EFFECTS OF FOEEST YEGETATION ON CLIMATE. 213 



suggests in this not tlae indiscriminate clearing or ring-barking 

 of trees, but "the mere scattering of seeds of our drought- 

 resisting Acacias and Eucalypts and Casuarinas at the termination 

 of the hot season along any watercourse, or even along the 

 crevices of rocks, or over bare sands or hard clays after refreshing 

 showers." Surely this would be far better than sowing the seeds 

 of thistles, as was done years ago by one of the early settlers 

 wherever he went — the origin of so much injury to his successors. 



The paper from which my extracts are taken is one of the 

 " International Exhibition Essays " of 1866-7, and wiU well 

 repay a careful perusal. ISTor is our New South Wales botanist 

 of celebrity, the Eev. Dr. Woolls, less clear in the sound opinions 

 he expressed in his recent lecture to the Horticultural Society 

 of Sydney, not two months ago. He then pointed out in unmis- 

 takeable terms the mischief done to the community and to indi- 

 vidual landed proprietors by the careless destruction of the 

 forests, and the *^' murderous process" of ring-barking those won- 

 derful Eiwaly])ti which the providence of the All-wise Creator 

 has planted in the great Australian garden — living types,' as it 

 were, of a tree " the leaves of which are for the healing of the 

 nations " — and which, though too often foolishly rooted out or 

 suffered to stand ghastly monuments of the covetousness of 

 Australians, have found favour in Sj)ain, in Italy, in America, 

 and Northern Africa. Indeed, I now call to mind -that the very 

 firsf assemblage of living Austrcdian trees that I ever beheld was 

 in the plantation of a Dutch Baron in Southern Africa. 



Showing the extent to which this practice is carried, we may 

 find in the Sydney Herald of. this very morning mention of 

 seventy Chinamen employed in ring-barking ©n a single run, 

 near Albury. 



Eespecting the value put upon the growth of 'Eucalypti in 

 other countries, I need only refer to a volume published in San 

 Erancisco, entitled " Eorest Culture and Eucalyptus Trees, by 

 Ellwood Cooper, 1876," in which he repeats the substance of many 

 of the publications of Baron von Mueller, and strengthens tliem 

 by references to other writers. {See Appendix No. 0.] 



Surely, whilst in other lands Australian trees are considered 

 of so much importance as to have been dignified with the title 

 of "The Trees of the future," it does seem strange that in 

 Australia they should be held of comparatively little value. 



So far as our water supply is concerned, a whole code of pro- 

 visions is required, and the establishment of officers who in this 

 Colony should have the same duties and powers as belong to the 

 Conservators of woods and' forests in other parts of Her 

 Majesty's dominions, and in foreign countries also. 



The Director of the Botanical Gardens could furnish a list of 

 such trees and plants as would protect and encourage the water 



