Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/421

 FORESTS 407 of its surface bearing wood. There are vast tracts in the interior covered with scrub, but the total area of forest producing timber seems to be comparatively small. The growth of trees is more vigorous in the east than on the north and north-west coasts. The foliage is usually evergreen, and the leaves of many trees hang vertically. The chief forests occupy the flat margins of the rivers, and are composed of species of Acacia and Eucalyptus mingled with Callitris and Casuarina, Banksia, Mdalcuca, Xanthorrhcea, and Exocnrpus. The Eucalyptus and Acacia are said to compose four- fifths of the forests of Australia and Tasmania. These trees, for merly despised and thought of little value, are now introduced into many countries where artificial planting has been found necessary, and are extensively grown in India, Mauritius, Algeria, and Italy. The Eucalypti in particular possess many excellent qualities : their timber is of great durability, strength, and toughness ; they are rapid in growth ; and E. Global us, or blue gum, is reputed to purify the surrounding air from malaria, and is frequently found 300-350 feet high, while E. divcrsicolor attains still larger dimensions. These, along with E. rcsinifcrn, iron bark tree, and E. marginata, Australian mahogany, &quot;jarrah,&quot; are reported to be abundant in many parts of Australia. Other principal trees, chiefly in the cast, are Cclrchi Toona, or red cedar, Gmelina Leichardti, Araucaria Cunninghamii, or the Morcton Bay pine, and Castanospcrmum australe, or Moreton Bay chestnut. In Western Australia, amongst other forest trees of note, are the raspberry-scented acacia (A. ac/i/ninata) and sandalwood (Fusanus spicatus). A simpler system of forest management than the elaborate organizations of France, Germany, or Scandinavia is applicable to thinly peopled colonies. In the province of Victoria a State Forest Board was appointed in 1867, and maps have been prepared showing the dis tribution of the principal trees within its bounds, the proposed reserves, and the forest ranges. A Planting Encouragement Act was passed in 1872. By the formation of the board, with an inspector of forests to aid by advice, provision has been made for the preser vation of existing woods and young plantations. The first annual report appeared in 1875, from which we find that the total area of reserves is 1.805 square miles, estimated to contain 400,000 trees, yielding an average of 700 superficial feet. There is a large state nursery, and there lias been great success in planting exotic trees, Abies Douglasii, Cedrus Dcodara, Sequoia gigantca, Cuj^rcssus torulosa, &c. These measures have been introduced mainly by the energy of Baron von Miiller, the Government botanist in Victoria. Attention is directed to the subject in other Australian colonies, where there is an equal call for action, and a beginning towards conservation has already been made in Queensland. Even firewood in some places is now scarce ; and the demands for mining and various industrial pursuits render it needful to import timber from other countries. South Australia. Dr R. Schomburgk reports in 1878 that three valuable forest trees have been successfully introduced, and are recommended to the forest board : (1) the American ash, Fraxinus Americans, which has been largely grown in the forest reserves ; (2) English elm, Ulmus campcstris ; and (3) the plane tree, Plata- iius oricntalis. With regard to replanting the country with road side trees and clumps, the individual enterprise of farmers, agricul turists, and landowners must be looked to. In Tasmania the arboreous forms are similar to those of Australia. Eucalypti are even more abundant, and the acacine be gin to disappear. It is remarkable that these two genera should be wholly absent in New Zealand. The vast forests of Western Tas mania are extensively utilized for timber. (See Bentham and Miiller s Flora of Australia and Hooker s Flora of Tasmania.} New Zealand. One of the richest portions of the globe as regards arboreous vegetation is the colony of New Zealand. It enjoys a climate similar to that of the south of Europe ; the vegetation is most luxuriant, and many tropical plants flourish, while conifers, characteristic of colder regions, also abound. In Britain the num ber of indigenous timber trees is only 35 out of a flora of 1400 species, while New Zealand has 113 timber trees in a flora of only about 1000 species. The most valuable tree of New Zealand is the kauri (Dammara australis}, which grows only in the northern island. It attains the height of 120-160 feet and is 5-12 feet in diameter, is unrivalled for masts, and has long been exported to British dock yards for that purpose. The value for 7 years ending December 1873 from Auckland of kauri alone amounted to 144,000, against 19,739 of all other timber. Besides timber, kauri resin, obtained in great masses, is exported. In ten years the value amounted to 1,171,949 ; the price varies from 33 to 39 per ton. Other valuable trees are totara (Podocarpus totara} and matai (P. spicata}, both found throughout the colony, and, like the kauri, yielding timber of great durability and strength, and Vitex littoralis, or New Zealand teak, esteemed more lasting than any other native wood. There are several species of Fagus, forming beech forest, and many other trees yield valuable wood, as Lcptospermum crifoidfs, the tea-tree, and Santalum Cunninc/hamii, sandalwood. The forest area in New Zealand wag calculated to have been 20,370 000 acres in 1830, and 12,130,000 acres in 1873, by Dr Hector. The public were permitted to fell in the forests on pay ment of a small licence fee, and reckless unchecked felling has been the consequence. Such rapid deforesting of these densely wooded islands has naturally created an alarm in the legislature, and the Government in 1872 passed a Forest Planting Encouragement Act, offering a bonus for land cropped with trees. Several large planta tions have been formed, and the Government has shown itself awake to the importance of the subject. In 1876 Captain Campbell Walker, an experienced officer of the Indian forest service, was requested to examine the resources of the New Zealand forests, and to propose a scheme of working them. His report was presented to both Houses of Assembly in 1877, and deserves the earnest attention of the New Zealand Government. In this richly wooded country clearings have been made with rapidity, and the great work now must be to preserve and propagate the valuable indigenous trees. An idea of the vastuess of forest operations in New Zealand is derived from the fact that there are 125 steam or water-power saw-mills at work, turning out 103,039,037 superficial feet in 1876, and from each of these mills a tramway is laid down penetrating into the forests; the rails arc generally of wood, and the haulage is by horses. It is understood that large forest tracts are to be demarcated and placed under tbo control of Government officers. In this way only can a regular system of forest management be carried out, and the temptation to obtain quick returns by sale of valuable forest avoided. AFRICA. A large extent of the continent of Africa is arid and treeless ; the drought in the desert is so great that no tree can resist it. But many parts are now ascertained to be rich in wood, and recent dis coveries by Baker, Livingstone, Cameron, and Stanley have opened up vast regions where much beautiful timber abounds. The Atlas Mountains are covered with magnificent forests, containing eight species of oak, Pistacia, Acacia arabica, Cedrus atlantica, closely allied to if not the same species as C. Libani and Dcodara, and many other trees. To the south of the Atlas, on the borders of the great Sahara, are large tracts covered with date palms. The Sudan region has few trees ; among these are the baobab (Adansonia), tamarind, sycamore, fig, the doom and oil palms, with a few thorny acacias. Algeria. The forests consist mainly of the Aleppo pine (Pinus halcpcnsis), the cork oak (Qucrcus Subcr), Q. Ilex, the Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica}, and the Atlas cypress (Callitris quadrivalvis} ; associated with these are the Qucrcus castantccfolia, Q. ballota, Pinus Pinaster, and other species. The forest area is thus distributed : state forests, 4,657,567 acres; communal forests, 191,487; total, 4,849,054 acres. About two- thirds of this area is under the man agement of the forest service, the rest having been granted on long leases for cork production or olive culture. Cork is one of the most valuable of Algerian products, each tree yielding six to eight francs worth at a stripping. A large amount of bark for tanning and 50,000 tons of alpha grass are exported from the province. Con servancy has not yet proved remunerative, but with the extension of railroads an increase of revenue is expected (Major Seaton). The consul-general for Algeria alludes in the following terms to the evils which have attended the deforesting of Tunis : &quot; Nothing is more certain than that forests and tracts of brushwood not only prevent the evaporation of moisture by protecting the surface of the earth from the sun s rays, but they serve to retain the light clouds which otherwise would be dissipated, until they attain sufficient consistence to descend in rain or re freshing mists. A hill side deprived of the forest whose foliage acted as a huge parasol to the ground, and whose roots served to retain the vegetable soil which was formed by its decay, very soon loses the power of generating vegetable lifo at all. The rich mould gets washed by winter rains into the valleys; in the snmmer months the sand is blown down on the top of this; succeeding rains carry down stones and gravel, till very soon all the most fertile portions of tho soil disappear, leaving a residuum which is only capable of supporting vegetation when it becomes fertilized by an exceptional amount of moisture, which, as time progresses, must become rarer and rarer, like the efforts of the spendthrift to live off income, and spending every year a portion of his capital.&quot; Colonel R. L. Playfair, Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce in Algeria and Tunis (1877, p. 155). Tunis. The African traveller Bruce 110 years ago alluded to tho forests through which he passed, where not a tree is now to be seen. Dr Shaw and Desfontaines the botanist mention the Aleppo pine and the making of pitch, but the wide plain over which they journeyed is now treeless, and the forest described by the latter in 1784 has quite disappeared. Egypt, though possessing no forests, has a considerable amount of wood in acacia, lebbek, tamarisks, tamarinds, zizyphus, &c.,and has also a rich property in its date palms, which grow in great abundance. Abyssinia has extensive woods in the mountains, whence the coffee plant has spread over the world. The tropical vegetation of Africa under the equatorial belt of rain is very luxuriant, and differs much on the two coasts. In the interior of Central Africa, Livingstone, Cameron, and Stanley tell us of vast tracts of primeval forest in the Manyuema country between Tanganyika and the coast, and also in Urungu south of Tanganyika, but as yet little is known of them in detail. The ex plorations of Nachtigal have shed much light on the regions adjoin ing Bomu,and Rohlfs describes gigantic tamarind, acacia, and komova