Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
botanist in the British Empire because he, like other Cape foresters, believed the
Department of Forestry in the Cape Colony had a deeper knowledge of experi-
mental plantings than foresters or botanists elsewhere in the world.
Hutchins may have had trouble with Kew, but he maintained a detailed
correspondence with botanists in Australia, notably Maiden, who over a ten-year
period offered him advice on what species to plant in the Cape Colony based upon
their native climates. In their first exchange, Maiden decided to include Eucalyptus
saligna (later properly identified as Eucalyptus grandis ) in the shipment of seeds to
Hutchins: 'It [ Eucalyptus saligna ] is not on your list, and you need not therefore pay
for it unless you chose, but the expense is trifling.' 12 Hutchins asked to continue
receiving this species, and Maiden's 'trifling' expense eventually became the most
widely planted species of Eucalyptus in South Africa in the 1930s and after
(Poynton, 1979b: 350-381).
South African research into climate and experimental plantations expanded from
1902 when Cape experts travelled north to start new departments of forestry:
Thomas Sim went to Natal in 1902, K. A. Carlson to the Orange River Colony
in 1903, and Charles Legat to the Transvaal in 1904. Hutchins officially toured the
Transvaal after the war at the request of the reconstruction government to report
on the extent of the territory's indigenous forests, to propose species of trees to
plant, and to suggest areas to purchase land for plantations (Hutchins, 1903). He
was unimpressed with what he saw: 'In tree-planting, the Transvaal, like others of
the South African Colonies, has planted its trees entirely neglecting this most
important consideration of climatic fitness' (ibid.: 124). He recommended plant-
ing eucalypts and Mexican pines in the Woodbush Range east of Pietersburg
(Polokwane). Legat built on Hutchins's recommendations in the Transvaal,
forming experimental plantations. 13 In the Orange River Colony, Storr Lister made
recommendations on how to create a forestry programme and Carlson, the first
conservator, actively promoted the creation of experimental plantations to find
exotics that would grow there. 14
From 1904 to 1906, conservators in each colony debated the need to create a
forestry school in South Africa (Bennett, 2013). They agreed that the new school
should emphasise local environmental conditions and pay attention to exotics and
climate, subjects that they felt could not be properly learned in Britain, Europe or
India. In 1906, a forestry school opened in conjunction with the South African
College in Cape Town and the Cape Colony's Department of Forestry. Hutchins,
who worked as the professor of forestry for the first year, emphasised climatology
and exotics, an emphasis he hoped would lure students from Australia to attend
the school. After Hutchins left for Kenya in 1907, foresters debated what type
of professor should run the school (Darrow, 1977: 13). The Cape's Chief-
Conservator, Storr Lister, worried about replacing Hutchins with a forester from
India or Europe because he believed forestry in South Africa, rather than managing
large forests, would focus on the 'formation and management of plantations of
exotic trees and, notwithstanding past experience, Forest Officers for many years
will have to continue to more or less feel their way by constant and systematic
Search WWH ::




Custom Search