PLANTATION THINNINGS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 10 April 1930, Page 5

PLANTATION THINNINGS

UTILISATION AND EXPLOITATION PAPER AT STATE FOREST CONFERENCE .—.' ' f Speaking at the State Forest Service Conference in Nelson upon the question of the utilisation and exploitation of plantation thinnings, Mr W. T. Morrison, - Conservator of Forests, Rotorua, pointed out that the question of utilisation of plantation thinnings was governed to some extent by the sylvicultural policy. If the older established stands were.. to be thinned, then it was necessary - to find not Only some method of economically utilising those thinnings, but also necessary to find a market for. them. The problem of thinning was possibly subordinate to the problem of marketing, since unless they could dispose of the product it was economically unsound to undertake thinning on a large scale. _ The main question was the conver- • si'on of the raw product to a marketable commodity. There was at present no available source of utilisation for the raw material, and it was therefore • necessary to look for the best method of conversion and the 'best form in which to present it to the market. In older Continental countries, there was generally a ready market for alLforestpro.ducts, but in the Dominion there was comparatively little scope. Pr’ob-.’ ably the principal avenues of exploit--ation would be found in suitably converting the smu'll-climensioned material into either box-timber or possibly charcoal. Possibly both could be combined . to utilise down to 3in. diameter stems, the smaller being relegated to i the charcoal pit, and the larger to tho gang-saw. The establishment- of the Scandinavian gang mill by this service might h4lp in this connection, but it was not certain whether such a mill could be operated at a profit in the initial stages. , If, however, it even equalised the cost' qf thinning, it would at least have beeii-, worth while to the plantation. Possibly 5 ' after demonstration the mill could be leased to a contractor or contractors which would eliminate the question of State interference and enable contract-, ors with tolerably small capital to . provide employment all the year round for a number of men. The' state of the timber market .at present was not encouraging in this respect, but there would always be a fair demand for boxtimber manufactured from exotic coni--fers, against which indigenous timbers with the exception of white pine, would not be strongly competitive. Auxiliary to box-timber sawing should be the manufacture of charcoal and the by-products incident to this manufacture, for whilic it should be possible to utilise a very large quantity of smalldimensioned stems. If unemployment was to be prevalent for a number of years, the foregoing suggestions might be the means of providing independent employment -for quite a number of workmen. < .