TREE CTOTOEE m SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 59 



its own course. At maturity, the trees of both were cut, 'with the result 

 that the portion which had been regularly looked after produced a much 

 more valuable sample and a larger quantity of timber than the other. 



Pruning, in my opinion, is simply a means to assist nature to produce 

 fine straight wood, and a larger quantity of it. With lots of large 

 gnarled branches upon a tree, the timber is always of an inferior quality. 

 Hiis holds good with reference to all trees, more or less, as the case may 

 be, and I think especially so with regard to the Eucalypti. Look at the 

 trees in the greater portion of the natural forests of this colony ! Don't 

 we find them, as a rale, composed chiefly of great heavy branches and a 

 smaU thick-set trunk ? And when they are cut down, is not more than 

 two-thirds of the whole bulk of the tree made up of branches and limbs 

 which have grown upon the tree to the detriment of the stem ? Now, 

 had it been possible to have looked after the trees when in theii- young 

 state, there would now have been more than 80 per cent, of good 

 marketable timber in each tree in our forests, instead of only about 30 

 per cent, as they now stand. 



Of course, where trees are planted thickly, there is little or no necessity 

 for pruning. Nature then becomes her own pruner ; and by the attention 

 of the forester to timely thinning, the energies of the trees are constantly 

 directed to the stem, and an upward growth is maintained ; thus pro- 

 ducing a straight stem and well-grown timber. When trees are grown 

 closely together, the leading shoot of each tree naturally seeks the light, 

 and this having acquired an ascendancy over the others, becomes in time 

 the trunk of the tree ; and from the shading and pressure of the other 

 trees aU round, the inferior shoots cannot make headway and so they 

 gradually decline in health and die off. And so the same course follows 

 on year after year as the trees push upwards, until at last, in the course 

 of years, we find magnificent trees, with stems 80ft. to 100ft. without 

 a branch, and producing timber free of knots, and of the very best 

 description of timber throughout. 



Under these circumstances, and with this fact before us, can it be 

 wondered at that on every possible occasion I urge upon those about to 

 plant to do so thieMy. This will save the expense of keeping men 

 pruning each year, and the timber grown will far surpass that produced 

 from trees pruned with the linife — which operation will be necessary if 

 thin planting is adopted with the ultimate view of the trees being felled 

 for timber. 



In the young crop of our indigenous forests of the present day, much 

 and really permanent good can be done to the trees by pruning. I would 

 therefore advise those ha\'ing any forest land left, to attend to the young 

 trees in it. In a few years the result wiU more than repay any expense 

 incurred in doing so. In these indigenous forests of ours, it will be found 

 that the young crop comes up in a very patchy and straggUng manner, 

 and that, therefore, a little careful and judicious pruning is necessary in 

 order to keep the trees from becoming branchy and to a large extent 

 worthless. Work of this kind has been and is now being done by the 

 Forest Board on their reserves, with most beneficial and satisfactory 

 results to the future value of the timber in the forests. 



