130 PRACTICAL FORESTRY IN TASMANIA AND ELSEWHERE. 



bush. In such cases probably the >»est initiatory process 

 would be wattle planting, with or without some tree planting 

 for permanent timber. Till the timber has grown to 

 maturity, the wattle might be subject to a 13 or 15 year 

 rotation for bark and lirewood, and from the first rotation 

 coming in the expenses of the reserve should be more than 

 met In the cases in which the reserve is already wooded, 

 the regim*- would be similar to that of the large reserves 

 carried out on a smaller scale. 



Each reserve should have an adequate statf to properly 

 take care of it - not necessarily an expensive staff, but one 

 suitable to the condition and extent of the reserve. But 

 the central administration should be virtually a school of 

 forestry. It should consist of a properly qualified conser- 

 vator, and two or three mor--^ or less qualified assistants. 

 When the system of conservation best udapted to our condi- 

 tions here is duly decided upon, it should be systematically 

 but gradually carried out in all the reserves. The system 

 will be based uj)on a thorough practical knowledge of 

 i'orestry in general, and of the timber trees of Tasmania in 

 particular. Of course in the lar^e reserves the trees will at 

 first he there, and the conservancy will have to decide what 

 is the best to be done with them in their present condition — 

 that is, to make the best of them as they are, and with the 

 view of enabling the introduction of a proper system of rota- 

 tion, which is the basis of all economical forestry. Some of 

 the timber will require a long period of rotation, probably 

 100 years, and the reserve will have to be divided into a cor- 

 responding number of sections or " cantons," as they are 

 usually called. It is evident that this cannot be done at 

 once, for jDrobably in all the cantons as at first defined there 

 would be mature trees that would be s2:>oilt if made to wait for 

 their turn in the rotation of felling. It will be in arranging 

 for and meeting this condition of things that the skill and 

 discretion of the conservancy will be proved. It is not an 

 insurmountable difficulty, and with patient perseverance it 

 will be astonishing in what a short time a reserve will be 

 reduced to comparative order, showing one canton in process 

 of being cleared by the current year's felling, last year's 

 canton being prepared for planting and in process of being 

 planted, and those of previous years being watched, tended 

 as required, and periodically thinned. This latter operation 

 is timed to secure, if possible, a market according to the age 

 of the thinning for hop poles, telegraph poles, fencing, 

 mining timber, railway sleepers, piles, and wood for such like 

 services, and if the waste cannot be sold as firewood or 

 charcoal, it is burnt to disencumber the ground. Under this 

 system by the time the last canton of a forest is felled, the 



