24 president's address. 



of what I saw that I wish to emphasise so much as the suggestive 

 facts that lie behind them. 



First, then, I will take America's successful exploitation of 

 exotic vegetable products, and for the sake of simplicity, I will 

 confine myself to the consideration of some Australian vegetable 

 products — and notably Eucalypts, Tan-bark Wattles, and Salt- 

 bushes. Just at this point it will be becoming to remind you of 

 the late Baron von Mueller's share in these and other extra- 

 Australian developments on similar lines. His zeal in distri- 

 buting seeds and in disseminating information has borne fruit 

 abundantly abroad, though the results of his efforts nearer home, 

 perhaps, may not have been so satisfactory. 



Among my very pleasant American experiences was a visit to 

 the University of California at Berkeley, and among the first 

 objects to arrest my attention on entering the University 

 ground were some Eucalypts and Saltbushes. The University 

 includes within its scope an Agricultural Department in charge 

 of Professor Hilgard. This Department comprises a Central 

 Experiment Station, with some half-dozen affiliated substations 

 in different localities. I would draw particular attention to one 

 of these — the Santa Monica Forestry Substation. It was estab- 

 lished in 1887-8 by the State Board of Forestry, and in 1893 it 

 was taken over by the University from the State. At the latter 

 date there were established here representatives of forty-four 

 species of Eucalj^ptus, as far as the botanists could determine 

 them, many of them represented by only one or two specimens. 

 In 1903 the number had risen to "something more ' than one 

 hundred species, many of them with fifty or more representatives, 

 of different ages, and growing upon different soils. In order that 

 you may appreciate this remarkable fact, I may remind you that, 

 out of a total of about 150 Australian and Tasmanian species of 

 Eucalyptus, Queensland maybe credited with about 61 indigenous 

 species, New South Wales and West Australia (Extra-Tropical) 

 with from 50-60 each, Victoria and South Australia (Extra- 

 Tropical) with from 30-40 each, and Tasmania with about 1 7. The 

 Mallees, or shrubby forms of Eucalyptus, are of less value from 



