NORTH AND SOUTH ISLAND FORESTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3315, 26 September 1917, Page 11

NORTH AND SOUTH ISLAND FORESTS.

(From Our North Island Correspondent) Without a survey it is impossible to give the area of land carrying commercial forest, nor, except in the case of kauri, can more than a guess be made of the amount of the various ' milling timbers that our forests contain. Kauri is our most valuable milling timber; but if the present annual rate (52,000,000 ft) of cutting is continued our supolv will not last more than seven years, declares Mr- E. Phillips Turner, F.R.G.S., in the annual report on State forestry. As stated above, the largest output of timber is from the Auckland Land District, but it is estimated that at the past rate of conversion the present stand of all timbers in that district will not last 20 years. In the Taranaki and Hawkers Bay districts there are only a .few. small areas of milling forest left, whilst in the Wellington Land District the milling forest, which is confined to the Waimarino, will last little more than a decade. -In the South Island there is no milling forest left in the Canterbury Land District; in Nelson and Marlborough the area is very small; in the Otago district the milling forest produces scarcely enough timber for the present local consumption. In Southland there is still a fair area of milling forest, but the Commissioner of Crown Lands estimates that the red pine will be exhausted in about 23 years, and the white pine in about 16 years. This estimate does not, however, allow for the largely increased demands on Southland forests that will be the result of the exhaustion of the supplies in other districts. Black pine and totara are not plentiful, but occur _ sporadically in the forest. Beech is plentiful, but. being what is technically termed 'a hard wood, it cannot fully take the place of soft woods. The largest forest of commercial timber is now in Westland, but the Commissioner for that district estimates that the milling timbers (rimu and white pine) will at the present rate of cutting last only about 20 years. The great expansion that has ocourred in recent years in the dairy and fruit industries, together with the great demand that there has been in Australia for our whlto pine, has caused heavy cuttings to be made of this timber. The forests of pure white pine that used to exist on the extensive swamp lands of tho Auckland district have almost gone, and the time is close at hand when the white pine scattered in our mixed timber forests will bo insufficient to supply the demand. Puriri and silver pine, both so valuable for railway sleepers, have almost gone, and their place is now being taken by imported Australian hardwoods or ferroconcrete. Except in the caso of hardwoods, the exhaustion of tho supply of one kind of timber usually results in an increased use of other supplies of an inferior timber, or in th 6 importation of a foreign timber technically as useful, but generally more expensive. FARMING BY MOTOR. In this issue of the Witness will be, found an advertisement of the Smith Form-A-Tractor. The war with its shortage of labour and its shortages of food has developed tho farm tractor, and that the motor farm tractor has proved a success is evidenced by the fact that America is using 50.000 farm tractors, England 20,000, Canada 15,000, and .France 35,000. The. farm tractor does the work of four field horses at half the cost and with the labour of one man. Britain has just established a big factory for manufacturing- farm tractors, and the Ministry of Munitions has proclaimed that the. use of . the motor tractor has saved the food situation.

Apart from the fact that by motor ploughing it is possible to plough stiff lands to depths which are >juite unattainable in practice with horso teams, the application of motor power effects such an extraordinary saving of production costs that the original outlay is absorbed at once by the increased profits. With a Smith tractor attached to a Ford car and selflifting plough one man could plough an eight-acre field in one day. In cases of urgency moro than eight* aores per 24 hours can bo done, so far as the motor is concerned, as it can go on working so long as there is someone to control it. The Smith Form-A-Tractor is ao attachment to tho Ford car —not a conversion of the Ford car, —and when the car is not

working on the farm it car. be used to take the farmer to market or the family into town. The Smith Form-A-Tra-tor can bo used for ploughing, harrowing, discing, sowing, drilling, rolling, levelling, or for any purpose whatever. It has a speed over heavy ground of two and a-haif miles an hour for 24 hours a day. It is a one-man attachment, and will keep going while there is a man to drive the car.