USEFUL EXPERIMENTS IN TREE PLANTING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3630, 1 March 1883, Page 4

USEFUL EXPERIMENTS IN TREE PLANTING.

It is looked upon as practically certain that within a period of fifty years the kauri forests of New Zealand will be worked out. A great deal has been said and written on the subject, but up to the present very few practical steps have been taken to provide against a contingency, which, if allowed to come upon the country unawares, will rosult in the ruin of one of the most important of New Zealand industries. Scientific authorities are pretty well agreed that it is useless trying to secure a continual supply of kauri by planting youngtrees. The average ago of the mature kauri trees now being- cut for timber is estimated as being over one hundred years, while some of the monsters of the forests are said to be a thousand years old ; it is therefore argued with every appearance of sound logic that several generations will have to pass away "before any kauri-plant-ing operations of the present time can be turned to profitable account. In proof _of the slow growing properties of the kauri it may be mentioned that clumps of " rikas " (as* the smaller trees passed over by the bushnien are called) have been watched for eight or ten years and been found to increase in size only in an infinitesmal degree. It follows then, that if Auckland is to preserve an industry which is so valuable, something must be done as soon as possible in the way of securing a substitute timber for that whose doom is impending. The Auckland Union Sash and Door Company must be congratulated on being the first to enter tboughly on the task of ascertaining what timber will best fill the place and serve the purposes of the kauri. The Company lias lately imported from America parcels of seeds of the. All us DoKtjfoxii, I'intis poiidcromr, l'iiws Lumhartiaiiir, I/tbrovcitrus (fcrt'rrviix, I'iutix 'licathu■Miaii'i —all valuable timber trees guaranteed to mature in twenty years. The directors are also trying to procure the seeds of the pint's rurliniir, an especially valuable quick-growing pine, but it is so scarce that it is doubtful whether their efforts will bo successful. The seed already obtained has been planted in various places, and careful note will be taken of the growth of the different finds, with a view of determining- which are best suited to the climate and soil of Auckland. As soon as these experiments, which are likely to take someyears, have served their purpose-, the company will enter upon a systematic course of forest cultivation, for which their vast landed estate affords them special facilities.