ON THE TIMBER SUPPLY OP AUSTRALIA. 113 



exterminated, and the price of walnut, so much valued for cabinet- 

 work, is greatly increasing, in consequence of the distance it has 

 now to be brought to the shore. Mr N. Hawthorn now tells us 

 that the New England yeoman is at the present time as niggardly 

 of each stick of firewood as if it were a bar of Californian gold. 

 The reports of the Agricultural Department of the United States 

 predict that the export of timber cannot long be continued, as the 

 consumption within the States increases, and now requires annually 

 more than one million of acres of forest land. No wonder is it, 

 therefore, that Congress now offers a liberal bonus in land to all 

 those who will plant forest trees on one quarter of such land ! The 

 Parliamentary librarian, Mr J. C. Morphett, has kindly supplied 

 me with the following information respecting recent Congressional 

 action about forests in America : "A very important bill was 

 lately introduced into Congress by Mr Haldeman, of Pennsylvania, 

 and has now become law. It provides that every future sale of 

 Government land shall be with the condition that at least 10 per 

 cent, of the timbered land shall be kept perpetually as woodland ; 

 and if the land be not timbered, then the patent is to be issued on 

 the condition that 10 per cent, of the quantity is to be planted 

 with forest trees within ten years, and to be kept for ever as 

 woodland. If this be done, an abatement of 50 per cent, is to be 

 made on account of the expense of planting. A violation of this 

 agreement is to be met by forfeiture of the land. It is also pro- 

 posed that any one who may wish to acquire title to the public 

 land, under the Homestead Act, can do so by proof of the fact that 

 he has had, at the end of three years after taking possession, at 

 least one acre under cultivation with timber for two years,' and 

 that this shall be continued until one acre in every ten is planted 

 with trees, in clusters not more than sixteen feet apart (House 

 Bill, Forty-Second Congress, 3008)." The great attention which 

 is paid in East India to forest conservancy and planting is well 

 known, and certainly did not commence too early. To a great 

 extent the famines occurring periodically in certain portions of 

 that vast empire, through absence of rain, are a consequence of 

 deforestation. If we observe the alarm so generally expressed by 

 members of the Legislature in New Zealand (Dr Hector calculated 

 the area of forest land in New Zealand in the year 1830 at 

 20,370,000 acres, in the year 1873 at only 12,130,000 acres) at 

 the rapid disappearance of the native forests of these, in our opinion, 

 still densely wooded islands, it is certainly for South Australians 



