SECOND GROWTH OF BUSH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 26 August 1939, Page 16

SECOND GROWTH OF BUSH

WHEN NATURE GETS A CHANCE Long ago, on some slopes of Queen Charlotte Sound, native forest was cut down and burnt in the hope that the soil would be favourable for pastures. ; Time proved that mud* of the ground : .was suitable only for nature’s crop-- ; trees —and graziers had to abandon : hope of good pastures. Thus nature i was left to make amends for man’s mis- i take, and gradually another growth j of native trees began to come through j the bracken and scrub. \ A remarkable example of that kind i of regeneration can be seen near Mr IT. i Guthrie-Smith’s homestead at Tutira, i Hawkes Bay 7. He is justly proud of a. | few acres of young native forest on ■ a slope near his homestead. Fifty-five : years ago that piece of country was a,; wilderness of manuka and bracken. Mr •: Guthrie-Smith put a strong fence ; around that waste place to prevent the : inroads of animals, and invited Nature i to show him something of her clever- • ness. This she has done, almost miracu- • lously. Birds and winds brought in ■ seeds of native trees, so that now one sees a stand of fern trees, mahoe, matipo, kowhai, whau, rangiora, lace bark, taupata and other species which have killed out the scrub that sheltered them in infancy and have fed on the mould of their nurses.