Section G. 

 ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. 



1.— DEFORESTATION IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA: ITS 

 CAUSES AND PROBABLE RESULTS. 



By TF. GILL, F.L.S., F.R.H.S., Conservator of Forests. 



The subject of deforestation is one fraught with the most 

 momentous issues in any country, and imperatively demands the 

 serious attention of all wlio have the welfare of the general com- 

 munity truly at heart. To those superficial minds which think 

 that they can settle the whole matter at once, in an ofF-hand. 

 manner, without being at the trouble to consult the evidence, any 

 consideration which may be given to a question of this kind may 

 seem out of place ; and all who are determined to obtain present 

 temporary advantage and profit from forest destruction, utterly 

 regardless of all future considerations as to consequences, ^dll 

 probably resent it : but to the earnest student of Nature who seeks 

 to comprehend her probleins, and to decipher and give heed to her 

 warnings, the subject now referred to will present matter enough 

 for very grave reflections on the amount of mischief that can be 

 effected — some of it quite irreparable — in an exceedingly brief 

 space by man's meddlesome and reckless interference with the all- 

 wise arrangements of the Creator. The object of this paper is not 

 to attempt to deal exhaustively with so extensive a subject, but 

 merely to glance rapidly at some of its more important phases ; 

 to refer to a few of the incontrovertible facts that attest, beyond all 

 power of contradiction, the ruin that has followed in the wake of 

 reckless deforestation in other lands ; and to point out that un- 

 mistakable indications already present themselves that some of the 

 evils referred to have even noAv begun their ruthless work in this 

 colony of South Australia. Prominent among the causes of de- 

 forestation in this colony may be placed the following : — 



1st. The felling of trees for timber or fuel. 



2nd. The grazing of forest land by stock, Avith its attendant 

 evils of overstocking, and bush fires, " ring-barking," 

 and "■ sheoaking." 



3rd. The clearing of forest land for cultivation. 



There are other causes Avhich occasionally contribute their quota 

 towards forest devastation, but, inasmuch as they have not been 

 as yet satisfactorily accounted for, it is profitless on this occasion to 



