SECOND GROWTH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 56, 30 August 1939, Page 7

SECOND GROWTH

WHEN NATURE GETS A CHANCE Long ago, on some slopes of Queen Charlotte Sound, native forest was cut down and burnt in the hope that the soil would be favourable for pastures. Time proved that much of the ground was suitable only for nature's crop—trees—and graziers had to abandon hope of good pastures. Thus nature was left to make amends for man's mistakes and gradually another growth of native trees began to come through the bracken and scrub. A remarkable example of that kind of regeneration can be seen, near Mi 4 H. Guthrie-Smith's homestead at Hawke's Bay. He is justly proud of a few acres of young native forest on a slope near his homestead. Fifty-five years ago that (Continued at foot of next column)

piece of country was a wilderness of manuka and bracken. Mr GuthrieSmith put a strong fence around that waste place to prevent the ir»roads of animals, and invited Natuve to show him something of her cleverness. This she has done, almost miraculously. Birds and winds brought in seeds of native trees, so that now one sees a stand of fern trees, mahoe matipo, Jkowhai, whau. rangiora lace bark, taupat a and other species which have killed out the scrub that sheltered them in infancy and have fed on the mould of their nurses.