BEECH FOREST ASSET

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 81, 3 October 1921, Page 6

BEECH FOREST ASSET

The report of Dr. L. Cockayne's lecture on the beech forests of New Zealand, in Saturday's issue, and that of the discussion on the lecture, appearing to-day, are commended to attention. Dr. Cockayne presented clearly and interestingly many facts about the general character of New Zealand's forests, and made out a clear case for a definite policy for dealing with the exten* sive beech forests in particular. Notwithstanding the plentiful supply of beech, it is as yet little known as a marketed timber, though it has many good qualities. The lecturer mentioned its excellent behaviour from the forester's point of view, and drove home its tolerance of poor soil. It is, perhaps, the fact that the beech is a poor-soil denizen that has helped to keep it in the background commercially, for New Zealand forestry in the past has beeu too much mere deforestation. Dr. Cockayne is to be congratulated upon his interesting collection of evidence which prima facie points to extensive crossing between the recognised species of beech. He suggests that hybrid beeches probably differ in timber qualities from the pure strains, and evidently the question needs inquiry. If there are and timbers can be varied and improved by hybridisation, it should not be necessary to wait upon the chances of nature. Timber-trees cannot, be raised as quickly as flowering plants for the garden, but that should not hinder some new Burbank from laying the foundations of a later New, Forest, where future generations may mill woods yet unknown to industry.