DOMINION’S FORESTRY METHODS

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 96, 18 January 1924, Page 11

DOMINION’S FORESTRY METHODS

PRAISE FROM A CANADIAN EXPERT SCOTTISH HEATHER AT THE NATIONAL PARK Among the passengers who left for Vancouver by the Niagara last Tuesday evening was Professor R. .B. Thompson, of Toronto University, Canada, who is returning home after the completion of a world tour undertaken for the purpose of studying afforestation and botany in various countries (says the Auckland ".Star .). When Professor Thompson arrived in New Zealand some weeks ago, he was joined by Dr. Cockayne, honorary botanist to the New Zealand Forestry Department, who accompanied him upon his tour of the Dominion. The party visited all the important botanical reserves in the North and South Islands, and the professor conducted exhaustive research work at the Egmont National Park, the rewa Forestry Reserve, Rotorua, and the Tongariro National Park. At each of these places lie obtained numerous specimens of New Zealand, flora for use in experimental work in Canada. The collection also includes sample sections of trees and native shrubs. Professor Thompson visited the Waitakere ranges and inspected the great kauris. Professor Thompson yesterday paid a high tribute to the experts. responsible for the forest plantation at Whakarewarewa. He said he had been much impressed with the thoroughness of the ■ scheme, and considered that the methods of propagation employed were both scientific and expedient. Heather Planting Condemned. The large number of parks and botanical gardens which are a feature of the major towns of the Dominion were also the subject of favourable comment by Professor Thompson. “Australia and New Zealand are very fortunate in this respect,”. he said, “and it is part of my mission to see what can be done to place Canada in the same enviable position.”. He added that the numerous public reserves in Auckland 'give the city a, free and healthy aspect equalled by few North American towns. The Tongariro National Park provided botanical material and he spoke highly of its potentialities as a field for experiment and research on account of its wealth and native, flora. In this connection Professor Thompson said the only feature of the National Park upon which adverse comments could be made was the superabundance of Scottish heather. “It would be a pity if. this beautiful scenic reserve, with its luxuriant nature vegetation, were to loso its identity through the promiscuous introduction of rhe heather,” he said. Reviewing the New Zealand afforestation scheme the professor said the country was wealthy' in the possession of many mountain slopes which were ideal sites for intensive tree-planting. These natural plantation areas lent themselves to experimental work with an adaptability unrivalled elsewhere. He considered the Government had taken a laudable step in creating the chair of forestry at the University' and added that the institution of t, comprehensive afforestation policy was; a vital and urgent need of the Dominion. . . Outlining the afforestation scheme in operation in Canada, Profcsso:; Thompson said, testing areas were allotted to individual trees and shrubs, and the plants were subject to close observation during their growth'. Under this systematic plan there was obtained very valuable data for assessing the commercial value of timber trees. The bureau responsible for the forestry research had the assistance of skilled botanists and scientists, and it was for that body that ne was collecting specimens.