308 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, [1 Apri, 1899, 
Forestry. 
FOREST CONSERVATION. 
BY A. J. BOYD. 
Tux subject of the preservation of our timber supplies has been brought under 
the notice of the rural public for many years, yet the destruction of many 
valuable timber trees is carried on daily, without the slightest individual or 
co-operative attempt to supply the drain. Why should people always look to 
the State to do this work for them? When a settler begins to plant an orchard, 
he does not ask the Government to supply him with trees at the public expense ; 
he purchases his own trees, plants them at his own expense, and spends his 
private means on carefully tending them until they finally begin to repay him 
for his outlay. If a tree dies or becomes weak from too heavy bearing, he 
roots it out. Does he leave a blank in the orchard? He knows better than 
that. He at once plants another in its place, which in due time will repay the 
care bestowed upon it. As other trees fail or die from various causes, the gaps 
are regularly filled up, and so the orchard goes on year after year with no. 
diminution either in numbers or in yield. 
Is it so with our forest and scrub trees? When cedars, beeches, and pine 
trees are cut down, does the timber-getter, even if he be the owner otf the land, 
ever think of planting others in their places? Never. Then comes the question, 
“Why not?” — ; 
Perhaps the answer of one man may serve for that of all owners of 
heavily timbered land. 
That man was in treaty only last month for the purchase of a large 
property not 50 miles from Brisbane, and one inducement held out to him was 
that the timber on the land was worth at least £500. 4 
“Oh! bother the timber,” was his reply, ‘I want it cleared off to grow stuff 
for the stock.’’ 2 uno disce omnes. So says the Latin writer, and it is equally 
trne of our planters, farmers, and selectors. The case of one is the case of all. 
Get rid of the timber. There is enough to last their day; and as for posterity, 
well, let posterity look after its own timber supplies. What many fail to 
understand is, that a well-managed timber estate is worth more than a poorly 
managed farm or orchard, 
Hor the sake of comparison, let us take a rich rubber-tree forest, such as 
are to be found in Brazil, in Centrai America, and other countries of the world. 
The old trees are there. They are constantly reproducing themselves. When 
the old trees die or are killed off by excessive tapping, there are constant 
supplies of young trees coming on, hence the supply of rubber is practically 
inexhaustible. No man would be insane enough to clear off the rubber-tree 
producing jungles for the purpose of growing corn for cow feed. 
A fifteen-year old Hevea Braziliensis will yield nearly 25 1b. of rubber per 
annum, valued at 8s. Gd. per lb. An acre containing 100 of these trees is 
therefore worth £437 10s. All the time during which the old trees are being 
tapped, the younger trees are coming on, and are ready to take the place of 
those that are worn out or dead. 
An acre of land planted with citrus fruits contains, say, 100 trees. The 
gross annual value of the produce of these trees may be averaged at £100, some 
producing as much as £5, others only 5s. From this has to be deducted the 
cost of cultivation, pruning, dressing, spraying, fumigating, picking, packing in 
cases, &c.—expenses which vary with the soil, climate, locality, proximity to 
market, &e. 
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