WATTLES AND WATTLE-BARKS. 
duced by intermittent .and inadequate supply of bark, on which the tanner 
relies when laying down his hides ; indeed, in large yards, such as with 
50,000 hides always in the pits, it becomes a very serious difficulty, attended 
with anxiety and loss, not to be able, through want of sufficiency of bark of 
a class, to work them through successfully. It therefore becomes a matter 
of necessity that the exports of bark may be abundant and regular to such 
an extent as tanners may confidently roly on. To such Ioav export of wattle- 
bark have your growers now arrived at, that out yard could manage to take 
fully one-fourth —say 1,000 tons—of all the bark shipped from your ports 
to England in 1882, and about one-third of the shipments for 1883. . 
I am aware French and German tanners highly approve of the wattle for 
tanning purposes/’ ( Report to S. A, Legislative Council , 1884.) 
Throughout Australia the species of wattle richest in tannic acid are 
becoming seriously diminished, and there is a consensus of opinion amongst 
persons interested in the matter that the various Governments should 
encourage the replanting of them. At the same time there are seme 
species of wattle which tanners despise (partly because the introduction of 
them would disturb the routine of their operations), which are even richer 
than some of the tan-barks in common use in Europe and elsewhere, and 
there is no doubt that, sooner or later, our local tanners will have to fall 
back upon these second-grade wattle-barks, unless the cultivation of good 
wattles is actively entered upon. 
In regard to Tasmania, which lias hitherto supplied so large a quantity of 
good wattle-bark, Mr. E. Abbott, Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, 
Hobart, says:—“ We have so many wattle trees growing naturally, that we 
have had no need to cultivate them in Tasmania, but the destruction is so 
great we shall have to do it before long/’ (He refers to Acacia mollissima .) 
Mr. F. Donovan, representative of the Tanners’ and Curriers’ Union of 
Melbourne, in giving evidence before the Royal Commission on Vegetable 
Products, states that for the bark which in 1872 cost £3 15s. per ton, £8 or 
£0 was paid in ISS7, and he is very emphatic on the necessity of wattle 
culture on a large scale. Mr. Dunn, a tanner, gave evidence to the effect 
that in 1872 wattle-bark was selling from £2 10s. to £3 a ton. In 1879 the 
price had gone up as high as £9 10s., and since then it has varied from £8 
10s. to £11 ; in 1887 the best bark was £10. 
The best Sydney bark has fetched £10 this season, and this appears to be 
the top price on the average. 
Cultivation of Wattles. 
(a.) SOIL. 
Tiiebe is a, consensus. of opinion that wattles will grow on the poorest soil, 
and thus it is that land can bo utilized in this industry when it can scarcely 
be put under any other cultivation, and where not even grass grows. At the 
same time, bark richer in tannic acid and maturing earlier, may be obtained 
from trees growing on richer soil. 
“The bark obtained from trees growing on limestone* formations is 
greatly inferior in tannin to that of trees grown on any other formation.” 
* “ Nevertheless wattles grow exceedingly well on limestone country in South Australia.” 
(F. Warm, in Jonrn. Bureau Agric ., S.J., April, 1890.) See also some of my analyses of 
barks grown on limestone country. 
