ECONOMIC VALUE OF CONIFERS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1086, 30 May 1882, Page 2

ECONOMIC VALUE OF CONIFERS.

We take the following paragraph from ii recent cortribution by Mr J. Starkie Gardner to the Gardener's Chronicle, in whicli he brings together some interesting facts about Conifers. Alluding to their timber or economic value, he very truly saya that the economic value of the Coniferre surpasses that of all other forest trees together supplying a large proportion of timber used. " The woods of the fir, pine, and cedar are valuable for all purposes and some of them are of immense durability. The. money value of the fir imported into Great Britain in 1878 from Scandinavia and Russia alone was about £5,000,000 sterling the total value of the imported toniferous wood in this country being about £9,000,000 per annum, iViost countries of Europe depend largely for fuel and timber upon their plantations of fir and. pine, Even in our own country Pinus sylvestria, which formerly spread over a groat part of Scotland, has been a source of wealth to its owners, The forest of Rothiemurchus, between Cairngorm and Spey, 16 miles in extent, produced, according to Sir T. D. Lauder, sometimes as much as £20,000 per annum in pine timber, From the adjoining forest of Glenmore, sold by the Duke of Gordon for £IO,OOO,■ were produced 41 sail of ships of upwards of 19,000 tons burthen. The indigenous Scotch fir is now, however,' to a great extent superseded by the larch. Between 1759 and 1830 the Dukes of Athol planted 10,000 acres with larch alone, and on their Blair and- Dunkeld property the total numher planted was 14,096,719, calculated at the time of planting to produce at the age of 70 years £6,500,000 as timber for naval purposes. In other parts of the world the Coniferse are of equal im portauce. The quantity of Deodars, for instance, used in India is immense, The Punjab Forest Administration Reports show that between 1784-75 40,000 logs of Deodar, bo3idos those nf Pinus excelsa and other Conifers, were floated down the Punjab rivers, In 1870 over 100,000' cubic feet of the timber of Araucari Cunninghomi reached Sydney market,