TREE PLANTING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22940, 7 May 1949, Page 4

TREE PLANTING

Sir, —I am writing this to correct some statements made by Abb Smith in a letter published in last Wednesday’s Herald.

He condemns Lombardy poplar as a useless tree. Lombardy poplar is an excellent tree for high shelter and for orchard shelter is recognised in Hawke's Bay as the best. It is, I think, the most beautiful of all trees and surely we should plant for beauty as well as utility. His statement that it is a vigorous suckerer is incorrect. It suckers a bit if its roots are cut by the plough, etc., but is not bad in this respect. Eucalyptus viminalis is the most beautiful of the eucalypts but one of the poorest for timber. It is a bad splitter, not durable in the ground and sawn timber warps badly. If you plant eucalypts for timber botryoides and saligna are best.

Thorny acacia (pseudo robinia) is excellent stock can keep the suckers from spreading and is the only tree from which one can get posts and strainers inside 20 years. It is also excellent firewood. Cupressus lawsoniana is excellent shelter if conditions are not too wet. C. benthamii is good in wetter conditions but rather a slow grower, C. Macrocarpa is very useful, Aspen poplar is quickest, for battens. Silver wattle is good for firewood. Hoping this will put some Kiwi settler on the right track.

KIWI SETTLER