A SOUTHERN TOUR (Continued)

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 469, 7 May 1890, Page 4

A SOUTHERN TOUR (Continued)

Timaru. This town is a pretty little place, and seems, by the charactor of the buildings, to be in a very thriving condition, but, as we only stayed here for twenty minutes, I did not see much of it. After leaving Timaru the hill began to recede from the railway line, the soil being here first-class, and the crops taken off in some instances must have been very heavy, as shown by the number of stooks all over the grain fields. A short distance from Timaru -the railway leaves the seaside, and we enter a country which has farms on both sides of us. Most of the settlers seemed to be well off, as shown by the comfortable homesteads. From this point onwards we travelled for about a hundred miles over an almost perfectly level country. Some of the soil is of good quality, and much of it under crop ; but the bulk of the country is of a poor, sandy, shingly nature, with very sparee vegetation. It is only fib for sheep grazing. Here and there as we travel along the line we pass small plantations of forest trees. I always thought when I looked at the comparatively narrow strips of plantations that the trees would take a long time before they would do much good, through the wind cutting through them. My readers must recollect that this is a perfectly level country, with an open seaboard of perhaps more than 100 miles, so just fancy a gale of wind sweeping across the South Pacific Ocean, and travelling across this large plain. There are no natural hills, bush or other obstructions to stay its progress ; it simply sweeps on and on till it expends its strength on the main ranges at the back of the plains. Now just fancy a few narrow strips of plantation planted here and there, none of them sufficiently near to each other so as to give shelter. The wind will simply howl through them, checking all young growth and producing stunted trees. In fact, though it was only for a minute or so that I could look at each strip of plantation as the train hurried past, I could see the effect of those high winds on a large number of the trees. To be able to grow good timber and to properly shelter those plains, large clumps of timber trees will require to be planted, and the outer edges of those clumps will require to be planted with Cypressus, Macrocarpa, Pinus iDsignis, or some other quick-growing evergreen trees, that will retain their foliage from the bottom to the top, and make a perfect wall on the outer edges. Blue gums are very little use as shelter trees, as they, in a few years, get quiet bare of

branches or foliage at the bottom, and in situations like the Canterbury Plains would be very little use, unless deep protecting belts were planted. Large pieces of that enormous bract of sandy, shingly district could carry good timber trees if systematic planting were adopted. Toplantsomeof those districts extensively, there would not only be the value of the future timber and shelter, bub there would also be immense beneficial climatic changes which would accrue if large plantations of trees were made on this almost treeless country. Some of the hills could with great advantage be planted. In one or two instances, as we sped along, I noticed that a considerable portion of the reserve along the line of railway was planted with forest trees. The bulk of those were only about from three to four feet in height, and though they had nob as yet come much under the influence of the cold, cutting winds, it was apparent that these winds affected them considerably. These strips of plantation were principally composed of ash, oak, larch and spruce. In a few years they should be beginning to rear their tops a little above the level ground, and then, perhaps, the effect of what I have written above will make itself more apparent. The railway authorities at most of the river banks have effected a very wise precaution. Immediately along the upper approaches to the bridges, which cross the rivers on those plains, they have planted enormous quantities of the common weeping willow. These willows in time, by the thick mat of roots, will lap over the sand and shingle. Not only that, but every flood which comes down will bring a quantity of sand and silt, which will accumulate and be retained by the roots of the willows. This in time will form a solid bank, which would make it almost impossible for any flood to break up and reach the approaches of the bridges thus protected. As we approached Christchurch the patches of good soil seemed to increase and the country to be well covered with homesteads, the owners of which seemed to be very comfortable. Considerable quantities of grain had been grown on some of the farms, and also other crops. Many of the farmyards reminded me of the Old Country by the numerous stacks of grain which had newly been pub up, bub none of them as far as I saw had as yet been thatched. In one or two instances the threshing machines were in full operation on the fields where the grain had been grown. Here, in a large number of instances, it was evident that no use was made of the straw. It was just left in large heaps where it was threshed, and allowed to rot. In some fields the rotten debris of last year’s straw was still to be seen in good-sized heaps. I only hope that the debris of such is carted over bhß fields this year, so that a little of what has been taken off will get returned to the soil again. It must be very exhausting for the soil to be cropped year after year and even the debris of the straw nob returned. The very richest of soils will in time get ruined in this way. As we approached Christchurch the holdings gob smaller and villa houses and gardens became more plentiful. There were more trees, etc. The spire of the Christchurch Cathedral was a prominent object for some miles before we approached the City of the Plains.