2 TREE CULTURE IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 



colony as a whole. Conserving and planting trees will and must become 

 a universal industry in tliis country at no great distant day. To the 

 landowners we must look for that general system of planting which will 

 ultimately ameliorate the hot winds of our suromers, increase and 

 equalise our rainfall, and conduce to the increased products of our soil. 



Why should a country such as this is, with its rich soil and general 

 natural advantages, have to depend, as it now does, on foreign im- 

 portations for a supply of even the commonest class of timber ? There 

 is no reason why it should be so, and yet it is humiliating to confess that 

 at the present time but a very small proportion of the timber used ia 

 permanent works in the colony is from trees grown in the coiintry. 



If we have to rely upon foreign supplies for our timber now, what 

 shaU we do fifteen or twenty years hence, when our population shall 

 have increased tenfold ? At that time the demand for timber will be 

 increased to an extent which we can have no idea of at the present time. 

 Will the supply then be had from other countries ? No. It is not in 

 the common nature of things that this could be so, seeiog that every 

 civilised country is beginning to feel that it must increase its available 

 supply of timber to meet the; demands of its own growing requirements. 

 Where, for iastance, axe the fine forests of Huon piae and Sydney cedar 

 which produced such an unlimited supply of timber only a few years 

 ago ? These are getting pretty well swept away by the indiscriminate 

 slaughter which has marked the mismanagement of these fine and 

 . valuable forest lands. 



Then, from these facts it is evident that the only alternative is. 

 South Australia must of necessity, like other countries, attend to con- 

 serve her existing supply of timber, and to plant extensively, in order 

 to secure artificial crops to take the place of the old and matured ones as 

 these become exhausted. 



Apart altogether from the quantity of timber that is to provide for 

 the domestic wants of the people, the important and increasing mining 

 operations, which are here as yet but coming into existence, demand an 

 extension of woodlands in order to support them in proper workino- 

 condition as they gradually develop. I think it is safe to assert that ere 

 many years pass the mining industry of South Australia wUl absorb vast 

 quantities of timber, as it has already done when the copper mines were 

 in full working order. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us to prepare 

 for this, and to devise such measures as will secure a continuance of the 

 supply of the timber requii-ed to carry on and develop a branch of 

 industry which has abeady conduced so materially to our welfare as a 

 colony. 



Look, next in order, to the vast system of railways which is o-radually 

 being opened up in oui- midst. These wiU require a vast ql?antit^- of 

 timber annually for theu- proper maintenance. At present much of "the 

 tmiber used m our railways is imported from the other colonies but as 

 these supplies are being gradually exhausted, we must soon look' within 

 oursehes to keep good the supply. 



Then look at the very large amoimt of fencing which is done in this 

 countiy. At present this more than consumes all the available timber 



