REAFFORESTATION BY AIRPLANE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 69, 13 June 1927, Page 7

REAFFORESTATION BY AIRPLANE

A NOVEL INNOVATION The problem of reafforestation, about which so much is written and so comparatively little done, may have been brought nearer a solution by an experiment in the planting of trees by airplanes essayed early this spring by George E. Vinnedge, park architect of the city of New Orleans, says the “Lumber Manufacturer and Dealer” of St. Louis. “Confronted with the planting of a new 1,055-acre addition to the citypark, Mr. Vinnedge hired an airplane, and in two ten-minute flights distributed thousands of seed of live oak. magnolia, Ligustrum, and several varieties of palms over the entire area. On both occasions the seeds were placed in a grain sack, and the sack tied to the lower wing of the airplane, with the opening toward the rear. A rope was attached to the mouth of the! sack, and when over the territory to be planted, was ‘jiggled’ enough to make the seeds trickle out. The wind from the propellor scattered them broadly, and the fall induced a velocity sufficient to bury them in the ground. “This method of scattering was intended to produce a more natural spacing of the future than if they had been planted by hand at measured distances apart. If in places they are too thick, the weaker saplings will be thinned out, leaving the others undisturbed. The cost for the two flights was only 15 dollars, and, with their total time only 20 minutes, a great reduction was thus effected in time, labour, and expense over former methods of reafforestation. And Mr. Vinnedge believes that on a large scale the cost could be still further reduced. It would be interesting if either the Government or one of the larger timber companies would perform an experiment of this kind on a large scale, on some of the reforestable lands that are now lying idle because of the cost and labour of replanting them.”