426 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, {1 Juxx, 1902. 
crow-foot elm logs of great size, which had been drawn on wagons and trolleys 
out of the scrub ready for despatch to Cairns and the South. Several saw-mills 
are established in the district, and all do good business. 
There are several good hotels at Atherton. The one I put up at (Mr. 
McCraws) was an excellent one. A number of residents and visitors from 
Herberton had assembled to meet me, and it was not long before Mr. J. 
Thomas, manager of the Herberton Tableland Timber Company, and owner 
of several saw-mills, harnessed up a couple of horses, and drove me and two 
other visitors through the scrubs for several miles. Everywhere was to be seen 
the same magnificent growth of timber—cedars, beech, and kauri pine were on 
all sides. There is another timber here which some call white pine, and which 
runs up to 100 and more feet before branching, attaining a diameter of from 4 
to 5 feet. The timber, however, Mr. Thomas informed me, was not of great 
value for building purposes either inside or exposed, as it is liable to be 
attacked by borers. Every now and then we came upon a clearing where for 
the present only corn is grown, the stumps not yet having rotted out. There 
are wide clear stretches of splendid corn to be seen in some parts extending as 
far as the eye can reach, the growth testifying to the fertility of the soil. With 
the exception that the tracks were full of deep ruts made by the timber wagons, 
and that huge worn-down stumps lurked in the mud, over which the buggy 
bounded and rolled in a most exhilarating manner, and that on one occasion 
the horses jumped a log and hauled the front wheels over it, but in spite of 
frantic endeavours were unable to make the hind wheels follow, necessitating 
the passengers manning the wheels and lifting the machine bodily over; with 
these exceptions, the ride was a most delightful one, and ended safely and 
pleasantly at about dusk, when we returned to the hotel and refreshed—the 
horses. 
On emerging from the scrub, Mr. Thomas drove down the road to a 
“landing place” where a quantity of cedar logs were stacked ready for removal 
to the mill. All were of great size, but one log 16 feet long measured 9 feet 
8 inches in diameter, and contained 6,000 feet of timber. There were four 
longer logs from the same tree, carrying a very even diameter right up to the 
head. That cedar-tree was about 100 feet high to the nearest branch, and was 
a perfect cylinder of solid timber right to the heart. We made a calculation 
that the tree must have been 118 years old at least, allowing the average 
diameter to be 6 feet and allowing an increase of 2 inches in diameter ever 
three years after topping the scrub, when the lateral growth of the trunk 
would begin. 
I shall dilate on this subject further on. One of the show trees in this 
district is an immense cedar-tree yet lying where it was felled. So large was 
this tree that the timber-getters would have nothing to do with it. At last 
some saw-mill proprietors bought the right to all mill timber on the selection 
on which the monster stood. ‘The timber had to be removed in a certain time, 
and this tree remained to almost the last week of the contract, when a timber- 
getter was offered £25 to cut it down and saw it into logs. He performed his 
task of cutting down the tree in three days, after which he carried out the rest 
of the work. The butt is 14 or 15 feet in diameter, but the trunk tapers 
rapidly, and it is practically not so valuable as its brother giant described 
above. Its age would be about 250 years. 
A large amount of clearing is going on, and much of this work is done by 
black labour of some kind working on contract. The price for felling ranges 
from £1 5s. to £2 per acre, and burning-off and subsequent stumping bring 
the total cost of clearing up to from £12 to £13 per acre. This is about the 
same as the clearing of the Brisbane River scrubs came to. Although it looks 
a large sum, still it must be remembered that only a few acres are felled and 
burned off at first. Then a crop of corn comes in to pay for the work, and in 
all probability a good many valuable cedar and beech trees have been saved 
and sold to the mill, which will have more than paid the entire cost of clearing 
per acre before a stump has been touched. 
