HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1954
reservoirs throughout the year. The second object is to provide timber and poles for use in the New Terri- tories and to improve the lot of the rural population.
The new afforestation scheme has necessitated the reorganization and expansion of the Forestry Division. Prior to 1953, a limited amount of forestry work had been carried out in a few areas of the New Territories. When it was decided to carry on work throughout the whole area simultaneously, the Colony was divided into 5 forest districts, each with adequate staff to carry on all branches of forestry work. It was also necessary to extend and improve the nurseries to supply planting stock. During the year a large new nursery was started in the Fanling area which will become the headquarters of the Forestry Division, and it is at this nursery that most of the plants for afforestation will be grown. Owing to the time required to prepare the ground and raise tree plants from seed, it is not expected that this nursery will be fully productive until 1956. But from 1956 onwards it should be possible to accelerate the afforestation programme. A good start was made in planting work in 1954 and the planting programme with a target of 700 acres was exceeded by about 40 acres at the end of the planting season.
Most of the afforestation work of the year was in the main catchment areas. At Tai Lam Chung there was planting in almost all the areas immediately adjacent to the projected reservoir and also in all the eroded areas, the main species used being pine and eucalyptus. The soils of this catchment area are generally poor and the best results have been obtained with pine, which is already well established in many of the areas planted. In the Shing Mun catchment area there was planting
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