446 MANUAL OF THE NILAaiRI DFSTRICT. 



CH. XXVI. side we may say we require to cut over annually from 25 to 30 acres 

 of our plantations (Acacia^ and Eucalypfics). 



" I consider therefore that we have a sufficient area of plantations 



Conservator's about Ootacamund for a permanent supply of fuel by felling in 

 rotation, and 1 would not extend the plantations beyond planting up 

 the remainder of the Koolie Plantation, the felled portion of the 

 Buthery Shola and any other gaps ; but if most of the eucalyptus is to 

 be reserved for building timber as proposed by the Commissioner, 

 though the supply from thinnings in the plantations (to be treated as 

 high timber) will be very considerable, we may yet require some 

 addition to our plantations and be compelled to fell the rest of the 

 Buthery Shola and perhaps even other sholas ; bat after we begin 

 working our older acacia plantations, time will soon show us if this is 

 the case. 



" If a railroad was ever made up to the plateau the conditions would 

 be utterly different, and, immediately such is commenced, planting should 

 be largely extended, wherever suitable sites are available, within five or 

 six miles of the line. The railway scheme was abandoned, I believe, 

 because it was supposed there was not sufficient traffic, but was it ever 

 taken into consideration how enormously the traffic would increase, 

 we should probably send annually thousands of tons of timber dowa 

 for locomotive fuel, sleepers, building timber, &c. The Eucalyptus 

 qlohulur. is certainly much inferior to teak for the interior fitting of 

 hou.ses, &c., but it is known to be a valuable building timber, and it is 

 largely used in Australia for beams, joists, and rafters, and in out-door 

 work for piers, bridges, fence-rails, railway sleepers (duration about 

 nine years), also for shafts and spokes of drays and a variety of other 

 purposes- 

 Yield of "The enormous yield per acre in the aucalypf its -plantfitions on the 

 plantations, plateau between 6,500 and 7,000 feet elevation is very astonishing. 

 I calculate it about 1,450 cubic feet per acre per annum for the first 

 five or six years, or in dry weight 25 tons per acre per annum (58 

 cubic feet to the ton) ; the eucalyptus grows splendidly from coppice, 

 and five or six years would appear to be about the best period for 

 rotation, so that a permanent supply of about 25 tons per annum 

 per acre may be calculated on. 



" I deputed Mr. Gass (trained Forest Assistant) to make very careful 

 calculations in the " Newman " Plantations near Wellington, and the 

 following was the result : — 



1 It has become very apparent that the planting of Acacia melanoxylon either 

 for timber or firewood will never be as profitable as the planting of eucalyptus ; 

 its growth to begin with is verj much slower, and it is everywhere attacked by 

 the Loranth, which parasite in time kills the tree but very soon renders it sickly ; 

 this tree, besides, does not appear to grow at all well from coppice, nnless when 

 cut very yonng. The Wattle {A. dealbata) grows very readily from the stool, but 

 it comes no such a dense mass of small twig- like stems that its treatment is very 

 unmanageable, and without great expense in constant pruning and careful 

 management it cannot be depended upon except for very small firewood, and it 

 should only be planted where a constant supply of such is required, or as a 

 shelter against the monsoon -n-inda.-— Inspection Report, 1878. 



