A practical treatise on tree culture in South Australia

Front matter

ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY AT

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Cornell University

Introduction

ADA

ARBORICULTURE, according to the common acceptation of the word, 1s the art of planting and rearing trees and shrubs; but in the opinion of the most learned savans of the age it is now also looked upon as one of the most important of the many sciences which regulate the economic and hygienic affairs of nations.

It is now generally admitted by all enlightened people that trees play a very important part in the general prosperity of any country, and that, by the amount of attention paid by its inhabitants to their cultivation, so may the physical and intellectual standard of the people be estimated. As our surroundings become physically more perfect, so in the same ratio do we become morally better. As one proof of this we have only to refer to the case of some of the ancient nations in Asia, such as Persia, Palestine, and Syria. In the early and most prosperous days of these countries, the inhabitants paid very great attention to the rearing of both fruit and timber trees, and, in consequence, their agriculture was highly productive, and all classes were prosperous. What is now the condition of these once fertile regions? It is this: their forests have been long ago destroyed; their fields are now, comparatively speaking, parched and unremunerative to the cultivators, and therefore agriculture is neglected, and their people have sunk into poverty and wretchedness ; while the civilisation which once regulated their affairs has fallen with them, and left them in the condition of semi-barbarism in which they now are found.

It is evident from the records which we now possess that the planting of trees was understood and practised in the early days of the world’s history, though of course on a more primitive and less methodical plan than is now done in these modern and more enlightened days. Not to speak of what must have been done in tree planting in the early days to which Holy Writ has reference, but of which no positive proof has been handed down to us, we find from the earliest historians that the Greeks and Romans were great arboriculturists, and made wonderful steps in their time in the rearing of trees, both for ornamental and economic purposes.

vill. Introduction.

It is supposed that the propagation of trees and the introduction of new species into Europe began about the fifteenth century, from which time until the present day various works on arboriculture have been published. At first these were necessarily of the most primitive character, both in style, substance, and knowledge ; now they are of the most scientific and reliable kind. At the present day we find that tree planting in Britain, Germany, France, and other divisions of the Continent of Europe, has become a very important industry; and that, viewed in the light of a commercial transaction alone, it ranks amongst the foremost of the rural industries of the political economy of these countries. Perhaps within the last eighty or one hundred years more has been done towards planting by landed proprietors in the old world than in any former period of its history. This has arisen from many causes, the chief of these being a better knowledge of the art in all its detail management, resulting in a surer and more paying return; the introduction from various parts of the world of quick-growing and valuable species of trees; the general recognition of the now wellestablished fact that trees exercise a very marked and valuable influence on the climatic and hygienic conditions of a country; and that so many establishments have been started for the sale of forest trees, thereby causing keen competition, and consequently reasonable prices for plants.

Of late years, from various causes incidental to the rise and prosperity of the. country, the colonies of Australasia have awakened to the necessity for a proper conservation of their forests, and planting of woodlands on the otherwise unwooded portions of the respective provinces, in order to the permanent good and well-being of the country. Victoria and New Zealand have each given birth to Aets of Parliament on the subject, but these have not been properly carried out. Queensland and New South Wales are now agitating the matter; but it remained for South Australia to have the honor of being the first Australian colony to establish a system of forestry in her midst.

The originator of the scheme was Mr. Krichauff, M.P., who, in the session of 1871, called for a return eliciting information from persons resident in the different districts of the colony, in regard to the supply, preservation, and culture of forests. The answers were summarised and prepared by Dr. Schomburgk, the Director of the Botanic Gardens.

Subsequent to this return, Mr. Krichauff introduced, and successfully passed, in the House of Assembly, in 1873, “An Act to encourage the planting of Forest Trees,” which provided for the payment by Government of two pounds per acre for every acre planted by a landowner in certain districts of the colony, according to certain defined conditions,

Introduction. ix,

During the same session, a “ Report on Forest Reserves” was laid on the table of the House, which had been prepared for the Honorable the Commissioner of Crown Lands by G. W. Goyder, Esq., the Surveyor- General. This report made suggestions for the proclamation of certain portions of the country as forest reserves, and dealt exhaustively with recommendations regarding the formation of a Department of Forests.

In 1875 a Bill was brought in by Mr. Krichauff, and passed, intituled “An Act to make provision for the appointment of a Forest Board, and for other purposes.” In this Act certain districts pointed out by Mr. Goyder were defined as forest reserves.

During the session of 1876 a short Act was passed to amend certain portions of the Forest Board Act; and ‘“ The Forest Trees Act,” under which the present operations of the Forest Board are being carried out, was passed in 1878. The latter Act consolidates and amends all the laws in the colony relating to forest trees, and embraces the different matters provided for in all the three Acts previously quoted.

Forestry is a branch of rural economy not so easily defined in all its parts as farming is, and this chiefly from its crops requiring a considerable number of years to test the results of any experiments that may be made init. The subject of forest management is a long and broad one, requiring an age of observation and experience in anyone to understand the effects of certain modes of operations. In old and longestablished countries, such as those of Europe, where the original forests have for the greater part disappeared many generations ago, and new ones been planted, forestry is taught both theoretically and practically, and is, generally speaking, well understood by all classes concerned in the rural economy of the respective countries. On the other hand, in these colonies the inhabitants hitherto have been principally engaged in the destruction of their trees in order to make way for the tilling of the land they occupy, and are, as a rule, unacquainted with even the rudiments of forestry, and are quite at a loss how to proceed should they wish to plant a few trees on their holdings. Now that the thinking and prudent portion of the landowners of the country are alive to the important functions which trees play in our midst, and are already showing a strong disposition to form plantations on their estates, but are often deterred from doing so from want of knowledge of the subject, I have thought it incumbent upon myself to come forward with this concise and practical work on forest management generally, with the view of supplying what I féel is a much-felt want in the colony, and thereby enabling the landowners of our community with its use to improve their properties by planting trees on them, both for ornament x. Introduction.

and use, and to become their own foresters with every reasonable chance of success,

At first it was the author’s intention to issue this work in the usual way through a publisher, but seeing difficulties in the way of its general distribution, the matter was laid before the Forest Board, offering the MS. on the condition that it be printed at the expense of the Government and issued gratuitously. This suggestion the members of the Forest Board at once adopted.

With these few introductory remarks the author commits his small work to the public, and trusts that many will find useful hints in its pages ; and if only a few will be induced thereby to plant trees on their land, he will feel more than repaid for the labor expended upon it.

Forest Board Office, Adelaide, March, 1881.

o> meORNTST —

TREE CULTURE IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

TREE CULTURE IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA.