ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 57 
The liability of Box (Zucalyptus hemiphloia, etc.) to sucker has 
passed into a bye-word. So here, as pointed out by Farrer and 
others, many years ago, we have, I think, the key to the problem 
of ringbarking. Ifa tree is to be rung, see that the work is 
done properly, right through the cambium layer all round. Then 
see that it is cut at a period when the particular kind of tree 
operated upon has little or no starch or bud-sustaining material 
left in its roots. In other words, see that it is cut off from its 
base of supplies. Consequently, it may be bad practice to set a 
man to indiscriminately ringbark an area. Ringbarking is, in 
fact, an operation requiring scientific direction, and no land-owner 
should turn a number of axe-men into his property to ring-bark 
without very cautiously directing their operations. 
It isa pity that the operation of ringbarking should be more 
difficult than is usually supposed, but we cannot contravene 
nature’s laws without taking the consequences. A favourite say- 
ing of Sir Andrew Clark to a patient, was ‘‘ Remember that 
Nature never forgives.” If a land-owner will pay no heed to 
the science of ringbarking, his pocket will suffer; if a public 
official directs or sanctions ringbarking at an improper season, 
I would endeavour to teach him better, and if he proved 
incapable or unwilling to learn, I would replace him. If ring- 
barking were conducted on proper lines, that alone would justify 
the existence of a forestry department, for it would result in 
*normous saving to private citizens, and to that great land-owner, 
—the State. Here we have another potent reason for the tech- 
nical education of the forestry staff. 
9- Noxious Scrub and Prickly-pear.—I believe that the key to 
_ The effective destruction of noxious scrub, such as the Brigalow 
Scrub, which devastates thousands of acres, and the Prickly-pear, 
(Opuntia ), the eradication (or rather partial or non-eradication), 
of which has given rise to a permanent colonial industry, will be 
found in what I have said on the subject of ringbarking. Wein 
fact take a mean advantage of plant-life. We cut the plant’s : 
head off at a period, carefully ascertained by the study of local a 
