president's address. 27 



Ringbarking is a simple method adopted in this class of country 

 for killing off the timber without the expense of cutting down or 

 digging up the trees. It consists of cutting a scarf through the 

 bark, right round the trunk, with a second one a few inches below, 

 and then tearing off the detached ring of bark between; later on, 

 experience showed that one scarf was just as effective. This 

 caused the gradual death of the trees thus treated; and a greatly 

 increased growth of grass and herbage ensued in consequence. 

 According to Mr. Abbott,* this method was first adopted on the 

 watershed of the Hunter River in 1860; ten years later, it was 

 general in other districts; in 1880, fully three-fourths of all the 

 purchased, and much of the leasehold land on the Hunter had been 

 ringbarked. The landholders soon noticed the wonderful improve- 

 ment in the quantity and quality of the grass on ringbarked land 

 in comparison with the stock-carrying capabilities of the natural 

 scrub-land; and this rapid and cheap method of improving the 

 pasturage was universal over this class of country in Australia. 

 When first adopted in 1860, many of the squatters declared that 

 the destruction of the forest-trees and scrub would tend to the 

 drying up of all the intersecting creeks and watercourses. After 

 careful observations, extending over ten years, Abbott stated, in 

 the paper previously quoted, that, in the Hunter River district, 

 ringbarking had produced the opposite effect, for while, between 

 1850-1860, the creeks were seldom running, and were usually 

 quite dry in the summer months, he fonnd, after the death of the 

 timber, that these watercoures became permanent creeks with a 

 constant flow of water. This, he considered, might be due to two 

 causes; first, that the dead roots acted .like drain-pipes through the 

 soil into the creeks, or, secondly, that the live roots of the trees had 

 sucked up the greater part of the rainfall prior to the ringbarking. 



Time has since shown that, in many places, ringbarking added 

 much more to the fertility of the soil, than grubbing out and burn- 

 ing off the green timber. The slow decay of the roots beneath, and 

 the rotting of the falling leaves, bark, and branches, returned more 



*" Ringbarking and its Effects," Journ. Proo. Roy. Soc. N. S. Wales, 

 xiv., 1880, p.97. 



