310 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Apri, 1899. 
He arrives at his happy result by a process of natural selection—he gets rid 
of the least valuable timber in various ways, and causes the survival of the 
fittest by judicious culling. The lumberer destroys the fittest and leaves the 
most useless to cumber the ground. 
The Khanate Bucharia was once upon a time the most flourishing and 
fertile region of Central Asia. It was well timbered and well watered. What 
has happened to this earthly paradise is happening now in our midst. A mania 
for clearing seized the inhabitants within the last thirty years. All the 
great forests have been destroyed, and what was spared was swept out of 
existence by fire during the civil war. Now mark the conséquence. With 
the disappearance of the forests, the watercourses gradully dried up; there 
was no water left to feed the empty irrigation canals. The great barrier 
against the desert sands was removed, and irresistibly they advanced upon and 
gained daily on the fertile plains; and it is now only a question of a short time 
vhen this magnificent region will become a desert as desolate as the solitudes 
that separate it from Khiva. 
Dr. D. Morris, C.M.G., M.A., &c., &e., in his report on the “ Economie 
Resources of the West Indies,” in alluding to the forests of British Guiana, 
says :—The total export of timber is £16,000 per annum. The forest lands 
yield a yearly revenue of about £48,000, made up of “acre money,” royalty on 
timber shingles, charcoal, balata (the milky juice of the bullet-tree (AZimusops 
globosa), a kind of guttapercha), and gums. ‘These forests, rightly con- 
trolled, should constitute an important source of wealth to the colony. Owing 
to the difficulty of reaching the region above the falls [presumably of the Esse- 
quibo River—A.J.B.], the forests below have been cut over several times and 
the best timber removed. In some localities firewood-cutters and charcoal. 
burners are destroying valuable timber and preventing the growth of young 
saplings. 
The time has arrived when the Government might take in hand an investj- 
gation of its forest resources, and employ a competent officer from India or 
elsewhere to advise as to the best means of regulating and developing them, 
The Guiana forests are the most valuable of any in the West Indian colonies, 
Hitherto they have only been partially protected, and it is evident that they 
are in danger—at least, in the most accessible districts—of being serious] 
injured, The vast regions above the falls are safe only from their inaccessibility. 
If suitable means of reaching them could be devised, and the cutting carried 
on under proper regulations, they would be capable of supplying valuable timber 
and contribute largely to the wealth of the colony. The most valuable timber 
is the “ greenheart,’” known also as the “bibiru”’? (Nectandra Rodiei). This 
tree (one of the laurels) is widely distributed on rocky soils along the banks 
of the Essequibo, Mazarani, and Cuvuni Rivers, but not extending more than 
about 100 miles inland from the coast ‘The bark yields a valuable tonie 
medicine—biberia. The timber is very hard and durable, and is specially 
valuable in the construction of canals, wharves, dock-gates, and in shipbuilding. 
It withstands the attacks of the teredo, and lasts longer than any other timber 
under water. 
According to Mr. McTurk, greenheart in British Guiana has been 
practically exhausted in the area below the falls, ‘‘ but, above, there are millions 
of cubic feet that have never been touched by the axe.” These are protected to 
the extent that those squaring less than 12 inches are not now allowed to be cut. 
The indiscriminate cutting of wood for charcoal-making is regarded us very 
injurious to the forests of the colony. 
In Grenada, attention has been called to the serious effect of deforestation. 
The best timbers are everywhere being destroyed to convert into charcoal. 
With all the knowledge we possess on the subject of forest conservancy, 
we still persist in the suicidal policy of extermination. Whence shall we 
obtain our supplies of the marvellously durable timber of the Hucalypti, once 
we have swept them from the face of the land? How many generations will 
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