TREE SEED FROM MEXICO

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29017, 5 October 1959, Page 18

TREE SEED FROM MEXICO

Forest Service Project Two professional foresters of the New' Zealand Forest Service, Messrs H. V. Hinds and E. Larsen, have left New Zealand to procure tree seed in Mexico for large-scale experimental testing in New Zealand forests. The two men will be in Mexico for five months. Announcing their visit overseas, the Minister of Forests (Mr Tirikatene) said that Mexico was undoubtedly the greatest potential source of new exotic pine productions available to New Zealand in the W'orld. Mexico had a diversity of tree species, of which botanists had been able to identify 38 species of pines and 25 varieties and forms. The procurement of reliable tree seed from Mexico had been a problem to .New Zealand and other interested countries for many years, and with the planned expansion of the exotic forests in this country to 2,000.000 acres by the year 2025, the New Zealand Forest Service considered it a duty to seek to improve the range of New Zealand’s existing exotic forest species, Mr Tirikatene said. “Seed must come from superior or elite parent trees,’’ said Mr Tirikatene. “It is also important that information regarding provenance, growing localities, and site factors be obtained. This can only be gathered in the country of origin by experienced officers w'ho have a knowledge of growing conditions in New Zealand.”

The visit to Mexico by Messrs Hinds and Larsen was an essential part of a long-term project for ensuring that the best available trees, suitable as to environment and needs, were available for New Zealand’s timber industry, he said.