02 
The young cedars in the Slate Forest Nursery at Gosford were a few years 
ago a good deal injured by the larvae of a moth which burrowed into the main 
stems or leaders. The moth proved to be new, and was described by Mr. S. A. Olliff 
in the “ Records of the Australian Museum ” in 1890, under the name of Epicrocis 
terebrans .* The pest may be kept in check by the free use of the pruning knife, 
and it lias been recommended to wash with a decoction of gum-leaves, though I 
doubt its efficacy. 
It is one of the very few Australian deciduous trees, although in the warmest 
districts it is semi-deciduous, or even evergreen. It is a beautiful tree, and is well 
worthy of cultivation for that reason, apart from its value for timber. 
The following particulars in regard to the cultivation and conservation of 
red cedar, and a list of forest reserves on which it is found, are of public interest. 
It is to be hoped that land-owners in suitable districts will see that it would be 
enlightened policy on their part to propagate such valuable timbers as red cedar. A 
few thousand well-planted and well-tended cedars would be a valuable legacy. 
Spasmodic attempts have been made to reafforest the red cedar in this State. 
The Forest Department planted some on the Dorrigo, but the plantations were 
neglected. Greater success has attended the small plantations at Hogan’s Brush, 
near Gosford. 
Mr. Breckenridge, at Failford, near Cape Hawke, has the nucleus of a good 
cedar plantation. He has not gone to much expense in the matter ; but has simply 
inexpensively fenced a part of the brush to keep cattle out. Here and there, in the 
rich soil, he has dug a small hole, and put in a seedling cedar. The young trees 
grow up with the rest of the vegetation, and most of them are doing well. About 
all that is now done is to see that the young cedars get fair play—that is (say) that 
they are not choked out of existence by some rampant growth. This very rarely 
happens, and practically all the attention given is to keep one’s eye on them during 
an occasional walk in the brush. There are numbers of young seedlings at the 
head of Wollamba Creek, and it is Mr. Breckenridge’s intention to add to his 
plantation from that source. This little cedar plantation is a valuable object lesson 
to the hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of selectors and others who have bits of 
brush land in the coast and coast mountain districts. An inexpensive fence, 
seedlings which can usually be obtained in the district, and which may be 
inexpensively planted about August, little labour and very little supervision, 
and we have a cedar plantation. The plants grow up under natural conditions ; the 
* In India the Toon tree also suffers considerably from an insect enemy, the “Toon twig-borer,” a moth of the 
family of the Phyr.ilidas, the Matjiria rohuxta, Moore, which bores along the pith of the leading shoots, which arc 
consequently destroyed, this destruction seriously damaging the proper growth of the tree (see “ Injurious Insects,” by 
E. P. Stebbing, p. 122). The same borer attacks also the leading shoots of allied species, especially of mahogany 
(Swiclenia mahatjoni and macrophyUa), No remedy for the damage has yet been suggested ; but in young plants the best 
thing is to cut and burn the young shoots directly the presence of the larva is ascertained from the appearance of the 
usual gummy exudation (Gamble, Manual of Indian Timbers, 2nd Ed.,p. IT'S). It will be noted that the symptoms are 
precisely those of affected red cedar trees in New South Wales. 
