TREES AND DROUGHT

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23263, 25 February 1941, Page 12

TREES AND DROUGHT

TO THE EDITOR Ot THE PRESS. Sir.—ln districts hit by the drought the leaves of summer will, to some extent, have fallen, either yellowing into a very premature autumn or simply frazzling out in the great heat. It has been a unique and uncanny experience to hear the shrivelled leaves of poplar trees crackling in the scorching nor’-west. Poplars have perhaps failed us worst, and their credit as a windbreak has. had a set-back. Since the rain fresh leaves are forming at the ends of shoots, and some other trees are following suit, but we cannot expect the former dense foliage. Whether pine and macrocarpa have died, other than last winter’s plantings, I have not heard. If they have died, recourse would have to be made to cedars, junipers, libo-cedars and the more hardy cypresses such as sempervirens and those of Arizona. In Canterbury we have not yet had the experience of the drought-resistant trees grown at the plant stations of Russia and the United States. Shade blocks are different. They need a leafy canopy above and space for stock below, with strong stems for rubbing. The deciduous broad-leaved trees are the best, but plantings of these would not survive a drought. However, I have noted that if acorns, walnuts, chestnuts, crab-apples, and probably many others, are sown where they are to remain as shade blocks, they come up in early summer, make two or three leaves, and then stop if there is a drought, but the minimum moisture required will carry them through. —Yours, etc., J. R. WILKINSON. Rangiora, February 20, 1941.