MANY DEAD TREES

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21417, 8 March 1935, Page 16

MANY DEAD TREES

»_ LOSSES CAUSED BY DROUGHT RAVAGES OF BEETLES SELWYN PLANTATIONS BOARD'S INSPECTION The ravages of drought and the diseases it, has fostered have made forestry in Canterbury a far different proposition for Ihe immediate future than it has been i:i Ci- p. .;i. and extensive changes will iv.-.v-. io bmade in the policy of the !>..i,v.mi Plantations Board, which ; ■ *■■■<"•* with the most difficult year iu ii.; lu.-Mu.-y. Throughout a large part ol ■.:.«■ area of reserves, visited by Die board during flic first day of its annual inspection yesterday, the drought lias killed thousands of trees, and in gum plantations beetles have killed many trees. The drought this season has given trees in Canterbury the severest test they have, had in the memory of the board. Valuable lessons have been learned in the drought-resisting ability of the various types of trees and their suitability to the driest Canterbury weather. The board's policy will therefore he subject In several changes. Eucalypts have suffered most through I he drought, and the board is not likely in the near future to plant, more of these frees. One stand of eucalyptus re;:nans. for instance, which was reputed to be drought residing, lias proved a failure. Success of Bull Vmr. Pimi.s in.signis. after Ihe eucalypts, have proved the least, drought-resist-ing, followed by the macrocarpa. The tree which has withstood the drought probably with most, success, is the pinus ponderosa (bull pine), which may figure even more prominently in the board's future planting. "The board Ls faced with cutting out, on a far more extensive scale than I was anticipated." said Mr R. G. Robinson,'the board's superintendent, durin" the inspection." The rcafforesting will call for real skill, and if it is not done as quickly as possible the whole of the areas will become infested with gorsc, and above all, with rabbits. The year is certainly going | to be the hardest in our history." \ Most of the early planting in CanI terbury was done after cultivation, Mr Robinson said, but nowadays, if land was ploughed for planting there were 10 chances to one that the trees would be blown over. Wide-spread Effects The Selwvn Plantations Board controls 16,000" acres between the Waimakariri and Selwyn rivers, of which p<soo acres are afforested. On the first da v. yesterday, of the annual two-day inspection, the board visited plantations of a total area of 2500 acres at I Roll'-ston. Burnham. Sandy Knolls, i Kirwec, Kimbcrley, Darfield. Springfield and Sheffield. All through the districts in the centre of the plain, dead trees were, to be seen in practically every plantation, and those young trees that "are surviving are far weaker, and poorer in colour, than they would normally be. In Bates's plantation and its extension near Rolleston nearly one-third of a fairlv large area of three to four year-old pines have been killed by the drought. . The ravages of the tortoise and snout beetles are apparent throughout Turnbull's plantation near Norwood. There if leaves of a irec arc shaken, the i beetles frequently fall to the ground in large numbers. This s'.and is mlerplantcd with pines, and while the