NEW ZEALAND.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2261, 1 July 1881, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND.

[peg pbbbs asbociation.l AUCKLAND, June 30. Precautionary. The Botomahana brought neither passengers nor mails, owing to doubts of being quarantined. Singular Discovery. The Tangihua picked up a boat, drifting near Mangowhare, this morning, containing the lifeless body of John Case. Deceased had been working at Downing's Orchard. The Quarantine Station. Mr Hales, District Engineer, visited the Quarantine Station, at Motuihihi, in the Customs launch, for the purpose of seeing personally the real requirements of tho pis oe. Grime. The criminal calendar comprises seventeen prisoners, five for offences againßt property, one for horse-stealing, one for unlawfully wounding, one for stabbing, one for perjury, two for rape, two for criminal libel, one for perjury, and two for arson. WELLINGTON. Jane 30. The Drink Interests. The number of publicans' licenses taken out to-day for Wellington city and country district was ninety-eight. The fees amounted to £4200. The Weather. Intercolonial weather exchange—" Sydney, Thursday evening: The north-west gale reported yesterday at Booda, south of Adelaide, has now extended across the continent to Brisbane, and has changed to a south-west gale at Booda. The highest barometer, 30 4, is in the interior at Alice Springs, and the lowest at Hobart, 29.4. At Sydney it is 30. There is evidently an extensive disturbance coming rapidly eastward. Useful InformationDr. Newman was eleoted a member ef the City Council for Thorndon ward to-day. The Unemployed. About a dozen of the unemployed were sent to Fatea this afternoon, where employment has been found for them by the Government. The Members and the Exhibition. The Hinemoa left for Lyttelton at 3.30 this afternoon, taking several members of Parliament who intend visiting the Dunedin Exhibition.

Vital Statistics. | During the month ninety-eight births and twenty-nine deaths were registered in Wellington district; eleven marriage certificates were issued during the same period. LandAt a meeting of the Waste Lands Board, the chief surveyor reported that surveys of the following blocks were in progress for settlement purposes :—SOOO aores near Otaki; 5000 acres, Tokomaru blook; 5000 acres, o»kanga; 10,000 ocres east and south of Mauriceville, and 1500 acres west of Carterton. The survey of the Wanganui harbor endowment blook of 25,000 acres was reported to be well advanced, and a large portion will shortly be ready for sale. TIMABU, Juno 30. ScholasticThe result of the plebiscite taken by the South Canterbury Bible in Schools Association shows that 903 parents, representing 2314 children, were in favor of, end_ 87 parents, representing 239 children, against. All but seven small sohools sent in returns. DUNEDIN, June 35. The Drink Interests. Messrs Keast and McCarthy's brewery business has been sold to Messrs Neill Bros, for £IB,OOO. Customs. The Customs revenue for the bix months ended to day at Dunedin was £207,318 6s 6i, against £182,929 18s 9d for the same period last year. Smallpox. On the health officers boarding the ship Charles Wowley they pronounoed one of the seamen shown to them to have been attacked by smallpox. Bacon, a seaman, whose father resides at Fort Chalmers, was the first seized. He was unvaccinated, and is very badly marked. The carpenter and another seaman, who were vaccinated, were only very slightly marked. Half a dozen passengers on board were kept aft and escaped. The name of the mate who died was Peregrine, and he was forty-one years of age. A Suicide. An old man named York committed suicide by hanging himself at Kavensbourne. Exposure. A post mortem on the infant found yesterday showed that it was born healthy, but died from exposure. Educational. The Educational Institute passed a resolution that the Canterbury teachers present be invited to take the initiative in forming an educational institute in Canterbury, and that delegates from the Otago Institute be appointed to visit Canterbury for that purpose.

ARBORICULTURE. The planting of trees for profit it a far more difficult undertaking than the general run of people are aware of. To form a> plantation or fill a certain nnmber of acres with trees, merely for the sake of planting, or for purposes of shelter, is easily done, and requires very little thought, ekill, or foresight on the part of the landholder ; but to plant I trees for timber production, and so ua to ensure ' a good return for the outlay, the intending: planter must cither study and give great attentioia to the project, or ompljy a practical forester to do the fame for him. In the first place wa must consider the time it takes for timber to arrive at s profitable size for fellirg, as it is important xsot to plant ground, which might be required for other purposes before the foreit could be clcured ; this has often been the case where proprietors, without

I using foresight, havo gone to great trouble and expense in plaDtir.p trees, which in a few years have had to fall before the axe. The agßs at which the trees mentioned in nay previous notes can beet be felled range from twenty years to 120, varying l in different trees, soils, and situations. For instance, poplar, sab, and alder can be cut under forty years ; birch, spruce, laroh, and Scolch pine,' under sixty years; whilst beech, maple, elm, and cak often require 100 years and upwards. Again, Scotch pine has often beea felled at forty years upon an exposed peaty soil, vrith a rotten rock bottom, but. has to be left till 100 years when planted I in rich deep damp loam, in a sheltered position ; the same can be said of most timber trees, for much depends upon the soil; situation, and the nature of timber. From this it will be seen that no definite fixed period can be given for a mixed plantation ; still we can safely say that no land should be put under forest for less than 100 years, so that the intending planter, before proceeding, should not only consult his own wishes in the matter, but also, when possible, his successors and all who may eventually be interested in the land ; it is also important to have an eye upon the effect which the future forest will have upon the landscape. Having selected the land for planting, it is essential to have a, thorough knowledge of the soil and subsoil, for it is upon this point that so many failures have taken place. Disregarding the composition, depth, and situation of soils and subsoils, with the indiscriminate selecting of trees, are the causes of so many eyesores and unprofitable plantations to be met with in all civil - isod countries. Trees are like the successive crops of the farmer, upon the principle that what is useless for one crop is good for another, and often I have seen certain species of trees struggling for a bare existence in soils where other speoies would have flourished and come to perfection. And as there are certain lands capable of carrying several different crops, so it is possible to have land which will support a great variety of timber trees, although many may be of an opposite nature. With the farmer the soil, or alluviam, is the chief consideration in selecting his crops, but

the true farmer has to look mainly to the subsoil. Through inexperience it has often happened that plantations, thriving and going ahead for a few years, suddenly drop off, tho trees lose their leaders, branohes become distorted, the trunks cease to swell, and often when they are coming into a profitable size for felling the trees turn sickly and die, because the roots, having completely impoverished the shallow top soil, descend into a subsoil, which in these Rases is obnoxious, and not suitable for the requirements of the trees. I have known larch to do well in a retentive alluviam for a few]years, but coming on to at dry gravel subsoil, they all pined away, bocame withered at their extremities, and of course had to be cut down. Also Scotch pine, thriving in a moderately deep soil, coming on to a hard, dry, and impenetrable bottom, have become sickly in their roots, and eventually died. Without going any further into this matter, it will be seen that to save disappointment, and loss of time and money, the soil, subsoil, and nature of the trees must be in perfect harmony. In all countries there are vast tracts of land which cannot be utilised for agricultural purposes ; but if planted with suitable treea would, in a few years, act beneficially on the climate, and in the course of time convert Buch barren wastes into fertile spots ; yet it is not advisable for private individuals to attempt planting where there is a certainty of no return for outlay ; such tracts should be left for Government undertaking. Small areas of sterile parts of an estate are certainly best occupied by trees which will live in snob places, but it must never be expects d that anything more than scrub can be the result. The following lands should be avoided in the establishment of mixed plantations:—let. Thin gravelly soils, resting on solid formations ; in many instances this description of land often rests on a good subsoil of rich sand or penetrable clay; then it is advisable to plant, as the trees only grow poorly until their roots roach the fertile subsoil. 2nd. Dry gravelly or sandy soils on a V6ry dry bottom. 3rd. Thin moss or peaty toils on graritic formations. 4th. All stagnant, waterlogged, or low-lying places, unless welldrained.

Having carefully selected the land, it in then necessary to prepare the said land for the reception of the trees, and also at the same tiiie it is best to have decided npon the number and species of tress for planting; these two points must be taken together by proprietors who intend planting on a large scale. Before proceeding any further, I will here etate—that the common, off-handed, careless, pothole system of tree planting, as practised by many who think that valuable timber plantations can be formed with very little labor and expense, is condemned and proved to be the most expensive in the loDg run by the experience and writings of all professional foresters. In the British Isles, tho continent of Europe, and India, where labor is cheap, the makeshift mode of preparing land and planting is a thing of the past; but in this colony, Australia, and in a number of oases in the United States,'the high rate of wages has not only deterred many from planting, but caused others to form the idea that as long as the trees are put into the ground they will in time develope into valuable timber. An odd one may attain to a profitable size, but on the whole such plantations never return tie cost of labor, trees and time. Chris. Mitdd, Hiverlaw.