636 
president's address. 
out. The timber of this sp3cies is now accepted as teredo-resisting,, 
and is being largely planted under Mr. Gill's directions. Mr. 
Gill says : — "To give you some little idea as to size of timber 
grown within 20 years, I may state that poles lately cut by me 
for telegraph purposes, and disposed of to the Telegraph Depart- 
ment, measured 26 feet 6 inches long, and were 7 in. to 8 in. 
top diameter, and 11 in. to 14 in. bottom diameter. They 
contained from 8 and 9 to 1 7 and 1 8 cubic feet of timber, and this 
is irrespective of other parts of the tree, which generally totalled 
from 60 to 70 (or even over) feet in length." 
It is apparent from the above that where the climate is favour- 
able the growth of trees is quite sufficiently rapid to justify large 
expectation of profit. In the interior growth is necessarily much 
slower, but must still be noticeable. The comparative rate of 
growth, as compared with trees on the coast, may be assumed to 
be roughly proportioned to the moisture of the ground, all other 
things being equal; and it is, therefore, probable that an ironbark 
in the climate of Dubbo (250 miles from the coast) will take twice 
as long to grow as the same species where the rainfall is twice as 
great. Of course this is only surmise, and accurate observations 
are required. 
It is, however, perfectly clear that if on the forest land of the 
eastern slopes of the main range, where such land might be worth 
one shilling per acre for grazing purposes, it will pay to grow 
timber; then in the interior, near the railways, the poor ridges, 
which are not worth one penny per acre, would if put under 
cultivation for trees yield a very handsome profit indeed ; but it 
must be understood that this expectation can only be realised if 
care is taken in growing the trees. They must be started in 
nurseries, planted out, and, until they have grown to a consider- 
able size, must be properly fenced off and protected from the 
browsing and ravages of animals and man. Strict measures must 
also be taken to preserve them from injury or destruction by bush 
fires. 
It is certain that if proper measures were taken a profitable 
industry could be carried on, giving employment to large numbers 
