437 



The accompanying illustration (Plate xcvin) shows the method for 

 procuring young material for distillation in the Bendigo district of Victoria. 



The extension of the wheat areas in the Wyalong district is rapidly 

 encroaching on the " Mallee," and much of it has already been destroyed, the 

 land being utilised for agricultural purposes, and it seems that if portions of this 

 natural vegetation, where the "Blue Mallee" grows most abundantly, are not 

 conserved for the purpose of oil distillation, in a few years little material 

 of E. polybractea will be procurable in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 that town. 



PLATE xcvill. 



EUCALYPTUS POLYBRACTEA. 



Reproduction of young material for oil distillation, Bendigo district, Victoria. 



In Kangaroo Island the " Mallee " E. cneori folia is utilised for oil 

 production to a considerable extent, and in a paper published in 1912 by 

 Mr. H. J. Wiadrowski, an oil distiller on the island, it was shown that 

 E. cneorifolia had, without any attention or cultivation, given a nett return of 

 3 per acre, and with a little effort to improve the leaf, it would be more 

 profitable to conserve the "Mallee" for oil, than to work the land for grain, as 

 the nett profits per acre would then be greater than from a 2o-bushel crop of 

 wheat at 33. 6d. per bushel. This estimate was made at the time when 

 Eucalyptus oil was very much cheaper than it is to-day. 



(b) FROM CULTIVATED MATERIAL. 



The illustrations given previously show how readily the oil-producing 

 species renew their foliage, so that providing the necessary areas are conserved 

 for the purpose of Eucalyptus oil production, abundant material for the 

 preparation of certain classes of oils should be assured. 



