I 



THE TIMBER INDUSTRY. 



By A. O. GREEN. 



FOREST PRODUCTS. 



Among many other natural resources, Tasmania possesses 

 large forests of valuable timbers. It is a land of forests, 

 extending in many places to the water's edge, and producing 

 more than 50 varieties of timber trees, fromi which woods 

 suitable for almost any purpose may be obtained. There 

 is no lighter Pine than the Tasmanian King William, and 

 none more durable than the Huon Pine. Tasmanian Hori- 

 zontal is almost the toughest wood in the world ; while the 

 Native Ironwood resembles Lignum, Vitce in weight and 

 hardness, and is used for pulley-wheels and plummer-blocks. 

 The Tasmanian Beech (locally known as Myrtle) is as strong 

 as English Ash, and in character resembles the hardest and 

 heaviest English Beech. The Native Box and Whitewood 

 are suitable for engraving blocks and fine turnery, and there 

 are more than a dozen species of Tasmanian trees adapted 

 for ornamental and decorative purposes. One of the most 

 beautiful ornamental timbers, the Blackwood (Acacia me- 

 lanoxylon) — often used in the outlying districts for making 

 post and rail fences — has for many years past been exten- 

 sively used in Melbourne for the manufacture of billiard- 

 tables, and within the last few years by well-known London 

 firms for pianos. Some of it is called locally " fiddle-back," 

 from the resemblance of its grain to that of the back of a 

 fiddle. It is of a rich reddish brown to an almost black 

 colour, banded with golden-brown. The Huon Pine, from 

 which large panels up to three feet in width can be cut, 

 the grain of which is curiously curled and spotted, like the 

 " bird's-eye " Maple, is of a light yellow colour, turning 

 browner with age. Some Red Myrtle trees also produce 



