406 Agricultural Jouriial of Victoria. 



graze cattle within certain areas ; in Europe and in ancient times 

 even in England, a right to hunt deer and wild boars was acknow- 

 ledged. These rights or servitudes may attach to one individual or 

 a house even^ in such a case it became extinct witli the death of the 

 individual. Rights interfere with and depreciate the value of the 

 property. Let us take the case of a " miner's right." The miner is 

 at liberty to enter any forest, peg out a claim, sink a shaft, or series 

 of shafts, fell all the timber on his area, and helj) himself largely 

 outside it. He may change his site as often as it jjleases him, his 

 system of cutting timber is wasteful and outrageous, his carelessness 

 with fire often leads to serious damage to the forest. His workings, 

 as a rule, cover large areas, and run in lines, thereby cutting the 

 forest up into a series of isolated blocks, impossible to traverse 

 except on foot, making the exploitation of the forests a most expensive 

 item, and all this, for a matter of a few shillings. For ten shillings 

 a miner can easily, even unthinkingly do damage equal to twenty 

 pounds. 



Labour Required in Forestry- 



Forests give lal)Our in a number of ways. 



First.^ — General control and work done in forests. 



Second. — Transport of produce. 



Third. — Industries dependent on forests for their material. 



-General Control. — At present the system of working the Victorian 

 forests does not give much labour, but as a proper system is gradually 

 brought in, the amount of labour required will clearly ]irove how 

 useful a forest is to a State. The amount of labour recpiired is 

 governed by the system of management. It would not be beyond 

 the bounds of possibility to say that if put under a proper system and 

 thoroughly worked, the State forests would require two days' work 

 per acre per annum, but such a state of things will take a long time 

 to arrive at. At |)resent the forests em])loy too few labourers, and 

 are suffering accordingly. 



Tratisport of Produce. — This branch of forestry gives a fair 

 amount of work in Victoria. The demand for mining timber and 

 firewood gives work to a number of carters, who would otherwise be 

 idle. It also gives work to farmers living near the forests, during 

 the slack season of the year. 



Forest Industries. — The produce of forests gives work to millions 

 of persons all over the world. The working up of the raw material 

 into marketable products, and the amount of labour em])loyed, could 

 not be correctly calculated — seeing that the scope of work covers 

 from ship, bridge, and house building down to toys, pencils, and 

 matches. 



Influences of Forests on Climate and Soil- 



Temperature of the Air.— 'Vhere are ancient records to clearly 

 prove that forests were in ages past considered to affect the climate,. 



