TREE PLANTING

Northern Advocate, 20 July 1935, Page 10

TREE PLANTING

WORK PROCEEDING. WAIPOUA AND WAITANGI. I Special to “Northern Advocate"! DARGAVILLE, This Day. The tree planting programme at the Waipoua Forest and on the Waitangi endowment property, Bay of Islands, which is being carried out by the State Forestry Service, is about threequarters completed. At Waipoua 12 men have been busy through the winter planting some 250 acres of the forestry reserve on the coastal side of the reserve. The varieties planted include eucalyptus, but chiefly palastros (pitch pine) and caribaea (slash pine), both very durable timbers, which sell readily in the world’s markets, and lawsoniana and thuya (western red cedar) from British Columbia. One of the most durable and easily worked of timbers, the thuya is chiefly used in Canada and the United States in the shingle trade. An instance is given of a tree which had fallen and three other trees of the same species had grown over it. The yearly rings showed that the growing trees were over 1400 years of age and the fallen tree was as sound as the day it fell. It was, in fact cut into shingles. Oh the Waitangi endowment block ICO acres is being planted, chiefly with pitch pine species, palastros and caribaea.

In the past five years -at Waihoua nearly 1000 acres have been planted with trees with great success. It is estimated that there was last season a 90 per cent “take,” chiefly due to the care taken by the workmen in the planting and the bounteous rainfall. In June rain fell on 28 of the 30 days and the total fall was lOin.