PLANT NURSERIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 April 1938, Page 11

PLANT NURSERIES

RAILWAYS DEPARTMENT ENTERPRISE.

The national value of plant nurseries and the need of proper care and development are fully recognised by the New Zealand Railways Department. In both the North and South Islands provision has been made for the planting of large areas with suitable shrubs and trees for the requirements of specific localities as well as for transplantation in other and more distant districts. At Woburn (Lower Hutt) last year 50,000 selected plants were packed and despatched to the Department’s forestry area at Athenree, near Katikati in the Bay of Plenty district. Every day is Arbor Day at Athenree where 226 acres of trees were planted by the Department last year. Seventy-nine pounds of seeds of various kinds were sown there and from the resultant terop nearly three and one third millions of seedlings were obtained, more than sufficient to plant the whole of the Athenree area. There are also plantations of vigorous growth at Ngongotaha and Rotorua in the North and at Rolleston, Burnham, Chertsey and Stewart’s Gully in the South. In these botanic pursuits, as in all its other undertakings, thoroughness is the Department’s watchword.