to come, he should have plenty to do. A good forester who is performing his work intelligently and patriotically, is doing more than mere patrol duty and measuring of logs; he is collecting seeds, taking data when certain seed forms, when it ripens, how long it lies when sown before germinating. He sows seed in suitable localities, and if he comes upon a clump or mass of seedlings of a valuable variety that will stand thinning out he treats it as a providential nursery, and transplants the seedlings to suitable localities where the same variety has been quite or nearly depleted, and he institutes various inquiries pertaining to forestry questions as he may from time to time be directed.

In 1890 some interest was awakened by the inauguration of what was probably meant to become a sort of national Arbor Day for public schools, &c. The interest in the festival has considerably waned. If, however, the school *Arbor Day did nothing else but bring tree-planting prominently before the public, it served a useful purpose. I have not any records by me of what number of trees were year by year distributed previous to 1890-vide the report issued by Mr. J. Ednie Brown, at that time Director-General of Forests-the distribution for 1890 was 4,700 trees. In 1891, in connection with school Arbor Day and the distribution to charitable institutions and municipalities, some 100,000 plants were sent out, and 18,258 trees were recorded as having been planted in reserves. The following year, 1892, the output to public schools, charitable institutions, municipalities and reserves inclusive amounted to 158,168, and in 1893 to 174,458 trees and shrubs.

For the replanting of reserves most attention is given to red cedar, ironbark, and tallow-wood. At Otford plantation, these and other varieties have been planted, and there is now also a fine growth of blackbutt saplings. At Moonbi plantation, the silky oak (Grevillea robusta), and varieties of the genus Pinus give best results. In consequence of variable seasons a great deal has not as yet been done in the area, a portion of which is devoted to tobacco culture. At Hillgrove, species of Pinus, usually called pine in Europe and America, thrive. To Government tanks and wells in the Western portion of the Colony, fruit-trees date-palms, and such timber trees as will suit the dry, hot climate are sent.

In planting either exotic or indigenous timbers the usual difficulties in forestry operations in other countries are experienced in this Colony, especially in the open remote unfenced reserves. There is the danger arising from bush fires, damage caused by stock, and last, but not least, the depredations of bush vermin; in the west, the rabbit; in other parts, the kangaroo rat, bandicoot, and wallaby. In high rough country these latter will eat down seedlings of exotic and indigenous trees, especially of the coniferous order; the eucalyptus is perhaps the only thing they may occasionally draw the line at. As for the rabbit out west, when the pinch of bad seasons arrives, he will probably eat anything.

In this connection, therefore, those people who appear to think there is no necessity for forest conservation or of planting should bear in mind that while it is simply a matter of supply and demand-of axemen and marketsas to how soon, whether months or years, a given area will be void of marketable trees; the destruction done in as many months cannot be redeemed even partially under thirty, forty, or even sixty years, as the case may be, our own fast-growing eucalypts alone being able to come near doing it in the time. What between the labour of planting, the natural enemies of trees in the shape of insects, grubs, and animals, bad seasons, fires, &c.,

* The results of this inauguration can be seen at many public school grounds.—ED.

the difficulties are great, and it takes many long years to build up a forest which has been laid low by the hand of man. In planting, therefore, we have to consider the varieties suitable for high or low, wet or dry, hot or temperate divisions of the Colony, and having found the varieties, then ascertain which are the most rapid growers, i.e., likely to soonest give a result in wood. For the temperate portions of the Colony, we have in deciduous exotic trees, American ash, American catalpa, plane trees, Virginian swamp, cypress or redwood, maples, oaks, poplar, elm, &c., &c., while in evergreens we have varieties of the pinus species of Europe and America, the Cedrus deodora of India, &c., &c. Among indigenous trees our eucalypts come first, of which Eucalyptus saligna, New South Wales blue gum, will be hard to beat in the matter of rapidity of growth, followed by blackbutt, spotted gum, tallow-wood, &c. In ornamental timber we have in stock the most important, i.e., red cedar, but the area in which it may be grown is limited. It likes shelter, warmth, good drainage, a fair amount of moisture, and good soil. Apart from the climatic or soil influence of situation, when the red cedar is grown in open and exposed positions, it appears to suffer from the attacks of a borer (Epicrosis terebrans) to a much greater extent than when growing in a dense forest situated to its characteristic liking.

Other ornamental timbers, such as rosewood, red bean, beech, flindosa, &c., they also can only be preserved and grown extensively and successfully in their natural habitats, i.e., in the bush forests found at the heads of rivers and streams, and hollows or depressions in certain parts of the mountainous regions of the coast country, more especially northwards. The question is sometimes raised: why attempt to grow the light woods, such as ash, elm, pine, &c., of foreign countries, when we are possessed of such beautiful timbers as red cedar, rosewood, coachwood, red bean, beech, &c.?

The light timber-producing trees of Europe and America will mostly grow in open country, almost anywhere, if the soil is fairly suitable, the rainfall sufficient for the particular variety, and the heat not too intense; and if we could grow them in sufficient quantity it would be a palpable gain, for in the case of indigenous ornamental light timbers, they mostly will only grow in the brush forest, or under circumstances in which the equivalent shelter moisture and warmth are obtained, and when their wood is finally cut, with a few exceptions, the matter of seasoning is a troublesome one.

The Grevillea robusta (silky oak) grows well in some of the red soil country of the north-western districts, provided it gets a sufficient rainfall. It does best, however, where it obtains not much less than 25 or 30 inches of rain in the year.

In any system of planting in the far west-say, beyond the Bogan, Murrumbidgee, and Macquarie-perhaps it should not be so much a question of planting heavy timber-producing trees as of planting something in some way useful that will probably grow, promote verdure, form humus, give shade and shelter, and in due time, failing other uses, be good for firewood. Firewood alone is an expensive item already to the residents of some far western townships. Nature did not produce her monarchs of the forest all at once, and we can hardly expect to succeed unless we follow Nature somewhat, for there had to be a gradual up-growing. If areas even small areas-on commons could possibly be successfully planted within the vicinity of townships with ornamental, quickly-growing trees, suitable to the soil and climate, without straining too far in the direction of ultimate timber production, a step would be taken towards promoting that reduction in the extremes of climate, that over-spreading of desert sand, breaking the force of hot winds,