

CURRENT LITERATURE 



BOOK REVIEWS 



Hardwoods of Australia 



Ten years ago Baker 1 published an elaborate book on the pines of Aus- 

 tralia. He immediately commenced work upon a companion volume dealing 

 with the native hardwoods, and some of the material was on exhibition at 

 the Sydney Technological Museum, of which Dr. Baker has long been the 

 director. The work has now r been completed, and it brings great credit, not 

 only to the author, 2 but to the Museum and Commonwealth for undertaking 

 and financing an unusually expensive investigation. 



The dominant object of the work is to make known to Australians, and 

 to the world in general, the diversity and economic value of the Australian 

 hardwoods. In America, and doubtless in many other countries, the popular 

 mind has become so accustomed to mahogany as the conventional wood for 

 pianos, victrolas, and fine furniture, that other woods, which might be stronger 

 and more beautiful, receive scant recognition. 



Baker has had various kinds of plain and ornamental furniture, plain and 

 carved interior furnishings, and a great variety of useful and ornamental 

 things, from carved gavels to railway bridges, made from native woods, and 

 has shown conclusively that Australians do not need to go outside their own 

 country for any kind of timber. The needs of the architect, builder, engineer, 

 cabinet-maker, and forester are kept in mind, and valuable suggestions, based 

 upon practical experiments, form a feature of the work. 



It is interesting to learn that not less than nine-tenths of the Australian 

 trees are hardwoods. The United States and Canada have about 700 species 

 of trees; Australia has about 500, but many of them have a wide range. The 

 genus with the largest number of species, the greatest variety in hardness, 

 color, and finish, as well as the widest distribution, is Eucalyptus: and in refor- 

 estation the genus could hardly be surpassed, for the blue gum in 24 years 

 becomes as large as the English oak in 200 years. One figure of Eucalyptus 

 regnans shows annual rings with a width of more than a centimeter. This is 

 not cited as a record, for the author remarks that a specimen of Sequoia setn- 

 pervirens at Reef ton, New Zealand, known to be 27 years old, was "nearly 

 3 ft. in diameter, with some of the rings measuring an inch in width." This 

 means that reforestation would be so rapid that it would have an immediate 

 practical aspect. Species of Acacia yield extremely hard timber, some as red 



1 Baker, Richard I., and Smith, Henry G., A research on the pines of Australia. 

 4to. pp. xvi+548. Sydney. Government of New South Wales. 1910. 



2 Baker, Richard T., The hardwoods of Australia and their economics. 4 to - 

 pp. xvi-f 523. Sydney. The Government of New South Wales. 1919. £1. 5*- 



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