THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
June, 1910. 
W. Girt, ] 
South Australia’s Woods and 
Forests. 
South Australia was the first State of 
the Australian group that undertouk the 
work of establishing Stite forests, When 
European settlement began in the new 
colony. (says the ‘Kadina and Wallaroo 
Times’) there was sucha superabundance 
of native timber everywhere that the 
early settlers were allowed to draw upon 
the supplies, without any restriction until 
it becainv ap-arent that the limit extent ot 
natural forests would soon become ex- 
hausted. Largely owiny to the influence 
of the late Mr. F. E. H. Kirchauff a 
meniber of the House Assembly, the Soath 
Australian Parliament was persuaded to 
call for reports on the best size of reserves 
where they should be 
mide, the best and most enconomical way 
for forest purposes, 
of preserving zy the ‘native timker on them, 
Sugar Gums supplied by Forest Department and grown by Mr. H. Burford, 
Spring Farm, Yacka, in 20 years. 
and the planting and replanting the re- 
serves as permanent State forests.. Three 
years later a Forest Act was passed, which 
offered a bonus of £2 per acre of land on 
which forest trees were planted and main- 
tained fora period five years. The practi- 
cal results , however, of this offer proved 
disappvintins, as little or no effort was 
made by land owners to earn the subsidy. 
In 1875 a Forest Board was appointed by 
Parliament and 195,398 acres were set 
apart for tree planting and conservation of 
the indigenous timber by natural regener- 
ation where desirable, This board was 
subsequently abolished by the Woods and 
Forest Act of 1882, and the Woods and 
Forests Department was created in its 
place, with a Conservator of Forests at its 
head, under the control of the Commis- 
sioner of Crown Lands. The State forests 
reserves of the State cover an area of 157,066 
acres, and vary in extent from small en- 
closures of less than ahundred acres to 
. [PHOTO 
areas of eight or ten thousand acres. 
These forests which are nearly forty in 
number, are distributed mostly through 
the settlement districts, from Mount 
Gambier in the south east to Mount Brown: 
in the north, The management of the 
State forests, the value of which as a 
valuable and important asset is becoming 
more generally recognised, is in the hands 
of Mr, Walter Gill, F.L.S., F.R.H.S., who 
has occupied the position of Conservator 
of Forests since July 21 1899, and it is 
generaly acknowledged that with the 
limited funds at his disposal he has done 
exceilent work for. the State. For the 
whole of|the 33 years of the forests ; history 
the expenditure has been £215,451, and the 
revenue £162,681. One of the most 
prominent features of the work of the 
department has been the free disribution 
of trees for the past 30 years. During 
that period, according to the lates official 
Teports 7,266,000, trees have been given 
