Anglo -Egyptian 125 FORESTRY Sudan is grass country with trees and bushes scattered more or less thickly over it . Bush vegetation is of a much drier type than that found in evergreen forest, and very few of the species to be found in the one are represented in the other; it is, infact, the halfway stage between forest and desert . What is often spoken of as " forest in the Sudan is really bush in which the trees are larger and more numerous than elsewhere, as, for example, at some places along the banks of the White Nile and in the Bahr el-Ghazal. The nearest approach to a timber supply is probably in the western Bahr el-Ghazal region .

In about the latitude of Khartum , as the traveller proceeds southwards, acacia 'thorn trees begin to take the place of camel thorn and low desert scrub, increasing generally in number and size to about 10° north latitude. These trees cover immense areas of country in Darfur, Kordofan, Sennar, Kassala , and the Red Sea provinces, and also fringe certain parts of the Nile ; and where the word “ forest " is used it frequently refers to these gum -tree districts. A forest ordinance was enacted in 1912 which dealt largely withthe cutting down of hashab (gum ) trees in areas which had formerly been cultivated and to which the natives wished to return . Grass fires , started by the natives for purposes of hunting, for facilitating com munications, or for grazing purposes after the rains begin, frequently do great damage to the gum forests of Kordofan and Kassala, and in the Sennar reserves ; but these are now dealt with more promptly than formerly and the destruction caused bythem has been much reduced. The staff employedon the important work of conserving the forests in Kordofan consists of two inspectors, seven forest rangers, and thirty forest guards , all mounted .

In southern Kordofan, as in many areas farther south, the baobab tree ( Adansonia digitata ) is a common feature of the landscape . Attention has recently been called to the value of baobab fibre for paper -making, in the preparation of explosives, for [3919] K 2