PRODUCTION AND MARKETING
in the direct catchment area and in the indirect catch- ment area above Tsun Wan and in the vicinity of the TWISK road. In the Shing Mun area there is little erosion for most of the ground is grass covered, and the soils are much better than at Tai Lam Chung. Good results have been obtained at Shing Mun with eucalyptus, and the pine plantations appear to be growing rapidly. Planting was also carried out in the Kowloon Reservoir area, at Tai Po Kau Forest Reserve and in a newly established reserve on the hill-slopes behind the Castle Peak Agricultural Station.
In addition to afforestation in forest reserves and catchment areas, afforestation of village forestry lots was continued under the supervision of the Forestry Division. During the year the scheme of assistance was revised in order to ensure better results, the main change being that the villagers are now encouraged to co-operate in the formation of village plantations in well defined blocks rather than to carry out scattered planting individually. This makes supervision and management easier and should result in greater returns. It was still not possible to carry out much planting outside the Sai Kung area where the scheme has been in operation for several years, but it should be possible to extend it throughout the New Territories as soon as more tree plants are available from the new nursery at Fanling.
Protection of the plantations and forest areas is a difficult problem. With many hundreds of acres of young plantations, most of which are in grassy areas, the danger of damage by fire is very great. The autumn of 1954 was drier than usual and during this period a large proportion of the staff was engaged on
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