FIXATION OF SAND DRIFTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2398, 28 February 1922, Page 2

FIXATION OF SAND DRIFTS.

“At the present time it is not possible to state what the sand fixation work will cost; the experiments now under way are designed to solve this question,” states Mr IT. A. Goudie, in an article in the monthly news-letter of the State Forest Service. “The cost of fixing the sand on a drift may possibly be as much as £25 per acre, but it should he hoi’ne in mind that the fixation of the main jlrifts will afford protection to large adjacent areas, and allow the plant covering to become reestablished by natural means. The cost, therefore, when spread over the whole area influenced by the work done will bring the average expenditure per acre very much below this figure. The cost of reclamation should be regarded as a charge upon the valuable agricultural land which the reclamation work is designed to protect, and not against any treeplanting which subsequently may be done to give permanence to such reclamation. If the expenditure is regarded in this light, there can be no doubt that the forest crop which the sand dunes are capable of growing will be a payable one. This is especially true of the dunes on the West Coast of Wellington, adjacent to which are large areas of long-set-tled farm lands and convenient railway facilities for marketing the crop of timber.”