THE PASSING OF THE GIANTS. 
which increase in size and strength according to the demand made upon them. The 
oldest and tallest trees of all large-growing species usually exhibit a very wide 
spread of buttresses, and often their huge roots will be found quite near the surface 
of the ground. A great contrast appears between the girth round the buttresses 
and the girth round the bole clear above them. The one may measure 40ft. to 
60ft., while the latter measures only 12ft. to loft. With these wide-based trees the 
common practice of bushmen is to build a light stage upon which to stand and fell 
the tree so as to leave the whole of the buttressed part in the stump. 
It is impossible to say how the eucalypts of Gippsland and the sequoias of 
California would have compared two or three hundred years ago. At the present 
time Sequoia sempervirens appears to carry the palm for height and Sequoia 
gigantea for girth. Eucalyptus regnans comes second on both counts. 
The largest of the eucalypts are almost certainly very much younger trees 
than the largest of the sequoias. Annual growth rings are usually much less easily 
counted in hardwoods than softwoods. 
The giants of the Australian forests probably range in age from 200 to 300 
years. In the economic forestry of the future very big trees will rarely if ever be 
possible. The regenerated forest and the planted forest will in nearly all cases be 
reaped within the first century. State forest departments and private planters 
will alike be looking for an early return for their expenditure. Some conifers 
may be left a little longer; but Eucalyptus trees will be planted to be reaped 
within 25 years to 75 years, according to the species cultivated and the uses to 
which their timber is to be applied. We look with regret upon vanishing giants; 
but apparently it is part of the scheme of the world that they shall gradually 
disappear. 
