QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jan., 1900. 
FORESTRY IN GERMANY. 
Accorprn : to Gustav Wagener, Counsellor of Forests at C oburg, there are 
35,000,000 acres of forests in Germany, of which 11,250,000 acres are owned 
by the State. Henceforth forests will be planted only for timber, not 
for firewood. Timber will pay better and better, while the price of firewood. 
sinks more and more in consequence of the low price of eect which can be 
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transported now cheaply by means of local railways and by water. There is 4 
very large export of timber from Germany to the western countries of Hurope 
that are almost without forests. In advocating a term of 80 years for the 
cutting of pine forests, he calculates from medium soila yearly revenue of from 
3 per cent. to 5 per cent. on the value of the soil. With beech forests it will be 
about the same, but oaks will require from 120 to 160 years before they should 
be felled, and the value of their timber is constantly rising. 
THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREST CONSERVATION. 
Ty all parts of the world the attention of various Governments is daily being 
drawn to the rapid destruction of forests, and steps are being everywhere 
taken to put a stop to the wholesale destruction of valuable timber trees, which 
must inevitably end in an immense shortage of supply in the near future. An H 
not only is legislation being brought to bear on the subject in sparsely timbered 
countries, but stringent forest laws have lately been enacted in countries where 
the enormous extent of the forests led to the fond belief that the supplies were 
practically inexhaustible. Notably is this the case in the United States of 
America, in South America, in Russia, and Germany. ‘The Australian colonies 
have taken the alarm, and steps have been taken towards conserving the 
valuable timbers still standing in the various colonies. Queensland forests are 
now to receive the attention which has long been urgently called for, and 
doubtless such judicious forest laws will ere long come into operation which will 
have the effect of perpetuating our supplies of hard and soft woods, whilst not 
interfering in any way with the legitimate work of the timber-getter. 
The latest advice we have of a movement in this direction comes through 
the Board of Trade Journal from Her Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General at 
Cairo (Egypt) in a report by Sir William Garstin, K.C.M.G., on the Egyptial 
Soudan, of which the following is an extract :— | 
‘A very possible source of future wealth to the Soudan iies in the vast 
forests “atl line the banks of the Upper Blue Nile, and e\tend, in an easterly” 
direction, to the Abyssinian frontier. In the Bahr-el-Ghazal Province als 
particularly in the Bongo country, large forest tracts exist. ; 
“The Ebony-tree (Dalbergia melanoxylon) is met with south of Karkauj: 
on the Blue Nile, and again in the vicinity of the Sobat River. This treé 
does not, in these latitudes, attain to a very large girth, 9 inches being apparently 
its maximum diameter. It must, however, be very common in these forests, 4 
most of the principal houses in Omdurman are roofed with it. The value 
Acacia arabica, from which the white and red gum is obtained, is well knowDi 
while the other kinds of acacia, such as Acacia nilotica (in Arabic, ‘ Sant’), at 
the chief source of the fuel supply. 4 
‘A bamboo is met with in the ranges of hills to the south of Famaka, and 
according to some, mahogany is found in the forests round Fazogl and in thé 
Beni Shangul country. i 
“The means of transporting such woods can only be by the river. Unfol” 
tunately, neither the ebony nor the acacia will float in water, and, therefore 
such transport is debarred in these cases. If a good and serviceable timber tre? 
can be discovered in the Blue Nile forests which can be floated down the rive! 
to Egypt, a large source of revenue will undoubtedly have been found. Hxtet » 
sive sawmills might be erected at Assouan, utilising the power available at thé 
dam, now under construction, and an important timber trade might one da 
arise. 
