TREE PLANTING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2298, 2 April 1887, Page 2

TREE PLANTING.

Our Te Awamutu correspondent writes :— In a previous letter I related to Mr Hay s views on the Codlin Moth, I spoke to him at the time about tree planting. He said the "Californian Red wood" (Sequia semperviveiw) was the best timber tree we could plant. The timber is good and lasting, and it is said it resists the ravages of grubs and other timber parasites. It is of a quick growth and will do very well in the climate. This I know to be a fact, as anyone may sae who passes Mr White's house on the way to the station. One of these trees is growing at his gate, it is healthy and vigorous and has grown very rapidly. Our forests are being rapidly cut and burned out, and it will place the country in a very awkward position if no steps are taken to ensure a supply when our natural resources in that direction are exhausted. I do not know how loner the tree in Mr Whites place has been planted, but it cannot have been there many years, and judging by the size it has attained—about a foot indiameter —in thirty or forty years from the time of planting they would be quite large enough to make use'of. Our best timber for all round purposes is kauri, and at the present rate of cutting, wasting and burning by bush (ires, very few years will see us without any. or at any rate with not more than we shall require for home consumption. If report speaks truly, thirty or forty years will see us without any _ at all. There is another useful timber tree which, like the Californian red-wood, is a quick grower ; that is the black walnut. _ J. read of a c.ise where it was fit for cutting into boards in twenty-four years from the time it was planted. It is a very useful timber for general purposes, and would grow well in New Zealand. No doubt the black -wattle is a useful tree for certain purp wes, but as a timber tree it cannot compare with either of the two mentioned. I do not know the tree, and it may be, for aught I know to the contrary, utterly useless, save for its valuable, bark, and I think the Government might have chosen other trees also for planting at Waerangi. MiHay snvs growers of oranges and lemons will rue'the day the wattle was introduced to the country, for it is a harbour for the " white scaly bug," which is so destructive to those fruits. Apart from the consideration of timber for use, there is another and a very important aspect to the question, that is the question of climate. In spite of the statements of many that the seasons are only repeating themselves, that similar unseasonable springs and day summers have been experienced before, in spite of these views I say the climate of this country is changing, and for the worse. For three years in succession we have had late spring and early autumn frosts. They were not freaks of Nature, for Nature does not indulge in freaks like that every year ; it looks as if she meant to continue in

the same cour.se. And we may expect nothing else if we violate her laws, and in denuding the whole surface of the country of the covering she placet there we must expect the climate to change. We cannot go on destroyoing and cutting down thousands of aerosol: bush and other vegetation every year without suffering for it.' The remedy for these climatic changes lies with ourselves. If we plant more timber and replace the kauri forests which are being cut out, we shall have normal seasons again. I do not know whether larch would grow in this country, but if it would it would be a most valuable tree. It also is a quick grower, and excellent for building and other uses. I would suggest to people about to plant round their houses and vacant spots on their farms the advisability of planting the Californian red wood, instead of so many pines. The latter, of coarse, are good for shelter, and could not very well be done without, but it would be an improvement to have some of the others also, as they are ornamental as well as useful. The climate of some of the treeless regions of America has been altered for the better by tree planting, and wo know that since the building of the Suez Canal, rain has fallen in places close to it where it was never known to fall before, and this is entirely due to trees having been planted there. In the matter of timber we are obeying in a literal sence the scriptural command, " Take therefore no thought for the morrow." It is time we made amove in the opposite direction. There are many thousands of acres of land of very little value in the country which could be made valuable by planting them in good timber trees. •