A TREE FOR FARMERS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVI, Issue 38, 26 October 1909, Page 1

A TREE FOR FARMERS.

Writing in the 1 Farmers' Advocate on trees suitable for plantations, Mr Maxwell' speaks as follows of Robina j pseudo acacia (black locust or white acacia). "This cannot bo.considered a hardy tree," he says, "though it thrives well in comparative exposure in many districts. It is easily cultivated if fair, ly sheltered and prevented from smothering by grass or fern or suchlike while young. To obtain satisfactory results it should be grown with other trees as nurses to protect it and draw it up straight. Planted in alternate rows with black wattle, I think, is lest. Close crowding by other trees is to its advantage, but it will not thrive if planted densely with its own kind. Its rate of growth at first is fairly rapid, but later it becomes slower and Flower, and although producing a goodsized sapling—largo enough for posts—in a few years, it takes a great many years to produce large or sawable timber. It will ultimately attain to four foot or more in diameter. The great recommendation of this tree, however, is that it does what very few trees do — that is, gives a really durable fencing timber when young. I have known trees of only six or seven inches in diameter, split in two and put in as posts with the bark on, to last fifteen years. It provides good timber for other purposes, and excellent fuel, and certainly should have a place on any farm where it is found it can be grown, and that is almost anywhere if there is reasonable shelter provided and the land is well drained. It thrives best in sandy soil."