STATE NURSERIES AND PLANTATIONS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13097, 23 April 1908, Page 9

STATE NURSERIES AND PLANTATIONS.

RESULTS IN THE TAPANUI DISTRICT.

(SPECIAL TO "THK PRESS.") WELLINGTON, April 22. After tho Prime Minister and the ° Minister for Lands parted company on their recent visit to Central Otago, tho latter took the opportunity afford-<-d of visiting tho Stat© nurseries and plantations in the. Tapanui district, and the poultry farm in tho Tokomairiro district. Mr McNab waa highly /'•pleased with what ho saw during theeo \ Visits. It appears that the Agricultural Department is following out the policy of reducing the number'of nurseries in the South Island, and concentrating its efforts on the growth of trees at ■ those nurseries where they : can be grown most economically.--The :■ Tapanui nursery is one of these. From v that nursery the Government is now ' sending out over a million trees per - annum. Mr McNab found everything -.. in first-rate, order, and the past year has been a phenomenal one, in co far as the germination of tree se>ed_s is concerned. v _ The visit to the Dusty Hill planta- ;' iion resulted in some very interesting >,; observations. ' This plantation is S fiiuated samo miles* from Tapanui, on ■£•;-the'hills and gullies in a gorge of the ';-' -Pcmohaka rivor. The layman might' t-. 'not consider it a suitable locality for jV.'e State forest, but the experiment has |j been a thorough success,, and there is %> ample proof that the locality has been £> ■well chosen. About two years ago tho portion of this plantation was by a fire caused by the %■ ■carelessness of v local angler whilo hie billy. After the. fire the | : deci3uoas trees burnt, except the larch, ■j£; were cut back, and since this their has been phenomenal. There ■ nove ash and oak trees five, six, and. • seven'feet high. Two seasons ago these %: trees were charred and blackened ; .stuipps, and since- tho cutting back :'.. fcoth classes of trees, but more par- : tkularly the oak, havo been growing etraigEter and more vigorously than they trere growing previously. Indeed, Mr SJfcNab was so much struck with the growth of tho oak trees under tho '~ altered, conditions, that he has decided upon tho cutting back of an oak plaa- . tatjon that has been making somewhat > slow growth on his own farm. The VPines »nd the larch in the Dusty Hill plantation swept by the fir© nearly alt died, but other trees have been planted in their stead, and are now coming ,«waj nicely. *' A few years ago the Department commenced the planting of acorns in j ; the position in which the tree 3 wero J ,- meant to grow, but though tho plants came away nicely at first, they never J made headway, and indee<l J proved a complete failure. It would *> *Pl*ar from the foregoing as if the oak, at all events in Otago's soil and , climate, must bo grown in a seed bed , »nd transplanted. Subsequently; when '-' »i hw attained a firm root, it must '. f» ent down to the ground, and when !* sprouts again all the sprouts except i Wβ mo3t vigorous should be pruned