PEAT DRAIN AT KAIHERE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4381, 22 February 1922, Page 4

PEAT DRAIN AT KAIHERE.

Sir,—Under Local and General in your issue of the 13th instant- reference was made to peat lands, particularly at Kaihere. \ Possibly the im formation originated from an incompetent farmer. When peat is lull of water the side of a drain newly cut to full depth may close in under the great weight of wet spoil deposited rpther close. An experienced drainer would take up a drain of any average depth .on more than one level in order to allow the banks to settle fairly, and the writer can point out drains cut more than five years ago which may have been deepened to maintain depth with consolidation, but which still maintain their original banks. Kaihere peat is not a live peat, in fact it is a mulch containing soil, and its richness may be gauged by the presence in it pf the stumps and logs of a dense forest of kahikatea, puketea, rata, and other timbers : also manuka (not white ti-tree), of a circumference ot twentyteeven inches and more whose roots have not even api>r'oached any sub-soil. I thank you in anticipation for giving me this opportunity of paying Kaihere land its due compliment. SETTLER.