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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 41
Vegetable and Animal Products
Vegetable and Animal Products.
Timber.
The timber resources of the island are extensive. Blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus), stringy bark (E. obliqua), white or swamp gum (E. viminalis), peppermint (E. amygdalina), beech (Fagus Cunninghami), Huon pine (Dacrydium Franklini), celery-topped pine (Phyllocladus rhomboidalis), blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon), and silver wattle (Acacia dealbata), are extensively used or exported; and there are many woods of a highly ornamental character. The hardwoods are in good demand in the adjacent colonies for shipbuilding, railway construction, &c. The annual value of timber exported amounts to over £70,000. Wattle bark, for tanning purposes, is exported to England and the neighbouring colonies; the quantity sent away in 1879 was 5813 tons, valued at £40,000.
Agriculture, &c.
The soil and climate are specially favourable for the production of cereals and fruit. The total area of land cleared or in cultivation is 366,911 acres; the chief products being wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, peas, and English grasses. The number of acres in wheat, according to the latest returns, was over 45,000, with 37,000 acres in oats. The export of grain in 1879 was valued at £22,396. Hops are largely and profitably cultivated; the value of the exports in 1879 was over £26,000. All the fruits of temperate climates grow luxuriantly, and are extensively utilised both for local consumption and for exportation. The gross produce of the principal crops during the year ended 31st March, 1880, was, in round numbers:—Wheat, 1,050,000 bushels; barley, 181,000 bushels; oats, 1,065,000 bushels; peas, 131,000 bushels; potatoes, 31,000 tons; hay, 54,000 tons; hops, 740,000 lb.; apples, 140,000 bushels; pears, 20,000 bushels.
Pastoral, &c.
The number of sheep in the colony is nearly two millions; cattle, about 130,000; horses, 25,000; and pigs, 38,000. The quantity of wool exported in 1879-80 was 8,333,726 lb., of the
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value of £448,912. The stud sheep of Tasmania realise high prices at the annual Australian sales, and the breed of draught horses is unsurpassed. The amount realised by the sale in the other colonies of Tasmanian stud sheep in 1879 was £31,324.