PINE TIMBERS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 144, 15 December 1933, Page 8

PINE TIMBERS

(To the Editor.) Sir, —A short statement by Mr. A. C. Bretlierton, of Christchureh, appeared • in your paper on December 11 that pine trees required snow to break off the branches before they could be successfully grown for timber purposes. This, appears to be a case of lack of knowledge, as nowhere in the world does Nature depend on snow to break the branches •.off frees to form perfect timber. As a matter of fact, n photo of any tree glowing in a country subject to a heavy snowfall will prove conclusively that the branches droop downward to shed the snow;, to prevent their breaking off. Pinus insignis, the pine mostly favoured for afforestation in this country, is called the "remarkable pine," owing to its ability to.adapt itself to almost any climatic conditions. For Mr. Bretherton's information, I would suggest that he has a look at the pine trees growihg in the New Brighton Domain, where he will see magnificent timber trees, clean of branches, up to seventy or eighty feet. It is hardly necessary to point out that these trees have scarcely seen snow. As further evidence of the value of pinus insipnis as a timber tree in Xpw Zealand, the Government figures recently published prove that it brought threepence per hundred more at the mil], average price throughout Xew Zealand last year, than red pine.—l am, etc., KENYA.