158 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



trees. Some 23,000 reel cedar trees have already been planted. Great 

 efforts are being made to encourage the natural regeneration of the red 

 cedar forests, and already good results have been attained in this 

 direction. Over 10,000 natural grown red cedar plants of various ages 

 and sizes have been properly cleared round and otherwise attended to. 



" The red cedar forests are situated principally on the northern 

 rivers, such as the Clarence, Richmond, Tweed, Bellenger and Maclay. 

 At the Gosford Nursery there is a stock this year of over 700,000 

 young plants, of which the principal are red cedars, Pinus insignis, 

 Pinus halepensis, English oaks, poplars, olives, the most important of 

 the Eucalypts of all the colonies, and the American Catalpa. 



" Some fifty men are now employed by the Department in thin- 

 ning the natural red gum forests upon the Murray Flats. It is 

 intended to plant experimental plantations this winter at Broken Hill 

 and Wilcannia with the tree known as the Sugar Gum (Eucalyptus 

 corynocalyx). The growing of timber for the mines is a matter of great 

 importance. The sugar gum has been successfully established in several 

 parts of South Australia in similar soil and situations to those mentioned. 

 Strong efforts are being made to induce not only our cabinet makers, 

 but those in Europe as well, to try our scrub timbers for the making of 

 furniture. Amongst the timbers recommended are the following : red 

 cedar, tulip-wood, rose-wood, bean, onion-wood, beech, ash, she-oak, 

 black-wood, marble- wood, satin-wood, cork-wood, nut tree, rough fig, 

 myall, beef- wood, myrtle, and yellow-wood. 



" For buildings and general construction work the following- 

 indigenous timbers are also beiDg brought before the market : — 

 iron-bark, mountain ash, red gum, blood-wood, stringy-bark, black-butt, 

 tallow-wood, spotted gum, box of various kinds, and mahogany. 



" A Forest Bill is now in course of being drafted, under which the 

 necessary powers will be given to the Department, whereby increased 

 and more satisfactory results will accrue. The Department is now 

 bringing out an illustrated book upon ' The Forest Flora of New South 

 Wales.' The work of lithographing the plates is being done by the 

 Government Printer, and it is expected that the first part will be 

 published about the end of June next. ...... 



" Mining and Metallurgy. — Shortly we shall be in possession cf 

 the annual report of the Department of Mines for 1890 which will, like 

 its predecessors, treat exhaustively of the progress and production of our 

 mining industry. By the courtesy of the Honourable the Secretary for 

 Mines and Agriculture I am enabled to give the following comparative 

 statement of -the chief mineral productions of this colony in 1889 and 

 1890. They are as under:— 



