DRY SPELL AND TREES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22056, 12 March 1935, Page 15

DRY SPELL AND TREES

RAVAGES AND DISEASE CANTERBURY PLANTATIONS The ravages of dry weather and the diseases it has fostered have made forestry in Canterbury a far different proposition for the immediate future than it has been in the past, and extensive changes will have to be «mado in the policy of the Selwyn Plantations Board, which is faced with the most difficult year in its history. Throughout a large part of the area of reserves the dry spell has killed thousands of trees, and in gum plantations beetles have killed many trees. The dryness this season has given trees in Canterbury a very severe test. Eucalypts have suffered most and the board is not likely in the near future to plant more of these trees. One stand of eucalyptus regnans, for instance, which was reputed to be drought resisting, has proved a failure. Pinus insignis, after the eucalypts, have proved the least drought-resisting, followed by the macrocarpa. The tree which lias withstood the dry spell probably with most success, is the pinus ponderosa (bull pine), which may figure even more prominently in the board's future planting.