Section I. 



CHAPTER 1. 

 UTILITY TREES. 



WHILE there is an element of beauty always present in a timber 

 forest, the object in planting them is not beauty but usefulness. 

 or a cash return. Sentiment, therefore, nivist be put on one side, 

 and we must decide to plant only such types, and to plant them 

 in such a manner as is most calculated to give the best ultimate 

 return. All f aimers should be particularly interested in this 

 work, for the uses for timber on a farm are almost innumerable. 

 Let us run over a few of these uses first of all! What does a 

 farmer need? He needs: 



FIREWOOD, and that in very large quantities, both for his own 

 use and for the use of his servants. We have seen many a farm 

 where the only fuel available is Cow-dung, and yet these farms 

 possessed every facility for the growth of many kinds of wood. 

 We have wondered greatly how anyone could be contented to get 

 along with such poor fuel, when the production of excellent wood 

 only involved the purchase, of some Wattle seed and a few hours 

 spent in land preparation and sowing. 



POLES. In close proximity to the coast it may sometimes seem 

 advisable to purchase iron standards and use these in preference 

 to wooden posts. But the further inland one gets the more 

 expensive these become, until it is greater economy to use wood 

 posts, grown on the farm. And the posts are there when wanted 

 it may take several weeks to obtain standards. There are a 

 hundred and one uses for rails about a farm. A dissel-boom 

 breaks and can be replaced immediately. The dipping tank needs 

 railing round. A calf pen is wanted. The cattle sheds need 

 milking divisions. The pig-yard wants new rails one could go 

 on almost indefinitely, so many are the uses for poles. 



WATEK CONSERVATION. We are well aware that this subject is 

 controversial, and do not intend to say, as many do, that Gum 

 trees or Wattle trees will conserve water. But anyone who has 

 studied the subject knows that there are trees which do con- 

 serve water. These are such trees as Pines, Cypresses, Callitris, 

 &c., the needles from which act like a sponge in absorbing the 

 rainfall. A bare hillside allows nearly all the rainfall to race 

 away at once into the streams. An accumulation of half rotten 



