FORESTRY BUREAU. 



175 



are very destructive to trees. One species is very injurious to the chinchona tree. 

 It is the custom of the coolies to turn out and gather the chinchona caterpillars in 

 baskets, and In that way their depredations are lessened. 



Hard by the Indian court might be seen a very practical collection from Iohore, in 

 the Malayan Peninsula, the Maharajah of which is a very enterprising and intelli- 

 gent ruler. From this place there were 350 specimens of timber trees and samples of 

 valuable camphor, gums, and gutta-percha, — the last-mentioned article having first 

 found its way into the market from Iohore. The Maharajah owns extensive saw- 

 milK of whic h photographs were shown, and there was also on exhibition a complete 

 set < f Malayan tools and implements, which show that, with slender means at hie dis- 

 posal, the Malay can cut down the largest trees and build his houses and boats. 



Singapore and Siam were also represented, the Government of Si am ha ving an 

 exhibit including 500 specimens of different trees, most valuable of which are the 

 teak, sandal, ebony, and rosewood. The Mauritius court was chietly noteworthy for 

 its large and varied collection of libers, numbering over two hundred, and ranging in 

 quality from the finest silk thread to coarBe matting. All are derived from indigenous 

 trees, shrubs, or plants. 



The Australian colonies and New Zealand may be said to have been unrepresented. 

 From South Australia the conservator of forests of Adelaide sends some forest reports, 

 from which it appears that the provincial legislature has passed several acts to pre- 

 vent the willful destruction of the indigenous forests of the colony. New South 

 Wales sent sections of the Eucalyptus globulus — a tree which seems destined to effect 

 a revolution in the climate of several countries cursed with malaria. In India, as al- 

 ready stated, hundreds of thousands of blue gum have been planted, and it has been 

 planted with the most beneficial results, in Cyprus, Italy, Spain, and Algiers. 



CYPRUS. 



This island is a standing example of the melancholy effects of deforesting. Once 

 regarded as one of the richest and most fruitful islands of the Mediterranean, when 

 it fell under the power of the Turk it was stripped of its woods with the most baleful 

 effects. The rainfall diminished, water-courses dried up, swamps formed on the sea- 

 shore, and the island was visited by deadly malaria. On falling into the hands of Great 

 Britain, one of the first duties of the British governor was to see to the preservation 

 of the few remaining patches of forest and to plant hundreds of thousands of blue 

 gum trees on the low swampy grounds of the coast, with the view of neutralizing the 

 malarial exhalations from the soil. These plantations are only five years old, but they 

 are said to be exercising already a very beneficial result. Mr. E. Dodds, the principal 

 forestry officer under the British Government, sent a small collection of the wo' is of 

 the island, which, however, are only of antiquarian interest. They simply speak of 

 what once existed in the island. Finns halepemis, the Aleppo pine, is the most com- 

 mon of the old trees. The shittim wood of Scripture (Cupressns fastigata) was also 

 formerly abundant, and th n re are still some patches of the cedars of Lebanon. The 

 island possesses an oak peculiar to itself. Quercus alnifolia. 



EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS. 



It has been a matter of regret that some countries, particularly France and Ger- 

 many (and also the United States), which yield a large amount of timber and forest 

 ptodace, did not respond to the circular invitation of the executive committee to be 

 present at the exhibition. Where direct participation, in so far as exhibits are con- 

 cerned, was impossible, official maps and publicat ions bearing on the forest service 

 have in most cases been sent. Of the continental Governments, Denmark and Norway 

 and Sweden were the chief exhibitors. Denmark has suffered from deforesting, but 

 the Government is now alive to the importance of forestry. About 500,000 acres of 

 the country are under forest. The old forests of beech and oak have been allowed to 

 become well-nigh exhausted, but the remains of them are very fine. Considerable 

 areas have of late been added to the forests, the number of acres during the past 

 quarter of a century being 63,600. The Crown forests are now systematically man- 

 aged by a large staff of foresters, and a society also exists for the planting of moors 

 and waste lands with trees. In the first instance such ground is covered with spruce 

 and fir, but tho idea is that after these trees have come to maturity their place should 

 be taken by hard-wood trees. Of its native woods ^1 per cent, of the quantity cut is 

 used in the country annually for firewood, and them Is imported about one million 

 sterling worth annually, £ 138,000 of which is re-exported .in a manufactured state. 

 Of these manufactured articles, such as barrels and a variety of cooper- work, there 

 was a large exhibit in the hope that a market may be found for them in Britain. Den- 

 mark sent an admirable series of forestry maps, which included a chart showing the 

 mean heights of various forest trees from twenty up to one hundred and twenty years 

 of age, and the cubic contents of timber per acre at the same stages of growth. "This 



