TREE-PLANTING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 832, 30 July 1910, Page 14

TREE-PLANTING.

. WHAT HAS BEEN DONE AT KOTORUA. (By Telegraph—Special Correspondent.) Auckland, July 28. In conversation with a reporter, Mr. H. A.. Goiulie, superintending nurseryman for.the' North Island, thiis discussed treeplanting at Rotorua: —"You may safely put down that there have )xen twenty four million trees planted' out permanently in the Rotorua. district, lia.lt' of them, roughly speaking, at .Whakarewarowa.and at Waiotapu, covering a total area of six or seven thousand acres. Wo have a large plantation at Whakarewa-' rewa, comprised of 12-year.-qld trees. A very largo number of these' trees aro 30ft. high, and probably the average growth is about 25ft. Tho 'avcrago diameter, of the trunks is approximately. four inches, but some of the trunks are about six or eight inches. This plantation will probably have to be thinned out very shortly, as soon as the struggle, for existence'becomes more apparent. 1 Already,' oven in a 12-year-old plantation, we have dominant trees and dominated trees. Soon the dominated trees will have to be removed. They will be useful for fencing or for mine timber,'but not for ,saw'logs'.'just yet. I get frequent communications from' people anxious to 'know' what- trees to plant, and'how and where trees ought'to bo plan ted. Generally speaking, larch will not thrive at a less altitude above the sea level than 500 feet. Plantations of larch in 'Great Britain have suffered very badly .from larch disease, a | kind, of fungus which attacks the trees principally in low ■altitudes'. For this reason the Japanese larch is finding favtfur there,' for the reason that it is said to be less susceptible ,to the disease. We have tried'it in small, quantities at Rotorua, and it does very well there. It is claimed that the.work done by each, prison labourer in a treeplanting camp is worth about £80: per annum to tho people of New Zealand.