ON THE TIMBER SUPPLY OF AUSTRALIA. 123 



against our colonial timber if we took the trouble to cut at the 

 right time, and to season it with as much trouble as other persons 

 take with imported timber. If this is not well seasoned, it will 

 shrink quite as much. If only efficient means are adopted to ex- 

 tract the sap from sawn timber, or to steam it or to impreg- 

 nate it with salt or some mineral oil, that will preserve it : it 

 can be cut at any time. No person who has had any practical ex- 

 perience in the construction of public works, or who is constantly 

 working in timber, will undervalue the importance of cutting tim- 

 ber at the proper season. It is well known how difficult it is to 

 sell even full-grown trees, which a hurricane sometimes uproots 

 at any other time than the proper season for felling them. The 

 sap being up, they are considered almost valueless, except for 

 immediate consumption as firewood, and only with the assistance 

 of chemical compounds, and at considerable expense, can such tim- 

 ber be made useful for other purposes. The formerly perhaps 

 despised and little-valued native timber-trees of Australia, and 

 those belonging principally to the genus Eucalyptus, are exten- 

 sively planted in many countries (as lately near St Louis), which 

 find themselves in a similar position to our own, that State forests 

 must be established without delay. Garibaldi's scheme also to re- 

 gulate the banks of the Tiber, and to drain the swamps of Pontini, 

 seems intimately connected with a very large plantation to be 

 made of bluegums, probably the Tasmanian bluegums. And no 

 wonder, if we consider the excellent qualities of many kinds of 

 gum-trees, their quick growth, the great durability in some, flexi- 

 bility and strength in others, and their decided influence in purify- 

 ing the air from malaria, we also ought to make them the first 

 trees which we attempt to plant in great numbers. With them 

 we may be pretty sure of success ; the seed is cheap, easy to col- 

 lect, and — a matter of importance — fresh. As soon as we decide 

 on planting other trees, especially different kinds of Pinus, we will 

 do far better to collect what fresh seeds are obtainable in the 

 colony or in the neighbouring colonies, even at a much higher 

 price. Imported seeds are too often dear at any price ; we lose a 

 year and our labour to save a few pounds. We may succeed in 

 raising these and other trees in places where nobody expected it 

 previously. Our first aim must therefore be shelter plantations, 

 consisting perhaps of Robinia pseud-acacia, Acacia lophantlia, our 

 native black wattle, the tobacco tree, Callitris, or native pine, or 

 shrubs answering the purpose. It may be well to excavate a 



