VALUE OF EXOTIC PINES.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17431, 17 April 1922, Page 8

VALUE OF EXOTIC PINES.

A SPLENDID TIMBER YIELD. Increasing attention has been paid of late years to the milling of exotic pines in various parts of New Zealand, and in this connexion Mr 'IS. Earle Vaile, of "Broadlahds," Waiotapu, supplies' some very interesting particulars in a recent communication to the "State Forest Service." He writes area near Mataniata Railway Station, in the Auckland district, where millinnj operations have been going on for the past two years, lias already yielded 2,J550,000 feet of good timber,, and there is still about 250,000 featf left to cut. Most of the cut timherVnas .been taken from an area of between 20 and 24 acres, but by far tho\ largest portion has come from abou\'*en acres covered with a smooth-balked'variety of pitta with a small smoowf.cono, identified by the State Foresfcfeervice as pinus insignis. The. 'thing.Vlthat impressed me most was the beautiful, straight, branchless boles of theie trees, planted in rows 30 feet wide, this space having been probably originally intended for firebreaks. The credit for the origin of this fin© plantation is due to the late Mi- Josiah t?: Finfch, : whOi witfr unex-r ampled foresight, made thi=se-planta-tions, remarking at that remote date, when timber was an encumbrance on the ground, that men would some day build hous3B out of them. As far as I could gather no attention whatever has been .given to these plantations. The seedlings were placed end up in the ground; and the evenlj left to providence. Placing the area planted, at 22 acres, this gives a yield averaging 113,636 feet super per acre. The trees grow to. a very great .height, are straight, and remarkably frea from knots. Some of the pines range to 146 feet, in length of nullable timber, and cut out well over 4000 super feet each tree. Very many of the trees contain over 100 feet length millable, and yield over 2000 feet per tree. The average of 19 trees of the smoothbarked variety "Pinus Insignis,'' taken at random, is: Length 94ft, centre girth 4ft 2in, contents 1332 super feet. The number of age rings in the trees varies from 40 to 47, and. this confirms the opinions of old residents as to their age."