200 : 
Ring-barking, especially in New South Wales, where it has 
been often carried out very injudiciously, has produced deplorable 
results. Owing to the policy of “selection before survey,” it is 
not infrequent to see magnificent timber ring-barked so as to 
comply with the “improvement” clause, so that it is possible to 
see trees worth £5 to £10 a-piece which have thus been ring- 
barked—destroyed under the pretence to ‘improve ” the “selec- 
tion.” Even on pastoral properties the practice of ring-barking 
has not been an unmixed benefit, for although the crop of grass 
is often increased, the more tender herbaceous and shrubby 
plants die out, partly from the loss of shade, which permits the 
full effect of frost to be felt, and further injury results from the 
earlier drying-up of the grasses thus exposed to the full heat of 
the sun. 
In the South-Eastern portion of South Australia a similar 
result to that caused by ring-barking has been produced by de- 
pasturing stock. Large tracts of dead gum-trees are there to be 
seen, and it appears to me as if the trampling down of the soil 
by cattle has so altered the conditions of growth, that the trees, 
losing their vigour, have fallen a prey to insect- -pests, which, 
yearly i increasing, have finally killed them. 
The only instance in which settlement in Australia has had 
the effect of increasing the indigenous vegetation on a large scale 
occurs in the Cobar district, where the Cypress-pine (Callitris 
verrucosa) has increased to such an extent that much less stock 
can now be carried there. This has arisen apparently from the 
grass being eaten off by stock, so that bush-fires no longer travel 
over large areas, and the young plants, which are easily destroyed 
by fire, growing closely together and seeding abundantly, take 
complete possession of the soil, to the exclusion of other plants. 
This is the only instance within my knowledge of any native 
plant largely extending its area after settlement has taken place. 
On the borders and beyond the limits of successful cultivation 
alien plants do not flourish every season, but some individuals 
produce seed which, on the occurrence of a wetter season than 
usual, grow and reproduce with great rapidity wherever the sur- 
face of the ground has been broken. This may be observed — 
along our Great Northern railway within the dry interior, where 
the common weeds of the farming districts have sprung-up and 
propagated, though it is not yet apparent if these strangers will 
maintain themselves in so arid a climate, or successfully compete 
with the indigenous flora—most probably not ! 
In the regions where cultivation is profitable, the introduced 
plants prove formidable rivals to the native ones in the struggle 
for existence, and attain a luxuriance of growth quite unknown 
in their original habitats ; nor do they confine themselves to cul- 
