TARANAKI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 305, 19 May 1911, Page 6

TARANAKI.

IS IT OXbV GOOD FOR MILK? L".\i:i'X'i)(i\lSKl) POSSIBILITIES. ".M.D." writes to the editor under the above heading:—.Many people would answer straight oil', yes! Others might say it was also good for rain, lint thereis another thing of a chemical nature, little dreamed of, depending on the fact. The surroundings of Mount Egmotil for some reason are the natural home of the rata tree. This is a peculiar tree in! many way*. Its blood-red blossom, like I the pirates' black Hag, puts on mourning for the tree murders it, commits. They say the red coats soldiers used to wear were worn tn hide tin* effects of wounds, as the red blood-mark would have had a depressing and terrifying effect on comrades, if it did nothing else. Jleucc the red flag became the danger signal, But it was the greatest contrast to green, nature's uniform, because it was of all color- most easily noticed. Mud color 1 took it- place, much to the disgust of the snowy sons of Britain, But I must return to the rata tree, one of the most extraordinary of vegetable parasite*. There is no certainty whether it actually lives on the juices of its victim. The rata has roots which skim the surface of the ground rather than penetrate it. It climbs the tree as a slender vine, not much thicker ! than a cord, grows thicker and j thicker, and sends down a cord, I which some say takes root. Others | say the climbing vines unite, -as do the strands of a rope. But the rata seems to kill the tree by taking all its soil food, .such as potash. Here, again, it seems the deep roots of trees decoill- • pose and form an insoluble form of pot- ■ ash, but wliat to name it is a puzzle, | for soda and potash and ammonia, elass- | ed as alkalies, have no insoluble compounds that we know of. But it seems the forest trees accumulate plant food on I the surface l>v the fall of their leaves, I ultimately to.be used by the tree again. This is what the rata is after. Likely enough the rata needs an enormous supply of the alkali pojash. but, its juices i are unable to decompose it. j f have spent many years in studying' the composition of plant ashes, because j it has been a hobby of mine. air I have 'no hesitation in saying that tic rata j should be called ''the chemical tree." It contains three times as much potash as, the average tree, and. stranger still, as' : soon as the firs I branch comes off the percentage nf potash above it falls to the average. Well, the rata is capable of becoming the |;ic.'est <-pp m |( || lts „ n enormous growth of rira-'tos or epiphvtes on i'. Beautiful orchids seem only to jrou. so as to be out of the sight of man. jll to 100 fc»; above the earth, remim'.'ng one of Grav'.- clcv: ''Perhaps sonic gem of purest ray serene• The deep mifathomed caves of ocean hear: Full many u (lower is born to blush unseen And waste its sweetness on the desert air." Occasionally we see a young rata grasping 'he tree in caterpillar fashion, unlike anv other vegetable to be seen. I must leave the rata now for a momcni to d.-crihe how difficult it is to get fuel in the hackblocks. as I will call an*' place some miles from a town or a railway. The. curse of Taranaki, and indeed, of !MI per cent, of Xew Zealand, is 1 the broken nature of the land-steep hills and deep gullies, with a stream wandering between the hills, renders tillage difficult and costly. With the increased and increasing price of land time cannot he had to cut fuel, and each year I it seems more and more impossible to get firewood or fencing posts: men will not work at it. Buying land for £3O an acre and selling it for Cl.'> per acre next year | is the great way to farm in 1011, Coal | is being burned at C 4 per ton, and the I wood is allowed to grow or rot on the j land.

11l the Taranaki chemical in<lii=.try T nm K"i"'.' I" describe :is needing deyeionment. charcoal would lie a by-product, find would be coal without \vri<rJit. I am aware that with M-onsand and petroleum many would say to me ''shut up!'' but Taranaki lias made a great atart in ibe chemical line. The l'n-t .Nobel prize of L'S.IMH) wiu won by a Taranaki man, and no one can say whore the cowspanking country will" end. .Mount K«mont has pulled tip the country all ai-oiiikl it for 10 or l.i miles, and it is easy to carry things away from (he mountain for that reason. The products from the rata tree would be potash, acetic acid, wood spirit and charcoal. It would lie necessary to manufacture sulphuric acid, and' plaster of Pari- could be made as a by-product, also wood-tar, containing creosote. P.ut your space -your space, Mr. Editor! Already I" may have made you frown. I "shall leave'further description until another day. resuming under the heading, "is Taranaki only good for milk?"