 million cubic feet (850,000 m3). In addition, approximately 7 million cubic feet (200,000 m3) were used for plywood and veneer and about 12 million cubic feet (340,000 m3) for sawn and hewn sleepers. Approximately 14 million cubic feet (400,000 m3) were used for pulpwood for manufacture of paper and other pulp products, including hard fiberboard. The balance were used for round and split timber including mining timber, hewn timber and firewood. Actually firewood consumption is believed to be much greater than indicated from records available.
The pulpwood equivalent of imported pulp and paper in 1950 represented an additional consumption of about 50½ million cubic feet (1,400,000 m3).
Sawmilling represents the main industry using forest products in Australia. There are about 2,700 sawmills, with a capacity of about 300 million cubic feet (8,500,000 m3) log volume. The current intake is about 70 percent of estimated capacity. Nearly 70 percent of the mills are very small and produce about 25 percent only of total production. A comparatively recent development is the utilization after immunization of many lyctus susceptible species formerly not used.
There is a tendency towards the establishment of larger sawmilling units in some localities so as to provide amenities for a permanent labour force, and for the more complete utilization of timber by dimension cutting and production of more diversified products.
The plywood industry, which now embraces about 50 plants, first developed in Queensland cutting mainly hoop and bunya pine. Plywood mills are still most numerous in Queensland, but with reduction in supplies of hoop pine logs other species, including imported logs, are now largely used. Many plywood mills also now exist in other states, principally New South Wales.
The manufacture of pulp for paper of various types, cardboard and hard fiberboard is using increasing quantities of timber, much of low quality, and is providing considerable employment in the forest and mills.
The total number of persons employed in forests and forest industries in 1950 was about 125,000. This does not include the very considerable number of persons engaged in the building industry which utilises the largest proportion of sawn timber.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· An analysis of the economies of hardboard manufacture gives the following facts: hardboard is a synthetic board with a density of 0.9 to 1.2 made of wood fibers generally 1/8 to ¼ inches (0.3 to 0.6 cm) thick with modulus of rupture of 5,000 to 6,000 per sq. inch (775 to 930 per cm2), and modulus of elasticity of 500,000 to 600,000 per sq. inch (77,500 to 93,000 per cm2). About one ton of hardboard is obtained from a cord of wood. A plant of economic size is of 50 ton capacity and, at current prices, this will cost approximately 1½ to 2½ million dollars. The fixed charges are 36 percent, conversion costs 38 per cent and materials cost 26 percent.
Freight rates are a highly important factor to consider in location of plants, since rates from the Pacific Northwest are about twice as great as those from the Mississippi delta and about three times as great as from the Atlantic seaboard to the principal consuming areas for hardboard. Abundant cheap natural wood supplies are therefore not the controlling factor in determining economic feasibility or location of plants.
BRAZIL
· The following extract is taken from the book The Amazing Amazon, by Willard Price, published by William Heinemann Ltd:
"It has been estimated that Brazil annually burns as much timber as the United States uses. Seventy-one percent of Brazil's fuel energy comes from wood (2 percent in the United States). I have seen hundreds of cords of precious mahogany and rose-wood brought aboard the river-boats as fuel for the steam boilers. Wood superior to the Circassian walnut provides piles for landing stages and supports for shacks. Logs thrown across streams turn out to be woods better than costly teak. The isolated rubber worker needing a plank and lacking a sawmill, fells a fine tree and hacks and hews at it for weeks to reduce it to the desired thickness. Priceless woods rot on the ground.
"The number of known species of Amazon trees totals more than eight thousand - ten times the number in the whole United States. A dendrologist found 117 distinct species within half a mile. A timber explorer estimates that while an acre of forest land in New York State will scarcely provide more than half a dozen commercial woods, the same area in a typical Amazonian forest would show more than fifty varieties.
"All this is vitally important to the pioneer and opens up to him a profession rather new in the world - that of forest farmer.
"We have traditionally thought of a farmer as one who clears the ground of trees and raises vegetables grains, fruits and livestock. The average farmer of the temperate zone sees trees merely as something to be got rid of, except those few that can be used for lumber or to make pulp for his newspaper. His trees would deserve and get more respect if, like those of the Amazon, they could provide food, drink, rubber, belting, industrial oils, ropes and fibres, wax, chewing-gum, insulation, bedding, insecticides, medicines, buttons, dyes and hundreds of other articles of daily use.
"The finest of woods for furniture, cabinet work and house-building are here in profusion. There are woods of lovely grain, and grainless woods as smooth as butter. There are soft woods and hard woods, the percentage of the latter sometimes rising to 70 percent. How a tree can grow so fast and yet be of such firm flesh is one of nature's mysteries. Many trees are so solid that they promptly sink when placed in water. Their wood is so hard that it brings a circular saw to a shuddering halt. They are almost as good as steel for building the hulls of ships and will wear interminably.
"But the tree-farmer is not just a lumberjack. He cuts down trees needed for their lumber, but he gets his best return from the trees he leaves standing.
"The majestic castanha, two hundred and more feet high and forty feet round, drops a four-pound cannon ball and woe to the head that happens to be in the way of it! The ball is tightly packed with Brazil nuts, highly nutritious, two of them having the value of an egg.
"The tall handsome babassu palm yields a nut that is shipped in great quantities to Europe and North America to be made into soap, lubricants, margarine and medicinal products. Even the shell of the nut is useful. From it is extracted methyl alcohol. acetic acid, dyes, rosins, calcium and acetate. The leaves make straw-hats, baskets, mats and sieves.
"The coconut, of course, is a tree of a hundred uses, as the South Sea islanders know well. For them it is indispensable, since there is nothing to take its place. but in Amazonia it is only one of dozens of trees equally useful. It thrives near the mouth of the Amazon within reach of the salt tides.
"The cashew is a versatile tree, supplying a fruit that makes a refreshing drink and a delectable jelly, a nut highly popular throughout the world and oil for use in brake linings and the magneto armatures of aeroplanes.
"When China is unable or unwilling to give us tung oil needed for paints and varnishes, Brazil can supply the lack with oiticica oil which fills exactly the same purposes.
"From the assai palm comes a cooking oil, from the bacaba a substitute for olive oil, from the jupati an oil to improve soap, from the inaja an oil for cattle cake, from the murumuru palm fats and oils of high nutritive value, from the andiroba an oil remarkable as a soap base and illuminant, from the cupuassu a good substitute for cocoa butter, from the jaboti a grease that resembles suet, from the mamorana and the piquia oils superior to lard, from the castanha de arara medicinal oils - but space is lacking to go on to detail the uses of the oils of the patawa, bacuri, baratinha, castanha sapucaia marfinzeiro, copaiba, nhamui, ocotea, copal, muiratinga, pau rosa and many others.
"Then there are the trees that bear precious beans and berries, tonka beans for perfume, gumaru for the same purpose, vegetable ivory for buttons, guarana berries for that wonderful Brazilian drink now being popularized in America and Europe, vanilla beans, castor beans, coffee and cocoa beans, and a tiresome list of beans with strange names but important uses.
The problem of how profitably to farm any particular tree when it is mixed in with dozens of other species is being solved in various ways. The problem diminishes if the farmer is interested not merely in one species, but in all. Thus he does not pass by a hundred trees to reach a rubber tree, but harvests the carnauba for its wax, the cinchona for its quinine, the piassava for its fiber, the cork for its insulating materials, and so on. To do this he must first be trained thoroughly in a school of agriculture and forestry".
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· A detailed nationwide study of equipment, supplies and manpower used by the primary forest products industries has been reported by the United States Forest Service. Carried out in co-operation with the National Production Authority, this study divided the country into west, north and south groups of states and the industries into lumber, veneer. pulpwood and all others. It aimed at providing a basis for estimating the amounts of equipment, supplies and manpower required to sustain given levels of production in the primary forest products industries. The comprehensive data were obtained by field interviews of sample logging operators in each of the industries.
BURMA
· Proposals have now been put forward by the Forest Department for the issue of a revised and concise statement of forest policy. Special legislation will be necessary to give effect to this forest policy. The Burma Forest Act became law in 1881 and a simpler code was imposed in Upper Burma in 1887. The Burma Forest Act in its present form was enacted in 1902 and extended to the whole of Burma including the Shan States. It included provision for the constitution of Reserved Forests and powers, rights and duties therein, the general protection of forests and forest produce, the control of forest produce in transit, penalties and procedure, and the investiture of Forest Officers with special powers. The Burma Wild Life Protection Act 1936 and the Rules thereunder framed for the protection of the fauna of Burma. are still in force but the Forest Department has submitted proposals for their revision.
CHINA
· According to official statistics issued by the Ministry of Forestry, created in 1950, the total forest area covers 50 million ha. exclusive of bamboo thickets and small privately owned woodlots. This constitutes only 5 percent of the total land area. Such a low percentage of forest land is due first of all to the feet that a large portion of China is desert. Much of the forest, however, was also destroyed by clearings, extended over centuries, for timber, agriculture and fuelwood and also by fires. At present, more or less extensive forests are found only in the mountainous regions of China and along its boundaries with other states - in the northeast (Manchuria), northwest southwest (including Tibet), in the south, and on the Island of Formosa. The provinces in which there is the largest concentration of forests (more than 4 million ha.) are: Heilungkiang, Szechwan, Yunnan, Kirin, Inner Mongolia, and Hunan. The timber cut in 1950 amounted to 4.5 million m3, or 500,000 m3; more than in 1949. The stumps were cut to a height not greater than 30 cm., as against a stump height of 70 cm in 1949, resulting in an additional 250,000 m3 of wood. A more rational utilization of the branchwood further increased the yield of wood by 50,000 m3.
For a period of 13 years (1927-1940) China imported timber to the amount of 13 million silver dollars a year, but the present timber needs of the country are met from its own resources. In North-eastern China and in Inner Mongolia, the two most important centers of the timber industry, timber cutting has been stepped up considerably. Some 287 km. of new forest railroads have been built to facilitate log transportation. At present more than 2,600 students are receiving forest training in several special institutes and universities.
There are more than 275 million ha. of devastated land on both mountain and plain that need reforestation and plans are underway for reducing this acreage by half in the next 30 years. In 1950, 123,755 ha. were planted to forest; in 1951, 462,670 ha. and in 1952, 696,000 ha. One of the largest planting projects is the creation of forest strips within a belt that extends for 1,700 km. and is 300 km. at its widest point in northeastern China; the belt, which runs, from north to south, starts at Fuyu in the province of Heilungkiang and ends at Shanhaikwun in the province of Hopeh. It includes an area of 20 million ha. (1/5 of the entire territory of northeastern China) of which 3 million ha. will be occupied by forest plantations.
NYASALAND
· The British Protectorate of Nyasaland, "Land of the Lake", a strip of territory 37,928 square miles (9.8 million ha.) in extent, occupies the escarpment of the African Rift Valley on the western shores of Lake Nyasa, the third largest of the Great Lakes of Africa. In contrast to much of the surrounding territories of Northern Rhodesia and Portuguese East Africa, it has an exceedingly broken topography, with altitudes ranging from a mere 190 feet (58 m.) above sea level at Port Herald in the southern end of the Rift Valley, to over 7,000 feet (2,100 m.) and 8,000 feet (2,400 m.) in the Central and Northern Provinces. The highest mountain is Mlanje, in the Southern Province, with numerous peaks exceeding 8,000 feet (2,400 m.), the highest being just short of 10,000 feet (3,000 metres).
Although lying well inland and several hundred miles from the shores of the Indian Ocean, Nyasaland receives considerably more rainfall than the Rhodesias and inland areas of Portuguese East Africa and, consequently, is comparatively well-watered, the majority of the streams and rivers being perennial. The climate, generally speaking, is sub-tropical rather than tropical, with a distinctly wet summer and dry winter, though in the higher mountain areas there are, at times appreciable falls of rain accompanied by mist and drizzle, in the winter months. Except in the Rift Valley, where summer maximum temperatures of over 100° F (38° C) occur, temperatures are generally moderate and rarely exceed 95°F. (35° C.). Ground frosts occur in most winters on the central plateau at 3,500 feet (1,100 m.) and on the higher mountains over 5,500 feet (1,700 m.).
The forest vegetation is a rich one and ranges from temperate conifer forest (Widdringtonia, Podocarpus and Juniperus) at the higher altitudes, through montane evergreen and semi-evergreen forest to the deciduous forest and woodlands of the drier plateaux and Rift Valley. In common with surrounding territories, the greater part of the country over 2,000 feet (600 m.) in altitude is covered, where it has not been removed for agriculture, with Brachystegia woodland of varying density. The Rift Valley and Lake shore areas contain numerous dry forest types ranging from pure mopane (Colophospermum mopane) forest to dense acacia thickets and palm (Hyphaene crinita) stands.
The latest estimate of the area of forest land is 6,805 square miles (1.8 million ha.) of which 2,754 square miles (700,000 ha.) is State forest, 720 square miles (186,000 ha.) communal forest, and 202 square miles (62,300 ha.) privately-owned forest. The remainder is at present unallocated, but forest reservation is not yet complete, and it is probable that the area of State forest wild be considerably increased during the next decade.
Up to the end of World War II in 1945, forestry activities on the part of the Government consisted mainly in control of exploitation of the more valuable forests, such as the Widdringtonia forests on Mlanje Mountain, reservation of the main mountain areas and catchments, botanical investigations, and a considerable amount of experimental work in connection with the introduction and establishment of plantations of exotic species, notably eucalypts and pines, many of which have been proved to be easily grown under Nyasaland conditions and of great economic value.
Since the War, and particularly in the last three years, there has been a rapid expansion of forestry activities on the part of the Government. A small staff consisting of a Conservator of Forests and three Assistant Conservators, has been expanded to a total establishment of twenty-four European officers, distributed at ten forest stations in the three Provinces. Specialist sections covering forest surveys, utilization and staff training have been established within the past year and it is hoped to complete this by establishing a silvicultural research section as soon as possible. The main tasks of the expanded Forestry Department are: continuation of the forest reservation programme and its completion; survey and demarcation of all State forests; road and building construction in the more accessible and valuable forests as a preliminary to the introduction of sustained-yield management; afforestation, mainly with softwood species, indigenous and exotic, at the rate of 2,000 acres (809.4 ha.) a year, in order to build up and safeguard the country's supply of softwood timber; and the development of forestry and the timber industry generally based on an adequate and soundly-managed forest area. Good progress is being made in all these directions, and the next few years should see the establishment of forestry and its related industries as an important feature of the life of the Nyasaland Protectorate.
PAKISTAN
· With a view to integrating forest policy for the country as a whole, the Pakistan Government has constituted a Central Board of Forestry under the chairmanship of the Minister of Agriculture. Ministers in charge of forests in East Pakistan Punjab North West Frontier Province, Sind, Baluchistan, and Bahawalpur will be among the members of the Board, which will normally meet once a year.
UNITED KINGDOM
· A three-man mission has been visiting the West Indies, British Guiana and British Honduras to investigate the possibilities of increasing the production and marketing of timber. The mission was sent in accordance with the Government's policy to promote in the short term greater development of the timber sources of British overseas territories.
The mission concentrated upon raising the output of the large number of varieties of timbers not yet fully worked. It surveyed their distribution and productive potentialities. An assessment was also made of the possibilities of extending the markets for these timbers in the Caribbean and in Europe.
