560 Journal of Agriculture. [9 Sept., 1907. 



FIFTH CONVENTION OF THE VICTORIAN CHAMBER 

 OF AGRICULTURE, JUNE, 1907. 



{Continued from page 494-) 



IV.— THE IMPORTANCE OF TREE PLANTING. 



/. M. Reed, I.S.O., Surveyor-General. 



According to the returns of the Government Statist there are in the 

 State of Victoria over forty-three thousand individual holdings of over 

 30 acres in extent, and when it is considered that the large majority of 

 these land-owners are active agents for the destruction of trees it will be 

 realized how vast a work of destruction has been and is in progress. The 

 question naturally presents itself as to what will be the ultimate effect 

 of this immense clearing of timber cover. Can it be continued without 

 being productive of injury to the State? Some thoughtful observers anti- 

 cipate serious disaster and point to severe climatic changes, droughts and 

 floods as the veritable results that will follow. 



It has been clearly established that by the clearing of the country the 

 flow of streams is affected, springs disappear, and, by the rapid discharge 

 of the rain water from the cleared surface into the watercourses, whence 

 it passes away and is largely lost, the benefits of the actual rainfall are 

 minimized. The experience of the countries of the Old World should 

 afford striking object lessons. Spain, France, Italy, and Turkey may 

 be quoted as instances. In Russia the reduced volume of the River Volga 

 is attributed to the cutting of the timber along the valley. The very ex- 

 tensive and reckless forest clearing in India was found to be productive 

 of harm, and in America, too, the clearing has been enormous and the 

 need of planting has been realized. Australian eucalypts have been intro- 

 duced into India and have done remarkably well, their rate of growth being 

 much faster than that of the indigenous trees. Again the effects of wind 

 action merit serious consideration. It must be admitted that effective pro- 

 tection from the cutting winds of winter and scorching blasts of summer 

 can be productive only of good to the farmer, and yet how many fail to 

 give any attention to the preservation or creation of timber screens. 



The progress of settlement and the development of our agricultural and 

 grazing industries necessarily involve the clearing of the country, and tim- 

 ber growth has to give place to products of various kinds. The reasonable 

 aim should be to see how far timber cover can be preserved or promoted 

 consistently with the demands for land for other uses. If the forty-three 

 thousand land-owners previously referred to could be induced to become 

 active agents for the promotion of tree growth, what a transformation 

 would be accomplished. There are estates well known in Victoria where, 

 largely as the result of systematic tree planting, the grazing capacity has 

 been raised and the idea that land devoted to tree growth is so much waste 

 is a decided fallacy. In these days of improving dairying conditions, too 

 much attention cannot be given to stock protection, and what better pro- 

 tection can be afforded to stock than that furnished by well arranged plan- 

 tations. It is no uncommon sight to see dairy stock in the most miserable 

 condition, suffering the ill effects of exposure, and how much of the loss 

 of stock and of stock returns might be avoided by the provision of suitable 

 cover. 



