70 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Jaw., 1898. 
T now come to the question as to the quantity of timber, or rather as to 
the namber of 40-feet logs, which a mill, cutting its 100,000 feet (log 
measurement) weekly, would require annually to keep it in full work. The 
following table will show this distinctly :— 
20 inches diameter... Sea .. 4,194 logs. 
My a Sear Psy IU THs 
36, e Beg EA RRB N03 Ta. 
60 3 ox: a xo, GBI gp 
Gp s se 0 pee O (aan 
Mr. Pettigrew says: “I have counted up the sizes of 1,022 logs (not trees) 
cut here (Mooloolah Saw-mills) lately, and they were :—Under 20 inches, 460 ; 
20 inches to 24 inches, 365 ; 24 inches to 86 inches, 192; above 36 inches, 5.” 
aang the average diameter of the logs, the two estimates do not materially 
iffer. : 
Now, taking into consideration the number of saw-mills in the colony as 
shown on the accompanying table, how long will it be before our scrubs will 
be denuded of soft timbers, and our forests of hardwoods, at this rate of 
working? 
Our timber lands, extended though they may be, are not inexhaustible. 
America and Canada have long since discovered that their forests have limits, 
notwithstanding that a journey may be made from Patagoniain South America 
tothe Arctic Circle in North America, a distance of nearly 9,000 miles, without 
leaving the forests, and that the Arctic pine forests stretch in an almost 
continuous belt through these quarters of the world with a breadth of from 
1,000 to 1,400 miles, almost wholly composed of Conifers, such as the Siberian 
Fir (Abies sibirica), Larch (Larix sibirica), Pinus umbra, Picea olovalate, &c., 
&e. Should we not then take a lesson in time, and provide for our supplies 
being unlimited? How is this to be done? ‘The lesson was taught years ago 
by our largest saw-mill proprietors. The process is actually in operation 
under the fostering care of the Department of Agriculture at Fraser Island, 
Wide Bay district, to which I shall allude more fully further on. 
The method adopted by Messrs. McGhie Luya and Co. at Noosa, and I 
believe also by Messrs. W. Pettigrew and Sons, at Mooloolah, was this: The 
firm cut no trees under 86 inches in diameter, leaving all the smaller 
ones to grow, as a supply for future cutting.* Thus some of the scrub blocks 
were culled more than twice. The average diameter of kauri logs cut at 
Cootharaba (Noosa) was not less than 4 feet, and many were cut reaching 
to 5 and 6 feet in diameter. All over that size were left standing, as the 
machinery was not large enough to deal with them. Experience showed that 
no kauri under 36 inches diameter at a height of 4 feet from the ground 
should be allowed to be cut, and no hoop pine under 2 feet 6 inches; but other 
authorities differ on the question of size of hoop pine, and most consider that 
18 inches diameter is a fair limit for that description of timber. 
— eee; OO 
* The largest quantity of kauri at Noosa is between King King and Eulama Creeks, and of 
cedar at Mount Walvi, about eight miles back east by north of Lake Cootharaba. 
At this moment there are some thousands of young trees in the Noosa, Mooloolah, and other 
districts which will, if fostered, be ample for future supplies. 
