118 ON THE TIMBER SUPPLY OF AUSTRALIA. 



well to see in what manner operations have been carried on, for 

 instance, in Madras, East India, where the necessity for a future 

 supply of timber has led to great exertions. The report by the 

 officiating Conservator of Forests (Major Beddome) for the year 

 1869-70 contains seventy-nine folio pages of small print, and shows 

 the great interest taken by the Government in forestry, the energy 

 of the official staff, the great success with which many experimental 

 plantations have been made, and the reasons for failure in other 

 instances. The report deals with several thousand square miles of 

 forests under conservancy; also with seventeen nurseries and 

 plantations, of from 50 to 500 acres each, and in at least as many 

 more places, operations were begun and plantations contemplated. 

 In many places the operations were tentative, intended as experi- 

 ments and for the instruction of the subordinates of the depart- 

 ment. The following items in this report appear to me of par- 

 ticular interest, as either referring to Australian trees or to the 

 mode of sowing or planting adopted: " Codoor plantation is 50 

 acres in extent, surrounded by a bank topped with an aloe fence. 

 The trees are generally watered only for one year after transplant- 

 ation. They are mostly planted out in pits; others sown in 

 trenches at 15 feet apart." A tree known in Mexico as the Geni- 

 saro (Pithecollobium saman) had been received from Dr Thwaites, 

 director of the Botanical Gardens in Ceylon, and was praised as of 

 rapid growth. If this tree is a native of Mexico, and not, like others 

 of its genus, of Brazil, it might be advisable to introduce it here for 

 the above reason. At Trevellan Nursery 358 acres have been 

 planted with 52,310 Casuarina or sheaoak, at distances 12 by 12, 

 or 15 by 15. They had to be shaded when planted, and watered 

 occasionally during the first year, but their planting had been 

 found far less precarious than any other on the plains. In the 

 Putney Hills plantations most of the gum seedlings {Eucalyptus) 

 that were first put down were killed by the frost. In many other 

 places our gums do well in India. At Talliamally plantation of 

 sandalwood, various experiments were tried at first, such as grow- 

 ing the seed in nurseries, and transplanting into bamboo pots, 

 baskets, etc., and eventually in the ground; also growing the seed 

 in bamboo pots, and the result was that the most successful plan 

 was to plant the seed in pits where the tree was to stand, water 

 well, and never transplant. Shade being very necessary to young 

 plants, experiments were made with different sorts of shade ; cotton 

 was tried, but abandoned, and now the seeds of the Chili plant are 



