ENG-1947 — Page 80

kindly supplied serum at cost price. As a result it has been possible to do something to check the spread of rinderpest in certain localities.

An outbreak of swine fever which originated in December, 1946 persisted throughout the early months of 1947. In April 1947, a serious outbreak of rinderpest was reported from Tung Chung on the island of Lantau, and here for the first time in the history of the Colony something was done to control its spread, when a member of the Agricultural Department accom- panied by a Health Inspector inoculated cattle in the district. Since then other outbreaks have been treated in Silver Mine Bay, San Tin, Ping Shan and elsewhere. In each case three inoculations of serum have been given. The small fee charged covers only a part of the cost of the treatment, the remainder being borne by the Department. Many cattle have been saved, and gradually the Chinese farmer is appreciating that the Department can and will take action to save his cattle if informed in time.

FORESTRY.

Afforestation of the Colony's hillsides and care for the few trees remaining after the Japanese occupation are among the responsibilities of the Forestry Department. Before the war forestry and the supervision of the Botanical Gardens and Government grounds fell within the sphere of a Botanical and Forestry Department, but after the liberation of Hong Kong the opportunity was taken to form two separate departments.

From 1937 onwards, severe inroads had been made into the Colony's wood reserves, at first by illicit tree-cutting activities on the part of the swarms of refugees who fled into the Colony from the Japanese occupation of Canton, later by the official felling of trees to make good the deficiency in supplies of fire- wood caused by the Sino-Japanese war, and finally by the Japanese to provide fuel for the power stations. The sum result was that the Colony's hillsides were almost entirely denuded of trees and the catchment areas exposed to the evils of soil erosion. Consequently a great part of the Department's activities in the past two years has been concentrated upon the re-afforestation of these areas. Other activities have included the clearance of brushwood in places where mosquitoes might otherwise breed, the removal of vegetation bordering and encroaching on the main roads, and the planting of roadside trees both on the Island and in Kowloon.

In accordance with the policy of giving priority to the re-afforestation of catchment areas, extensive planting was carried out around Kowloon and Shing Mun reservoirs. At Shing Mun a nursery was established which now contains over 15,000 seedlings of the paper-bark tree (Melaleuca leucadendron) for planting in the resumed padi fields around the reservoir. This tree is extremely tolerant and grows best on waterlogged soil. There is further the advantage that no part of it is

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