184 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



In Australia, tlie conditions of wliicli, politicc'illy, economically, 

 and often climatically, are somewhat similar to onrs, systematic for- 

 estry has been introduced lately, and in such a manner and with such 

 success as should invite imitation. 



The report of the Woods and Forests Department (J. Ednie Brown, 

 Conservator of Forests) for 1885- 80 shows that since 187G, i. e., for 

 ten years, the expenditures for this department were, in round num- 

 bers, $284,000; the revenue, $287,000; and in addition to the balance 

 of revenue the approximate value of permanent improvements secured 

 is estimated at $729,000. 



Among the expenditures appears, for raising of trees for free dis- 

 tribution during the last four years, $8,000. The trees reported alive 

 cost the government 1^ cents each. The area reserved by the gov- 

 ernment, at first comprising 239,308 acres, has been increased to 

 257,324 acres, of which, however, 92,000 acres are not intended for 

 permanent forestry. Six thousand six hundred and eighty-five acres 

 have been inclosed and planted, mostly in the arid regions and under 

 trying circumstances. 



The revenue is derived chiefly from leasing lands for grazing or 

 agricultural purposes and from timber licenses. The success of this 

 modest experiment undoubtedly lies in allowing one competent man 

 to remain in charge of the work from its inception, and granting him 

 liberty to administer the property according to his best judgment. 

 The effect of the good example of the government upon the public 

 is commended in every annual report, and in that of the present year 

 in the following words: 



The results which will accrue to the colony at large will be boundless in their 

 utility and embelhshment. In a treeless countiy such as ours the planting of trees 

 becomes a national necessity, and not merely an individual hobby, to be taken up 

 or abandoned as caprice may du-ect. The Government cannot compel a man to 

 plant, but it may persuade him to do so. 



Note. — To enable us to form an idea of what forestry means in the household of a 

 nation the following figures are given, based upon the results of ten years of govern- 

 ment forest management (1870-'79) in the fourteen prominent states of Germany, 

 assuming that the same conditions prevail in private forests : 



The Government forests embrace 12,000,000 acres, or 35 per cent. ^ and the private 

 and communal forests 22,000,000, or 65 per cent. The total forest area is 34,000,000 

 acres, or 35^- per cent, of the total area of Germany. 



Amount of wood produced yearly, 1,870,000,000 cubic feet (55 cubic feet per acre), 

 which may be considered the yearly accretion, of which timber wood (above 3 inches 

 diameter) forms 27 per cent. , or 6,000,000,000 feet, B. M. Total gToss income, mostly 

 for wood, amounts to about $95,000,000, the total expenditure being about $38,000,000; 

 makmg a net yield of $57,000,000. Of the expenditures, 16 per cent, goes for culti- 

 vation, improvements, roads ; 32 per cent, for lumbering ; 43 per cent, for adminis- 

 tration or protection. The bulk of this expenditure is almost entirely for salaries 

 and wages, in which the laborer receives 15 per cent, more than the officials. The 

 price per cubic foot of wood averages about 5 cents, costing 0.7 cents to cut. The 

 expenditures, amounting to $1.12 per acre, or 2 cents per cubic foot, represent 40 

 per cent, of the total gross income. The net income from each acre of wood land 

 amounts to $1.60. This, then, represents the interest on the capital invested in the 

 forest area, and, reckoning 3 per cent, as rate of interest, and the rotation at which 

 the forest is worked in the average at ninety years, (these figures corresjjonding to 

 German practice), the capital value of the German forests equals nearlv $3,000,000,- 

 000, and the wood capital, of which only the yearly accretion is used, 80,000,000,000 

 cubic feet, or, reckoning the price of wood on the stump at only 3 cents i^er cubic 

 foot, represents $1,600,000,000, and the soil not quite $400,000,000, showing the for- 

 est growth to have four times the value of the soil. It is to be added that most of 

 this forest stands on a soil agriculturally useless. 



To show the relation which different parts of a European state forest management 

 hold to the whole system, the budget of the Prussian forest department for the 



