GROWING FOREST GIANTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 September 1941, Page 6

GROWING FOREST GIANTS

SUITABLE CONDITIONS. EXAMPLES AT HUNTERVILLE. There was no reason why Wanganui could riot grow the giants of the Californian forests, the sequoia trees, said the superintendent of reserves, Mr S. I. Cox, in an address to the Wanganui Rotary Club. He said that all that was wanted was the right soil conditions and he quoted examples to show that these existed in the district. A sequoia in Virginia Lake reserve had to be cut down about four years ago because its growth threatened to crowd out other trees and plants round it. Growing on Mr D. Simpson’s farm, Hunterville, were three very fine specimens of sequoia sempervirens, planted by Mr J. Allison, No. 3 Line, about 40 years ago in a rich fertile valley. “The measurements of these fine tree's more than compare with those of any exotic trees I have seen,” said Mr Cox. “Many have been planted in New Zealand for ornamental and afforestation purposes, but not been given to their natural requirements.” Mr Cox added that sequoia sempervirens was one of the most important timber trees of the world,- and its forests, comparatively limited in area, had yielded and were still yielding the most easily obtained, durable, and profitable building and fencing timber on the Pacific Coast of the United States. The reproductive powers of the tree were enormous. No > other known conifer so consistently sprouted from the stump, so rapidly made new forests, or so well resisted fire.