122 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



wood trees that in New Zealand would be considered of nauch 

 value are looked upon in Tasmania as of little worth, excepting 

 for fuel purposes. If protected from fire and disease, the 

 Australian hardwood forests may be cut over and over again, 

 and continue to renew themselves with little artificial aid. 

 Many cases were noticed of the restoration of forests by the 

 combined agencies of coppicing and seeding. Throughout 

 Victoria the Railway Department provides facilities for the 

 sawing of firewood adjacent to stations. As many as three 

 portable plants were seen at one country station where E. resinosa 

 and E, viminalis timber was being sawn into about one-foot 

 lengths and thrown into railway trucks for transportation into 

 the city. This timber is usually dry, and is sold at a figure 

 per ton almost coinciding with that received by the Board for 

 blue gum. 



Propagatio7i Work. — Many new and novel methods of tree 

 propagation were seen on the tour, but nothing appealed to me 

 worthy of supplanting the methods now adopted at the small 

 nursery at Darfield. The trouble of "pricking oflf" gums, 

 C. macrocarpa^ etc., into paper or zinc collapsible pots is 

 scarcely warranted here, although considered necessary in the 

 Commonwealth. The sowing of P. insignis seeds in drills 

 1 8 inches apart appears to be rather a wasteful method, 

 particularly when only yearlings are required, and more labour 

 is devoted to the actual transplantation operation than in this 

 province. Magpies are very destructive to the seed-beds, and 

 frequent bait-poisoning has to be resorted to. 



The planting systems practised throughout Australasia are 

 yearly becoming more alike, with, perhaps, a tendency to sub- 

 stitute two-year-olds for sturdy yearlings. 



Diseases of Eucalypts. — In no place visited is such havoc 

 being made by disease upon the gums as in the Dominion, 

 where Rhicnopeltella eucalypti has obtained so much hold upon 

 E. globulus. 



A mysterious gall disease, differing in character from that 

 experienced in Canterbury, Go?iipterus sp., Eucosma, Eriococcus 

 coriacea, wood-borer, etc., were occasionally seen ; but generally 

 where the eucalypts are growing in congenial situations there 

 was an almost entire absence of pests. Several instances were 

 recorded where the outbreak of diseases in gum plantations 

 followed abnormally dry seasons, and such trees having con- 



