584 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
order that the ground beneath may be duly shaded and pro- 
tected from the injurious effects of too great an access of 
sunlight and air-currents. 
There is yet another reason why an accumulation of 
humus in the surface-soil, and the close occupation of the 
latter by vegetation, are important considerations; and this 
is concerned with the greater power land so protected pos- 
sesses of withstanding the denuding effects of heavy and 
continuous ram. Soil charged with humus within the 
limits of the latter’s absorbent and retaining capacity holds 
back the water, which would otherwise rush down headlong 
to find its level, carrying everything portable with it. The 
roots of trees, and other forms of vegetative life, have a 
further tendency to retard the devastating effects of running 
water, and to regulate its outflow upon tracts of country 
lying at lower levels, and therefore liable to suffer from 
floods. 
Land destitute of vegetation upon hill-slopes is always 
exposed to the danger of having its surface stripped off ; 
and this once done, its capacity to sustain the higher forms 
of vegetation cannot be restored except at an expense that 
could not, in all probability, be incurred in a new country. 
The soil and climate of Tasmania lend themselves, over a 
great deal of the country, to the production of trees of large 
size and excellent quality; but land equal to the production 
of heavy timber is usually capable of being used advan- 
tageously for agricultural purposes; and such land, not 
being of relatively extensive area in Tasmania, will no 
doubt eventually be cleared off and devoted to cultivation. 
A great extent of the country, however, owing to its steep- 
ness and rocky nature, or from the loose, sandy texture of 
its surface-soil, is quite incapable of being devoted profitably 
to agriculture, and could with advantage be permanently 
occupied by timber, which, if not attaining the large dimen- 
sions in demand at the present time, would probably pay 
well for conservation a few years hence. 
By the prevention of fires, the restriction of cutting 
operations within proper limits, and the sowing of vacant 
patches of ground, the leafy canopy of land of this class 
will, as far as possible, be preserved, and consequently its 
fertility maintained, if not augmented. The great expense 
and risk involved in attempting to reafforest land once de- 
prived of its original arboreal vegetation makes it very 
desirable that restrictions should be put upon the sale of 
Government lands which, when cleared, would prove unfit 
for agricultural purposes. Such land is liable to be taken 
