21 



emits a delicious fragrance very generally admired. My idea is that the 

 small pieces produced in saw-mills would sell at a remunerative price as a 

 superior kind of fuel for drawing-rooms, &c., if people could only readily 

 obtain it. This may appear to be a trifling matter, but I think that minor 

 uses of our timbers (and above all, utilisation of waste), should be looked to. 

 In developing such enterprises of magnitude as the wood-block trade, or the 

 getting out of railway sleepers and timbers for bridge-work, we should not 

 lose sight of the smaller possibilities of some of our timbers. 



Distribution. — Chiefly in the drier parts of the Colony, but some is avail- 

 able in the north coast district. 



Quantify availahle. — Large. 



6. SILKY OAK, SHE-OAK, &c. 



(a) Silky Oak {Grevillea robusta, A. Cunn,, and Orites excelsa, E. Br.) 



(An illustrated article descriptive of this timter will be found in the Agricultural Gazette 



for September, 1893). 



Name. — When split on the quarter this timber shows a handsome oak-like 

 grain, the prefix " silky" being either because of the silky underside of the 

 leaves, or on account of the bright appearance of the freshly split wood. 

 The name " silky oak" has for many years been thought to exclusively apply 

 to Grevillea robusta, but I have shown that the strikingly similar timber of 

 the botanically closely-related Orites excelsa also goes under the name of 

 silky oak. 



Characteristics. — Its fissility. It is light in colour, and its handsome 

 figure has already been alluded to. 



Principal uses. — Por casks of various kinds, principally wine and tallow. 

 It has also been largely used for butter kegs. For all these purposes it must 

 be cut or sawn on the quarter, to avoid leakage or soakage. In the old days 

 before the advent of galvanised iron, it was almost exclusively used in the 

 northern districts for milk-buckets and dairy utensils, for whicli purposes it 

 gave great satisfaction. The extension of the use of butter-boxes is causing 

 butter-kegs to be superseded, and therefore increased attention should be 

 given to the utilisation of this timber for dairy appliances of various kinds, 

 e.g., hands, pats, and rammers for butter. If our timber merchants would 

 study the special requirements of butter factories and firms and companies 

 who deal wholesale in or who export this important commodity, they would 

 find that it would be to their advantage. 



Distribution. — Orevillea robusta, in the brush forests from the Clarence 

 northwards ; Orites excelsa, on the table-lands from Mount Eoyal in the 

 Singleton district, northward, in brush forests. 



Quantity available. — Grevillea robusta has been so appreciated that it is 

 not now very abundant, but Orites excelsa is at present abundant, and will 

 relieve the demand for the other timber. They are practically identical. 



(b) Red Silky Oak or Beefwood (Stenocarpus salignus, E. Br.) 



A reddish, fissile timber, used locally for furniture, veneers, staves, gun- 

 stocks, walking-sticks, picture frames, &c. This timber is an cflBcient sub- 

 stitute for the northern silky oaks ( Grevillea and Orites) ; in fact it has been 

 long used by the lUawarra dairy farmers for such purposes as butter kegs. 



