175 



able period acquire any appreciable taste of the wood. 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 galvanized iron, it was almost exclusively 

 used in the Northern districts for milk-buckets and dairy utensils, for 

 which purpose 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 butter-boxes is causing butter-kegs to be superseded, and therefore increased 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 appli- 

 ances of various kinds, e.g., hands, pats, and rammers for butters. If our 

 timber merchants would study the special requirements of butter factories 

 and firms and companies which deal wholesale in or export this important 

 commodity, they would find that it would be to their advantage. 



Its pretty grain renders it a suitable wood for certain picture frames, 

 and Mr. R. D. Hay suggests that it is specially suitable for engravings and 

 Iihotographs. 



Now that Grevillea rohusta is getting scarce, I would like to draw public 

 attention to what I believe to be a perfect substitute for it. The commonest 

 tree in the Dorrigo Forest Eeserve is one known to 'botanists as rites 

 excelsa, and its wood usually passes as silky oak. I examined the timber 

 carefully in the forest, and brought a few pieces to Sydney. Everybody I 

 have shown them to pronounces them to be silky oak. At the present time, 

 if there is any difference between the Orites excelsa timber and that of 

 Grevillea robusia, I do not know what it is, and it is evidently not of a 

 superficial character. I was pleased to make this discovery, as there is a 

 perfect mine of the silky oak in the Dorrigo. There are millions uppn. 

 millions of feet of it, and at one time not a stick was used. But even if it 

 be not used for wine casks, the time will come when it will be used for buttiJr 

 or tallow casks, or for some other humbler yet useful purpose. 



The Dorrigo is not the only place on the Northern rivers, by any means, ia 

 which this second silky oak can be abundantly obtained. The difficulty in 

 the way hitherto has been the cost of carriage, but roads into these places 

 are being gradually opened up. (Written in 1893.) 



The following is an extract from the Tropical Agriculturist of Ceylon: — 



. . . . But we were greatly interested in a stable door composed of fine 

 planlis of a Grevillea tree, certainly not more than sixteen years old (if tliat), 

 which had been cut down and converted into timber. Made into the door whe.i 

 freshly sawn, this valuable wood had subsequently seasoned witliout In the least 

 warping. Such being his experience we were not surprised to learn that the 

 owner intended to cut down some of the older ' Grevillea trees which can be 

 spared from the large number at Lome, to be converted into floor boards. 



Size. — It rarely attains a height of more than 60 feet to 80 feet, and .i 

 stem diameter of more than 2 feet or 3 feet. But its sapwood is small, 

 and there is little waste. Given even moderately favourable conditions it is 

 a very rapid grower, at all events for the first few years. I do not think 

 it is a long-lived tree, at all events as regards culitivated specimens, usually 

 exhibiting signs of senile decay after fifty years. 



Habitat. — In the brush forests of the Clarence River northwards up to 

 Northern Queensland, but not extending miany miles back from the coast. 



Under cultivation, not only in our own State, but in other parts of the 

 world, it has shown that it is drought-resistant to an extent that vi'ould 

 hardly be supposed from consideration of the localities with ample rainfall 



