1 Noy., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. a: 499 
To the Government must be entrusted the duty of providing timber for future 
Senerations, for only the Government can afford to take the necessary steps for 
lanting and preserving on Crown lands indigenous trees to replace those that: 
lave gone into present day use. A selector has a living to make, and there is 
no money in growing gum-trees. Even if timber-getters had not long ago 
removed every sound log, leaving of course the stump, the best timber acres on 
the coast, scrub or forest, would not return one-tenth part of the cost of clearing. 
Tn the case of ordinary bush land, timber returns absolutely nothing. 
The best untouched timber land is worth 20s. per acre to fell, but, if the timber- 
getter had to stump every tree he took, he cane could not take them for nothing, 
but would require to be paid for his labour. The other day two men applied to a 
Divisional Board for permission to cut down two ironbark-trees standing on a 
toad, intending to use them for fencing. The Board gave the required per- 
Mission on condition that the stumps were removed. I scarcely need say the 
trees are still standing. 
Our most fertile lands are on the banks of rivers and creeks, and, granted 
that the serubs lessen the evils of floods, are the advantages gained by clearing 
and cultivating such lands not more than sufficient to counterbalance the evils > 
Nor is a flood alwaysan evil; and when a big flood does come, a little clearing 
more or less does not matter. 
Divisional Boards, with their roads and culverts, have done far more to 
increase floods; but surely no one would suggest that roads should not be 
formed. 
As far as rain isconcerned, perhaps more ean be said in support of the theory 
that rain produces trees than that trees produce rain. Proximity to the sea and 
the natural formation of the land have more to do with rainfalls than, the 
timber. Take, for example, Otago, New Zealand, the best cleared and cultivated 
land I have seen in the colonies, and nowhere will you find more regular rains. 
Nor do the deer forests of Scotland, where scarcely a tree remains, lack rain. 
But go 30 miles west of our Main Range, and you are in comparatively a dry 
land, almost free from timber, for the moisture is not sufficient to produce and 
Maintain forests. The Main Range gives the moisture to the coast. 
The man who clears a mountain side, and expects the soil to remain, 
deserves all he gets from Nature ; but if we wish to be-as certain as possible of 
seasons and crops in Queensland, we must clear away the bush, though it cost 
£8 per acre in addition to the price of the land, and in return we shall get the 
coastal rains. Otherwise we are throwing away money that would purchase 
three times as much land on the Downs all ready for the plough. Let our 
farmers extend their clearings, and let the Government provide for forest: 
conservancy, and all will be well. 
SOME TIMBER TREES OF QUEENSLAND. 
By J, W. FAWCETT, 
Member of the English Aboriculture Society. 
THE BROAD-LEAVED POPLAR GUM (Zucalyptus platyphylla, F. vy. M.) 
Boranicat Descrtprion.—The Broad-leayed Poplar Gum is a tree of variable 
size. In many places it is only of moderate size, attaining a height of from 
40 to 60 feet, with a diameter of from 12 to 18 inches. In other districts it 
sometimes reaches a large size, growing to a height of as much as 120 feet or 
more, with a diameter in peoh arabe: Tt has a handsome appearance, with 
spreading branches and shady, light-green foliage. 
Bark,—Vhe bark is smooth and deciduous, and varies in colour from a 
creamy white in extra tropical climates, to a yellow brown within the tropics. ” 
Leaves.—The leaves are often very large and broad, somewhat cordate or 
heart-shaped, or resembling very large poplar leaves, and measure as much as 
from 8 to 6, and even from 8 to 12 inches wide, by from as much as 12 and even 
18 inches long. They are deciduous, 
