f,T;-] Notes. 



59 



of no more than 4 per cent., while even this is not secure, 

 and its reservation may be revoked by the whims of Parlia- 

 ments. No great reserves of timber now exist. In Victoria 

 the one-time Otway Forest, and the South Gippsland forest, 

 have been so encroached upon by selectors that they have 

 practically ceased to be. Instead of providing that selectors 

 should thoroughly till land fairly approachable by road or 

 railway, they have been allowed to penetrate into the natural 

 forests with which parts of the State were once clothed, and, 

 under the heading of " improvements," have been allowed to 

 clear the timber off their holdings by the quickest means in 

 their power — fire. The conservator says : — " It is a remark- 

 able fallacy to believe that grazing, even for dairying, or the 

 ordinary rough cultivation pursued in forest clearings, gives 

 a better profit, or a more sustained yield, if controlled with 

 ordinary care, than such timbers as Cedar, Silky Oak, Black- 

 wood, Beech, Blackbutt, and Tallow- wood, let alone the 

 ordinary hardwoods of Southern and Eastern Australia. Good 

 liardwood forest, with a rotation of 60 to go years, bears a present 

 value of £100 to £500 per acre." The writer clearly pointed 

 out in no uncertain terms the timber famine with which the 

 world is faced, and advocated that, with the high and rising 

 cost of labour, an Australian is wise to confine his timber- 

 growing for ordinary purposes to a rotation not exceeding 

 40 years. He considered that for many years to come atten- 

 tion to the planting of soft woods would be the most profitable 

 for Australia. Mr. E. G. Ritchie, M.I.C.E., of the Melbourne 

 and Metropolitan Board of Works, supplies some remarks on 

 " Forests : Their Effect on Climate," which again show how 

 im])ortant it is that the timber on our higher ranges should be 

 preserved at all hazards. An abstract is given of Prof. A. J. 

 Ewart's paper on " Seasoning," also read at the Forestry 

 Conference, from which it appears that considerable data is 

 yet needed regarding the treatment Australian trees require 

 in tl\eir conversion from the standing tree to marketable and 

 usable timber. At tl^c annual meeting of the Victorian branch, 

 held on 17th May last, Prof. Ewart was elected president for 

 the current year. New members for the League will be gladly 

 enrolled by the hon. secretary, 57 Swanston-street, Melbourne. 



Rabbits. — " F.R.," in his " Bush Notes " in the Australasian 

 of 2ist July, has some remarks about the introduction of wild 

 rabbits into Victoria. He says that the usual story is that 

 the Austins of I^arwon Park, near Winchelsea, were responsible 

 for the introduction, though it was recently stated in the 

 Geelong Advertiser that in 1854 a man at Ballan was engaged 

 in l)reeding rabbits for the Melbourne market, and may have 

 been responsible for a few escajxis. " F.R." inclines to the 



