Trees Afford Shade for the Summer and Protection in Winter

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1940, Page 21 (Supplement)

Trees Afford Shade for the Summer and Protection in Winter

A serious defect on many 'Taranaki farms is the inadequate or inefficient provisiori of farm shelter and timber supplies. The two can be associated naturally, for a shelter belt is not merely a hedge. Tall trees, set at close intervals • in low growing trees, not only add beauty to a farm, but increase the shelter /area and supply timber for posts or fire-wood. In coastal regions such trees as pohotukawas can add grace and cover to any shelter belt, while gums and pines grow well in inland districts. Early settlers in Taranaki fully appreciated the aesthetic as well as the practical value of trees. To-day, the results of their foresight may be seen in beautiful plantations and graceful shelter belts breaking the line of grazing paddocks. Much can still be done in this direction by the present . generation. Erosion by Wind. Unchecked winds remove the soil from cultivated areas and witbdraw the moisture needed to give crops a good start after germination. On the other hand, the effect of adequate shelter in conserving moisture and increasing humidity can easily be appreciated from a study of grass growth or the progress of a crop on the sheltered side of any field. In this connection it is worthy of note tnat a shelter. belt 66 feet high affords direct protection for a distance of only five times its height, or just over 100 yards. and partial protection for 15 times its height. Lesser shelter has a _ correspondingly reduced area of effectiveness. Areas that have reverted to blackberry, gorse, fern and manuka can be improved by developing the only economic "crop" that will compete successfully with weed growth on some back country land. Already, in certain areas, scheme are being advanced to plant thousands of acres of otherwise waste land in quickly maturing trees./ In the same way, tree planting to-day will prove worthy of adoption as a means of utilising unproductive waste land or scrub infested cortiers of almost any Taranaki farm. Moreover, the value of the shade such planting can make available to stock during the summer should be as much appreciated as the shelter they can provide against wind, rain and cold in the winter