21 



yields more bark than the broad-leafed. Professor Maiden claims that 

 the two species will '• supplement one another, the black wattle nour- 

 ishing in situations too damp and cold for the broad-leafed." Baron 

 von Mueller recommends the planting of the black wattle on worn-out 

 lands in Victoria. 



The Australian reports give remarkable estimates of the profits to 

 be made in wattle cultivation in New South Wales and Victoria. Prof. 

 J. H. Maiden, in his Wattles and Wattle Barks, quotes one estimate 

 in which 100 acres of wattles would yield a net profit of $12,763 in eight 

 years from planting, after making full allowances for rent, interest, and 

 all possible expenses. This would be at the rate of almost $16 per acre 

 per year. By another estimate, in which the purchase price of the land 

 at $14.50 per acre is included in the expense account, 100 acres of 

 wattles is made to yield in seven years a net profit of $5,362.72, or $7.66 

 per acre per year. In the expense account is also included fencing, 

 fire breaks, and interest, and the yield is put at 10 pounds of bark per 

 tree, an admittedly low estimate. 



Wattles have been cultivated in California for a number of years 

 with varying success. Specimens of the hardiest species known in 

 California (A. melanoxylon) were killed by a temperature of 14° F. at 

 Chico, one tree being 18 inches in diameter at the stump. The tanning 

 wattles will not stand more than 6° or 8° of frost, and if, as claimed 

 by the Australians, a limited rainfall insures their best development, the 

 only part of the Southern States adapted to their growth is southern 

 Texas. 



In California the cottony cushion scale threatened the complete 

 destruction of all the acacias a few years ago, but with the introduc- 

 tion of its parasite its ravages have beeu so reduced that it is now 

 considered practically harmless, and the renewed cultivation of the 

 wattle trees is beginning. 



An important purpose is served by the acacias in the vicinity of San 

 Francisco, where they have been found especially adapted to planting 

 on the sand dunes. They thrive in the desolate sands and cold sea 

 breezes of that vicinity, and will prove an effective means of fixing the 

 shifting sands. Their bright yellow flowers, which appear in great 

 profusion, and their fine foliage make them highly ornamental, and thus 

 far they have been more used for lawn planting in California than for 

 any other purpose. The wood of the acacias makes a superior fuel, 

 and in southern Texas this use alone would warrant their cultivation. 



Both the black and golden, or broad-leafed, wattle are grown through- 

 out the coast region of California, from San Francisco south, and in the 

 more southern valleys, and there is little doubt that in that region at 

 least the wattles rich in tannin can be grown with profit. It is to be 

 hoped that they will be extensively tested throughout the warmer 

 regions of the Southern States, especially in southern Texas, where 

 there is need of forest planting. 



