1885.] SOCIETY OF ARTS CONFERENCE. 431 



being suitable. He could hardly say yet what use the timber 

 would be, but if railways were made there, it would be very 

 useful for fuel and as sleepers, and in Australia it was said to 

 be a good building timber. As yet the oldest trees were only 

 twenty to thirty years, and in Australia, the timber is scarcely 

 used till it is of great age, when it is as fine as teak. This 

 growing in Malabar was a most interesting experiment, almost 

 more so than that of teak. 



Mr. A. E. Macdonald said he believed that teak from the North 

 Canara forest was the finest in India. That grew above the Ghats 

 about 2000 feet above the sea. As he understood Colonel 

 Beddome, the plantations in Madras were near the sea-level, so that 

 there was that great distinction between them. Plantations which 

 had been tried along the coast in Xorth Canara had all been 

 comparative failures, and it was only above the Ghats, at a con- 

 siderable elevation above the sea, that they succeeded. They failed 

 almost entirely on the Kalannddi ; there was one plantation, about 

 twenty miles from the sea, where tealv grew, but the trees were 

 stunted and poor. He understood Mr. Simmonds to say that teak 

 was not used for railway purposes ; but he believed, for the railway 

 connecting the port of Goa with the Southern Mahratta country, a 

 large contract had been given to the Forest Department in North 

 Canara for sleepers, and as far as the Dharwar frontier all the 

 sleepers would be of teak. It was durable, and the easiest timber 

 procurable. When he was in Cuba, he found the sleepers on the 

 railway were of mahogany. 



Mr. Simpson said there were various kimls of Eucclyptus ; there 

 was the red gum, the sugar gum, and the blue gum, some of which 

 were eaten by the white ants wholesale. There were, in fact, eighty- 

 three varieties of the Eiicahiptus. The Jarrah timber of Western 

 Australia was not only impervious to the attacks of the white ant, 

 as had been proved by scores of experiments, but it was reckoned 

 the next thing to everlasting. He should be glad of some informa- 

 tion with regard to the practice of girdling. Mr. Simmonds 

 said it was very desirable to know whether there was any timber 

 likely to answer as a substitute for teak, which was, he said, held 

 in the highest esteem for the backing of ironclad men-of-war. 

 He instanced a timber of Western Australia called Tuart, which 

 could be obtained of large dimensions, and which had been 

 spoken of by Mr. Lazlet in very high terms. A ritie ball fired into 

 it, passed through it without splitting, whereas teak would always 

 split. 



In answer to questions about the disinfectant properties of 

 Eucalyptus, the trees had, Colonel Beddome said, a strong smell 



