21 
yields more bark than the broad-leafed. Professor Maiden claims that | 
the two species will ‘supplement one another, the black wattle flour- | 
ishing in situations too damp and cold for the broad-leafed.” Baron 
von Mueller recommends the planting of the black wattle on worn-out 
lands in Victoria. 
The Australian reports give remarkable estimates of the profits to 
be made in wattle cultivation in New South Wales and Victoria. Prof. 
J. H. Maiden, in his Wattles and Wattle Barks, quotes one estimate 
in which 100 acres of wattles would yield a net profit of $12,763 in eight 
years from planting, after making full allowances for rent, interest, and 
all possible expenses. ° This would be at the rate of almost $16 per acre 
per year. By another estimate, in which the purchase price of the land 
at $14.50 per acre is included in the expense account, 100 acres of 
wattles is made to yield in seven years a net profit of $5,362.72, or $7.66 
per acre per year. In the expense account is also included fencing, 
fire breaks, and interest, and the yield is put at 10 pounds of bark per 
tree, an admittedly low estimate. | 
Wattles have been cultivated in California for a number of years 
with varying success. Specimens of the hardiest species known in 
California (A. melanoxylon) were killed by a temperature of 14° F. at 
Chico, one tree being 18 inches in diameter at the stump. The tanning 
wattles will not stand more than 6° or 8° of frost, and if, as claimed 
by the Australians, a limited rainfall insures their best development, the 
only part of the Southern States adapted to their growth is southern 
Texas. eed 
In California the cottony cushion scale threatened the complete 
destruction of all the acacias a few years ago, but with the introdue- 
tion of its parasite its ravages have been so reduced that it is now 
considered practically harmless, and the renewed cultivation of the 
wattle trees is beginning. 
An important purpose is served by the acacias in the vicinity of San 
Francisco, where they have been found especially adapted to planting 
on the sand dunes. They thrive in the desolate sands and cold sea 
breezes of that vicinity, and will prove an effective means of fixing the 
shifting sands. Their bright yellow flowers, which appear in great 
profusion, and their fine foliage make them highly ornamental, and thus 
far they have been more used for lawn planting in California than for 
any other purpose. The wood of the acacias makes a superior fuel, 
and in southern Texas this use alone would warrant their cultivation. 
Both the black and golden, or broad-leafed, wattle are grown through- 
- out the coast region of California, from San Francisco south, and in the 
more southern valleys, and there is little doubt that in that region at 
‘least the wattles rich in tannin can be grown with profit. It is to be 
hoped that they will be extensively tested throughout the warmer 
regions of the Southern States, especially in southern Texas, where 
there is need of forest planting. 
