Lake County Forest Nursery.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1523, 19 March 1886, Page 5

Lake County Forest Nursery.

The County Council will, in our next issue, announce for sale a quantity of forest tree plants and hawthorn quicks at very greatly reduced prices —in some instances we hear '>o per cent less than previous charges. The severe drought and heat of the past summer has shown tint late spring planting is not altogether favorable, particularly to the finer and more delicate sorts such as Lawsoniana, Abies, Douglasii, Menziesii, and other members of the spruce family, especially if planted upon abrupt slopes having a northern aspect. The loss this past summer in the case of the sorts mentioned has been about from twenty to thirty per cent., and with a view to reduce this as much as possible it has been wisely deemed advisable to offer facilties for autumn planting—a plan which is very commonly adopted by a great many, and with greater success than spring planting. The hardier kind of plants, such as pinus insignis, muricata, Benthaniiana. macrocarpa, and the deciduous class generally, have not suffered to a greater extent than from twenty to thirty per cent. The trying season through which we have just passed has not been without its advantages, inasmuch as an excellent lesson has been afforded of the superiority of locallygrown plants over those brought from the neighborhood of the seaboard. One gentleman of our acquaintance during the past summer brought into this district from one or two of the nurseries downcountry some thousands of tree plants, but, sad to note, there is scarcely one of them now alive. In the preparation of the ground, irrespective of the cost for plants, the loss to the individual in this case has been immense, and to the district in its wealth and beauty it has suffered seriously. In the spring season the many demands upon the time of the farmer and gardener too frequently result in something being sown or planted when too late, the consequence being at least a partial and very frequently a total failure. To minimise this as much as possible is the desire of the Lake County Council, and its belief and brief experitDce is that autumn planting, especially upon a dry bottom, will prove equally as successful as spring planting —in this opinion it is supported by the highest authorities on arboriculture. The very low price at which plants are now offered should act as a powerful incentive to those who have built and are building np homes in our district to plant freely, as in an economic sense the advantages are great to those who indulge in it, and the further gratification is theirs of having added their contribution in the beautifying of one of the most romantic districts within the colony.