.5°^ ]our)ial of Agriculture. [lo Aug., 1910. 



mainly of use for firewood only, should remove all crooked, diseased, 

 'dwarfed or spindled timber leaving only the strong, straight trees to attain 

 maturity. As these are harvested, fresh plantings should be made between 

 the old stumps, so that once it has matured, a forest should yield a con- 

 tinual supply of timber for an indefinite length of time. To leave a 

 forest which has been cut over to re-establish itself naturally is a long 

 and wasteful process, and in many cases, the forest will never return to 

 its original condition, since the useless trees left standing may largely 

 j^revent the development of strong, new saplings. 



In the Ovens Valley, many of the older and weaker trees are in- 

 fested by an injurious lichen (JJsnea barhata). The Hanging Mistletoe 

 {Loranthus fendulus) is abundantly present on Eucalyptus Stuartiaua. 

 L. celastroides also occurs on both Acacias and Eucalypts, but is less abun- 

 dant. In a properly maintained forest, badly infested trees are the first to 

 be removed, whereas in a forest left to re-establish itself naturally, the 

 old diseased trees left standing transmit these parasites to the new 

 timber. 



For the most part, the good timber is confined to the margin of the 

 district. A particularly fine forest, principally of Mountain Ash {E. 

 Sieberiatia), occurs to the west and south of Harrietville, and extends 

 throughout the greater part of the ascent from Harrietville to the Mount 

 St. Bernard Hospice. It consists chiefly of young, erect trees of from 

 ^o to 130 feet in height, some of the diameter of 3 feet at the base. 

 Well up in the ranges, diameters of 5 feet were found. A saw mill is at 

 work in the district and seems likely, before long, to exhaust the better 

 timber. A certain amount of E. faucifiora and E. Gunnii is also present. 

 The alpine variety known as the Snow Gum extends to very high eleva- 

 tions but is then much dwarfed. The detailed distribution is given on the 

 accompanying plan, which gives the predominant species in a particular 

 •district. 



THE POTATO EEL-WORM. 



{Continued from fage 90.) 



TF. Laidlaw, B.Sc, Micro-Biologist. 



In a preliminary article on the Potato Eel- worm in the February num- 

 l)er of this Journal I endeavoured to point out some of the differences be- 

 tween it and the Onion worm. A more extended study of this nematode, 

 and others affecting plants and found free in the soil, has convinced me 

 of the need there is, both from the standpoint of scientific interest and 

 from the standpoint of practical economy, for continued observations. 

 There are many problems connected with these almost microscopic worms 

 that, in the present state of our knowledge, we are unable to solve. Com- 

 paratively few species have been studied and named and a much smaller 

 number can be identified. Little is as yet known concerning their dis- 

 tribution or the part they play in the economy of nature, or of their re- 

 quirements in the form of food, climate, moisture and temperature for 

 multiplication and growth. Their powers of endurance, their relations to 



