20) FOREST CULTURE AND 
bark would be brought within stringent laws, and 
many other losses be obviated. 
A gentleman at Hillesley counts, as late as this 
very month, five splendid trees on an acre, cut down 
by the splitters, while only about one tenth of the 
wood is used; nine tenths being left to be swept away, 
sooner or later, by bush-fires. This improvidence goes 
on within a few hours’ drive from Melbourne. The 
stately sea-coast Banksias (Banksia integrifolia), so 
rare near Melbourne, and hardly occurring further 
westward, have been nearly exterminated within this 
month, as near tous as Brighton. On all this, local 
forest surveillance can form far the best opinion. 
Each Board should have its cultivator, who, simul- 
taneously, could perform the duties of forest-ranger. 
A few unprovided orphan boys might be occupied in 
the simple nursery or planting work for the forests. 
The officer intrusted with forest duties on behalf of 
the Government might aid, by frequent visits to each 
forest district, the various Boards with much advice. 
The expenditure for such an organization in each 
instance would be most moderate, would be product- 
ive already of early remunerative gain, and cause 
large and immediate savings. No statesman, I feel 
assured, would wish to impoverish our woods at the 
expense of the next generation, just as little as any 
legislator would hesitate to re-vote annually, for each 
forest administration, atleast a portion of the revenue 
raised from the woods under its control. A sound 
economy of the State will not expect from a forest in 
populous localities any more than to devote its means 
for self-support. One of the first duties devolving on 
any forest department would undoubtedly be to cause 
