Fruit or timber —tree croppers must choose

Press, 27 April 1984, Page 18

Fruit or timber —tree croppers must choose

The tree planter must make up his mind whether he was going to crop for fruit or timber, said Mr Ernest New, during a stimulating speech on the theme, “Multi-tier agriculture: the tree-crop connection,” at the annual conference of the Farm Forestry Association. He could not have both, said Mr New, an Invercar-gill-based planning consultant. Any farmer planning a tree crop should make it a high-value one, even if this took a little longer, said Mr New. “If encouragement grants are not forthcoming,” he said, “perhaps the answer is a joint venture. “Who knows, given the option New Zealanders may be prepared to pay the price for real furniture,

By

DERRICK ROONEY

made out of real timber, instead of compressed cereal with a paper print of wood grain on the outside surface.”

Defining “tree crops” as those which fell between production forests (or native bush) and the fruit industry, Mr New said that tree crops offered variety in diet, improvement in landscape, shelter and shade, and enhanced employment opportunities. Tree-croppers had brought to light all manner of opportunities, many hypothetical, and promoted them with almost evangelical fervour, he said, “often without a great deal of solid research as to feasibility or profitability.”

However, he said, it was important to remain practical. “We must look to see what the effect of different tree species may be on the soil; what their effect will be on the landscape; what will be their effect on other farming activities.” In most parts of New Zealand there was a very good relationship between farmers and tree-croppers, a relationship just waiting to be put to advantage. The farmer held the land resource, and tree-croppers had indicated alternative land uses. “But unless we can bring the two together in a happy marriage then none of these crops may ever eventuate.

“I would like to suggest that the courtship period has gone on long enough to produce something worth while. Let us try to get it under way. “I see no reason why the Forestry Rights Registration Act, which I have no doubt was designed to encourage joint ventures in forestry, cannot be used for the tree-crop connection.” These days, he said, it was quite common to have de facto relationships as a “trial marriage.” “I suggest trials are what we need. It is essential that the farm forester or treecropper, or the farmer and the tree-cropper as the case may be, should learn by trial how the new tree crops affect farming practice. We are dealing with multitiered agriculture, so we must contemplate pastoral or cropping land use at least for some period of tree-crops cycle, possibly for a large portion of each year.”

Dealing with specific approaches, Mr New suggested several ways in which the “tree-crop connection” might be put to practical use.

One way might be permanent forest.

“I am not referring to huge areas, but to smallersized plantings likely to de-

velop within the parameters of farm forestry,” he said. “Landscape considerations require that we do not contemplate clear felling on all sites. Coppicing has a lot to offer, and so has the group selection system, where in essence there is permanent forest; the young replacement tree planted some years ahead takes the place of the mature timber tree when it is felled. “Stands have different age classes, and here I am talking about multi-tier forestry, or multi-tier woodlots within the agricultural scene. The structure of the woodlot is at least as important as its species composition.”

Coppicing, a method of farm forestry rarely seen in New Zealand, was more like an agricultural crop than a forestry one, he said. In Italy the sweet chestnut was coppiced on a nineyear rotation, and the poles taken off were used as farm posts, rails, and vineyard poles. “The Italians would never think of using softwoods and treating them, in fact they found the prospect of this quite amusing,” he said. The high natural tannin content in chestnut wood preserved it for longer than any man can remember.

“With the post problems experienced late last year in the grape-growing areas

near Gisborne. I suggest that chestnut coppicing for posts for vineyards and kiwifruit orchards could become worth while.” Further research was needed, he said, into the role of mycorrhizal fungi in forestry, and everything possible should be done to encourage beneficial mycorrhizal associations, he said. This becomes increasingly important as agriculture, horticulture, and forestry were extended into areas previously considered unsuitable, or as new crops were introduced. “This leads me to the lowest level in multi-tier agriculture: edible mushrooms, and perhaps even the white and black truffle. I was able to investigate truffles, at the nursery stage, in Italy and France last year. The inoculum is available to New Zealand and many of the tree-crop connection, particularly hazelnuts and oaks, are recommended hosts. There are also edible mushrooms among the boletus species that are part of the ground system for chestnuts,” he said.

“If we are going to grow good, healthy, profitable tree crops for timber or fruit, we need the mycorrhizal connection — why not turn it into a good paying crop while we are about it?”