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First the axe, maul and wedge, then the pit-saw, then the waterwheel and 

 vertical saw, then the steam engine vertical and circular saw, and finally the 

 band-saw. Thus grew and developed the machinery used to fashion trees into 

 timber. In Western Australia we have seen the evolution from pit-saw to band- 

 saw, and the expansion of the timber milling business from the early part of the. 

 19th century until to-day. The total amount of timber exported to date amounts 

 to 3,897,849 leads valued at £15,693,989. This timber exploitation in Western 

 Australia consisted mainly of jarrah, until the opening of the Karridale mills 

 near the Leeuwin in 1879, and of the Torbay and Denmark mills some years later. 

 Those mills cut a great deal of karri. Again of late years there have been four 

 mills cutting karri. It is unfortunate that there is no record of the quantities of 

 karri cut from Karridale and Torbay and Denmark in the early days. From the 

 time from which data are available, the volume of sawn karri turned out by these 

 four mills has been over 1,000,000 cubic feet. 



Minor Forest Produce. — The rapid development of the saw-milling business in 

 this State has operated adversely in the matter of minor forest produce. Forestry 

 has been sacrificed to the sawmiller and the demands of an export trade. In older 

 lands, Avhere the local demand for wood is so heavy that the utilisation of the 

 whole tree is the practice, the tree is felled level with the ground and the bark, 

 if it contains tannin, is removed and sold to the tanner. The small branches are 

 converted into faggots for household kindling, the larger branches are split into 

 fuel, and the big limbs into sleepers. Waste from the mill is converted by 

 destructive distillation into charcoal, acetic acid, wood alcohol, tars and other 

 valuable distillates. Some woods, whose structure particularly fits them for the 

 purpose, are used for the manufacture of paper pulp, artificial silk, etc. In tan 

 barks Western Australia possesses the valuable mallet, which contains no less 

 than 45 per cent, of tannin, and of which since 1903 we have exported an amount 

 valued at £929,808. It has been a case of "killing the goose that laid the golden 

 egg," and to-day we have very little mallet left. Then there are gums and resins. 

 The forests of the old world and the new yield us turpentine and varnish gums, 

 such as kauri from New Zealand, copal from West Africa, and gum arabic. Then 

 there are the oils, eucalyptus oil being one of those produced in largest quantity; 

 the drugs, e.g., quinine from South America, camphor from Formosa, kola from 

 West Africa; and foods, such as cocoa and the many nuts and fruits. 



Indirect Value of the Forests. — Forests, as well as having a direct value, have 

 an indirect value. In the first place, they have an influence on the climate of the 

 district or province in which they grow. Research work covering a long period 

 in France has shown that in the first place the temperature of the air is lower in a 

 forest than in the surrounding country. The mean annual forest temperature is 

 lower and also the mean monthly forest temperatures are lower. The mean winter 

 forest temperatures do not show, however, such a difference as do the average 

 summer temperatures. Taking the daily mean temperatures, we find on the hottest 

 day in the year a much lower. mean temperature in the forest than outside, and a 

 lower maximum. This equalising of the temperature is a very valuable function 

 of the forest. Unfortunately no work has yet been done in Australia to find the 

 exact effect of forests on the temperature of the air. There is no reason to suppose 

 that the forests of eucalypts should differ fundamentally in their action in this 

 regard from the forests of the Old World. It is right, however, to point out that 

 there is a difference between the actions of different species. The action is more 

 marked, for instance, under broad-leafed deciduous (i.e., shedding their leaves 

 annually) trees than under pines, spruces and firs. Forests in the growing season 

 exert more influence than during the dead season, whether they are evergreen or 

 not. Until a thorough investigation into forest meteorology has been carried out 

 in Western Australia, we cannot say how great is the influence of our forests on 



