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its value, ancl shippers are ignorant of its occurrence in the particular locality. In 
a sparsely-populated district the local demand for even a popular timber will he 
readily satisfied ; but when we consider the case of a little-known timber, users are 
timid about giving an order for something of whose value they are at present 
ignorant. Still, even in the southern districts, it is worked up to some extent, and it 
only requires that our people shall he informed that they have growing near them 
the true Blackwood for them to use it a good deal more. Years ago Mr. Bauerlen 
told me of a Braidwood tradesman who made, for many years, articles of local 
Blackwood. His work had a deservedly good reputation, and a skilled workman 
does not make chests of drawers, secretaires, plate-chests, &c., out of a timber of 
whose value lie has any doubt. I know of another tradesman at Delegate who used 
to make beautiful gun-stocks of it. The price he got for his gun-stocks is so high 
that I am afraid to mention it, as everybody may turn to gun-stock making. 
Another tradesman uses it for buggy naves. He, from time to time, used to go out 
and cut down a fair-sized tree, let it season outside in the log, and cut length by 
length off as he wanted it. 
The manufacture of gun-stocks from this timber is a very old industry, 
particularly in Tasmania. I find that, in the season 1814-5, 430 gun-stocks were 
exported from Launceston to Great Britain. 
A number of tests have been made in regard to the strength of Blackwood ; 
hut as it is unsatisfactory to make an abstract of experiments of this kind, I give a 
list of the most important of them, in order that architects, engineers, and others 
interested may readily refer to the originals :— 
1. Tests of the timber experimented upon by the Victoria Timber Board, 
Bailway Workshops, Newport, Melbourne, 1884. 
2. Experiments on the tensile strength of a few of the Colonial timbers. 
E. A. Campbell, in Proc. Mot/. Soc., Viet., 1879, p. 6. 
3. Experiments on the transverse strength of the wood of Acacia meianoxyloji, 
by Baron Mueller and J. G. Luehmann. Cat. Timbers, Tech. Museum, 
Melbourne, 1885. 
4. Australian timbers; by Professor Warren. An exhaustive series of tests 
published under the auspices of the New South AVales Commission for the 
Chicago Exhibition, 1893. 
Exudations. —Many of our Acacias yield gums, but I have never seen 
gum on a Blackwood, although I have carefully looked for it in different parts of 
New South TVales and Victoria, and upon trees growing under widely different 
circumstances. It is therefore rare. 
Size. —In the southern mountain districts there are many trees 70 or 80 feet 
in height, with a stem diameter of 2 or 3 feet. The Mudgerabah, which may be 
