66 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 1 Jan., 1898.] 
Forestry. 
FOREST CONSERVANCY. 
By A. J. BOYD, 
Queensland Agricultural Department. 
Parr 2, 
Ix a colony where the majority of the buildings, except in the large cities, 
consists of timber, and where mining, railway: construction, and agriculture 
are largely carried on, the consumption of hardwood, pine, beech, and cedar is 
necessarily very great. Hence the demand on the saw-mills is also very large, 
and proprietors of the latter must keep pace with the former, or they must 
accept the alternative and close their establishments. 
Now, how are the mills supplied? There are three methods by which 
this end is achieved :-— 
First, by contracts entered into between the mill-cwners and recognised 
licensed lumberers, or, as we call them here, timber-getters (in which class 
I se railway sleeper-getters and those who supply cordwood to the sugar- 
mills). : 
Secondly, by the purchase of odd lots and occasional rafts brought in by 
outsiders. 
Thirdly, by the mill-owners taking up large selections in well-timbered 
country, and thus supplying their own necessities to a large extent. 
For a long series of years, there was no restriction on the timber-getters 
as to the size of the timber they were allowed to cut. Neither was there any 
restriction as to locality. The consequence of this liberty was that timber- 
getters settled down permanently in a large scrub, and took out every availiable 
stick which they could persuade the mill-owner to take. When the large 
trees were all cleared out, they were content with smaller ones, until finally (I 
speak from experience) pine-trees of 8 and 10 inches in diameter were cut 
and rafted into the mills. Quantities of pine were used for shingles, and anyone 
acquainted with shingle-splitting will at once comprehend the enormous 
waste which resulted from this mode of working up trees. Considerable 
lengths of useful timber were left behind owing to the presence of a few 
knots, which could advantageously have been used in the mill, and besides this 
the “hearts,” backs,” and “run-out” shingles were left in the waste heap, 
any blocks with a “wind” being also rejected. These losses did not cost the 
splitter a thought, for the simple reason that the actual cost of the timber to 
himself was represented by the merest fraction of the cost of his license. 
Now, as it would cost him more to work up an unsound tree, from which he 
would not get the same amount of profit as he would from a sound one, it 
followed that an unsound or unfit tree, after being felled, was abandoned to 
the elements, and thus became another item to the debit of the country. 
The outside lots purchased by the saw-mills are, however, often so much | 
gain to the country, as they generally consist of timber which the farmer has 
saved from the general conflagration, and brought in for sale to recoup him in 
part for the clearing of his land. 
With regard to the third source of supply, the selecting of timber lands 
by the mill proprietors, as this involves the question of reproduction as well as 
of denudation, it will be considered at length further on. In the meantime, 
having seen the causes which have been operating for a long series of years to 
denude the colony of her valuable timbers, let us take a glance at the legislation 
of the past as it affected the timber industry. 
