364 The yoiLvnal of Forestry. 



of tlic couqncst the uliolc of the Salicl and a great part of tlic ^letidja 

 was covered with wood or scrub, which acted not only as a parasol to the 

 earth, preventing the undue evaporation of its dampness, but as a means 

 of attracting and condensing the moisture in the atmosphere, and causing 

 it to descend in refresliiug dews or rnin. 



The first serious clearings in this district were made in 1845, since 

 which time the operation has been going on wich ever-increasing rapidity. 

 The diminution in the rainfall ccmmenced in 1855. In the seventeen 

 years prior to this date it was only on two occasions more than 1,000 

 millimetres, and on eight occasions more than 800. In the twenty-one 

 years which follow, it has only twice reached 800 millimetres, and the 

 present year is almost worst of all, and something very like famine is 

 imminent in Western Algeria. 



Bclolscmmf of Alijcrla ly Australian Trcrs. — The question not only of 

 restoring to the country the wood that it has lost, but of providing 

 a supply of a constantly decreasing article, is the most important one that 

 can engage the attention of the statesman or the colonist. If this had 

 to be effected by planting such trees as oak, ash, pine, &c., all of Avhich 

 are indigenous to the country, it may well be imagined that a speculator 

 would hesitate about engaging his capital in an enterprise which could 

 hardly yield him a return in his lifetime ; but with Australian trees, 

 which grow as freely in Algeria as in their native country, he may expect 

 to cover his expenses in ten or twelve years, and after twenty or twenty- 

 five, to obtain as great results as could be realized by oak forests of a 

 century's growth. 



It is hardly more than fifteen years since the first Eucalyptus trees 

 were introduced into Algeria by M. llamel, and very few indeed exist 

 in the colony of a greater age than ten years: even now it can hardly 

 be said that any attempt has been made to grow them on a great scale. 



In the following remarks I intend to confine myself exclusively to the 

 Eucalyptus. There are many other Australian trees suited to almost 

 every condition of soil found in this colony, such as the beautiful acacias 

 or wattles, the Grevillia, casuarinas, &c. ; these are no doabt destiued to 

 play an important part in the rehoisemcnt of the country, l)ut it is the 

 Eucalyptus alone which merits to l)e planted over extensive areas for the 

 sake of its timber. 



There may be parts of Europe where this tree could be cultivated as 

 well as in Algeria, though that is very douljtful, but hardly anywhere is 

 the price of land sufficiently moderate to enable it to be grown with a 

 certainty of profit. 



As a rule, wherever the orange tree ilourishes, so does the Eucalyptus. 

 In Algeria it attains in six or seven years the same dimensions as the oak 

 does in twenty, and in its twentieth year it may be expected to furnish 

 such logs of timber for shipbuilding or other purposes as could not be 

 iuruished by an oak tree nnder 100 years old. 



Qaality and Density of Eucalyptus Timber. — There are trees which even 

 in Europe, under certain circumstances, grow with great rapidity, but the 



