From Clement Hodgkinson to Ferdinand von Mueller   28 Feb 1866

M had suggested that a series of reserves be created throughout Victoria for experimentally testing the the growth of economic plants he was recommending for introduction and cultivation. In the context of testing the possibility of large-scale cultivation of Cinchona, he wrote in M to J. McCulloch, 30 November 1865, 'I find it impossible to carry on with the resources at my command the establishment of experimental plantations in country districts, especially as one single locality would not suffice for these trials, but as for Cinchonae a place is to be sought in the fern tree country, for cotton in the Murray-valley, for subtropical plants in the palmtree country of East Gippsland and for plants of the coldest inhabited zone in our snowy mountains'. When that letter was written, M did not know that his application on 8 November (letter not found) for land in the parish of Kerrie in the Mt Macedon ranges would be refused (C. Hodgkinson to M, 19 January 1866 (in this edition as 66-01-19a)). He evidently urged the general cases for regional reserves when he wrote to Hodgkinson again on 17 February 1866 (letter not found), which in C. Hodgkinson to M, 26 February 1886, Hodgkinson said he would support. It is not known whether M requested land be reserved in more regions then the Murray and East Gippsland approved in principle here.