30 



general purposes. Of late years it has been used for railway sleepers, and it has 

 been exported to Europe for sides and head-stocks for railway waggons as an 

 experiment. 



That variety known as Yellow Stringybark in Gippsland is uot so well known 

 as the Blackbutt, and, therefore, at page 35, I have given an ample account of it. 

 It may be stated generally that all forms of E. pilularis yield valuable timber. 



Size. — It is one of the largest of our eucalypts, and giant trees have been 

 recorded over the greater portion of the area in which it abounds. 



A tree at Bulli was measured by me in 1891 with the following results : — ■ 

 Girth at ground, measuring from buttress to buttress, 57 ft. 6 in. ; the girth at 

 3 feet from the ground was 45 feet, and at 6 feet above the ground, 40 feet. The 

 taper was then very gradual for about 90 feet (estimated), where the head is broken 

 off. There are ten principal buttresses of an average diameter of over 2 feet, but 

 they practically cease to flute the trunk at a height of 10 to 15 feet. This is, 

 probably, the identical tree measured by the late Sir William Macarthur in 1861 at 

 " Bullai, Illawarra, still in full vigour, and with no external symptoms of decay, 

 41 feet in circumference, with the bole of immense height." Mr. A. G. Hamilton 

 speaks of " Bulli Blackbutt, 22 yards in circumference at ground, and at stump 

 height would be not much less, as it does not taper much." One at Gosford was 

 measured 156 feet high, and 23 feet in circumference at a height of 6 feet. 



Propagation. — It is well known that the blackbutt reproduces itself more 

 freely and more rapidly than most other hardwoods, so much so that when a large 

 one is felled, a dense growth of seedlings, growing into straight saplings, is the 

 usual consequence. It, however, reproduces itself most abundantly upon rich, 

 moist flats, which is the description of land in greatest demand for agricultural 

 pursuits, so that it will, no doubt, be necessary in future to revoke portions of the 

 most easily accessible and richest land in the blackbutt forests in the interests of 

 selectors and for encouragement of agriculture. Wherever practicable, I would 

 recommend the retention of blackbutt forest reserves, even although the mature 

 timber may have been removed therefrom, and also the proclamation of additional 

 blackbutt reserves in suitable localities not likely to be required for settlement, and, 

 at the same time, the preservation and conservation of other useful species of 

 hardwoods, which are not so abundant as blackbutt. 



A self-sown seedling was measured at Gosford in 1889 on the land which 

 was cleared for a nursery site. In eighteen months it had attained a height of 

 25 feet and a circumference of 18 inches. 



