ARBOREAL FREAK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1942, Page 6

ARBOREAL FREAK

QUICK-GROWING HARDWOOD.

POSSIBILITIES OF COMMERCIAL USE.

Farmers of Arizona and Southern California are this summer cutting firewood and fence posts worth hundreds of dollars per thousand board feet, states an article in the “Christian Science Monitor.”

Experts have declared that the wood of the tamarisk (taramix aphylla) would be priceless if some means could be found to utilise the Southwest’s thousands of scattered trees for furniture and cabinet making. But for the war, a tamarisk furniture industry would probably be on its way. As things are, the best that can be done is to turn the tamarisks into fuel and posts, which are scarce because of war conditions.

The tamarisk, often erroneously called tamarack, is a freak of the arboreal world. It is the only fast-growing hardwood, four years being enough to produce a 12-inch saw log under favourable conditions. When the wood dries, a nail can not be driven into it. Properly sawn, it has a beautiful grain, its colour is lighter than that of any commercial wood except white holly and there is an odd greenish glint. It takes a high polish, can be varnished or painted. Apparently it does not warp under adverse conditions of temperature or moisture. Two University of Arizona botanists introduced the tamarisk from Algiers in 1911. Since any switch stuck into the ground will immediately take root, it proved invaluable as a shade and wind-break tree.

Masterton nurserymen, when asked if they had any knowledge of this species of tamarisk, stated that as far .as they knew the tree had not been introduced into New Zealand.