116 FOREST CULTIIKE AND 



should be enlarged for creating more or less extensive 

 forests. 



These ideas may, perhaps, excite some surprise, 

 yet I feel confident that they will and must be acted 

 on before, in frightful truthfulness, the terrors of a 

 woodless country in our zone, and settled with a fu- 

 ture dense population, will be encountered. 



Should, however, my warnings fail to impress the 

 public mind, then at least I have placed, my views on 

 record, and should not be held responsible for inter- 

 ests, however vital, which the trust of my position 

 must largely bring under my reflection and care. 



My effort in supplying merely material for raising 

 local plantations all over the colony is, however, but 

 the first step in a great national work of progress ; 

 and I think we may reflect, not without some pride, 

 that this public step was made in Australia here first 

 of all. 



Haifa million of plants distributed by me to public 

 institutions is, after all, but a trifle in a country that 

 requires hundreds of millions of foreign trees, if it 

 really is to advance to greatness and the highest pros- 

 perity ; a greatness that will be retarded in the same 

 degree as attention to this, one of its most urgent in- 

 terests, is deferred. 



The gifts of plants from the establishment under 

 my control have provided the country with many a 

 species that otherwise would not have existed here 

 yet. Many of the magnificent or quick-growing Him- 

 alayan and California Pines, not to speak of others, 

 became through my hand first dispersed by thousands 

 and thousands ; and although I may have incurred 

 the displeasure of a few of the less thoughtful of my 



