The South Australian Naturalist 
,S4 
uaicd in forest reserves. 'The acid of forest soils kills the '^erms 
of cholera, typhus, and bacilli of tetanus. . . . The afforesta- 
tion of ^vatershcds gives a guarantee of purity Not onlv is 
germ contamination thus avoided, but the intake is filtered free 
from sediment which, under other circumstances, namely, in a 
elcforcsted locality, wcuikt seriously silt up the reservoir. 
d’here can be no gainsaying the fact that permanent forest 
areas adjacent to the city would be welcomed by the populace, not 
only for diversion and their inspiration and beauty, but also for 
the beneficial effects upon the health of the community. 
Complaints in the daih- press regarding the cutting down 
of timber in the hills are year b\' year more strongly worded. 
But under the present system destruction must progress until 
naught but quarry-scarred, bare hillsides are left. But what a 
contrast would it not be to see them clothed in pines or other 
planted timbers: and why not? Here is beauty combined with 
profit. To accomplish this the (jovernment w'ould, of course, 
need to have conferred upon it such powers of control and land 
resumption as other nations, for instance France, have found nec- 
essary. All that would be necessary would be powers of the 
same order as are exercised by the Mines Department to-day. 
It is submitted that the ultimate goal of our Government 
should be to effect the clothing with artificial or treated forest 
of the greatest possible area of the poorer and steeper lands of 
the Mount Lofty Ranges. As the whole community would bene- 
fit thereby, It Is difficult to see from where opposition to this ideal 
may arise, unless it be on the score of expense. 
Let us therefore enquire into the cost of planting. The 
figures ruling for the Forest of Kuitpo may be accepted in this 
connection. I’he expense in the usual heavily timbered country 
there about, w'hen clear felled, burnt off, fenced, and close planted 
by trained employes with Finns insignis amounts to between £8 
and £13 per acre, land purchase included. These figures refer to 
a first-class job and treatment of the heaviest variety of country 
likely to be afforested in South Australia.” 
‘T^everting to the Kuitpo Forest, it Is of interest to note what 
jn'ofit may accrue. 'The first acre of pine planted is now just 
twenty-five years old. This is Finns insignis, spaced six and 
a half feet. Out of this thinnings have been cut and marketed, 
ydelding a net return of over £84, and there still remains on the 
block 38,000 super feet of standing timber, the healthiest and 
straightest trees of the original growth, and representing a safe 
nett value of £95. To produce this total yield of £179 the follow- 
ing expenditure (not including administration) was incurred; 
* ‘'La J^'oret,'* by A. Jacquot. 
