president's address. 785 



iv. The so-called "Spontaneous" Growth of Trees. 



Allied to this " Patana " question is that of the so-called 

 " spontaneous " growth of trees. 



" T was informed"'*' here (Failford) and also on the A. A. Com- 

 pany's Estate (Gloucester) that formerly the hills were often 

 destitute of timber where now there is dense forest. The reason 

 of this change is attributed to the overstocking of the country, 

 the stock eating down the grass, so that bush fires (which formerly 

 consumed the seedlings of forest trees) are now less frequent, and 

 devastate smaller areas of countr}^ than they used to do. 

 Mr. Forester Rudder expresses the opinion that cattle directly 

 aid the propagation of trees by trampling the seeds into the 

 ground." 



In Tasmania (perhaps in Australia) the following experience is 

 not uncommon. Where sheep are folded the manure becomes 

 quite thick. In a few years, if the sheep be removed, Eucalypts 

 come up freely. This occurs in places in which they were not 

 previously found. It seems to me that this points to the sheep 

 licking up the seed with their feed and redepositing it in manure. 

 Vigorous growth would take place in fertilized soil. Perhaps 

 this matter of natural afforestation (not re-afforestation, as it 

 takes place in areas not previously known to carry trees), may be 

 entirely explained by herbivora grazing in forest land and deposit- 

 m<y their duno- on non-forest land. The obvious reason why this 

 afforestation does not take place more abundantly is because 

 sheep and cattle readily eat down young seedlings, which must 

 therefore be protected accidentally or otherwise in order tliat 

 they may reach maturity. 



Howitt deals with the "Influence of Settlement on the Euca- 

 lyptus Forests " in his paper on the EJucalypts of Gippsland (o/). 

 cit.). He speaks of the annual bush fires of the aborigines which 

 tend to keep the forests open; consuming much of the standing 

 or fallen timber and largely destroying the seedlings. At the 



* Maiden in A()ric. Gazette N.S.W. vi. 593 (1895). 



