THE TIMBER BROBLEM.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 12084, 23 June 1920, Page 4

THE TIMBER BROBLEM.

USB OF PIN US INSIGNIS

The great exteraiou of ; areas planted in fruit trees in the Auck land district during recant years naturally creates interest, says the Star, in the question of the provision of timber for the manufacture of fruit cases when the orchards come Into fall bearing. As the pinus insignis is a hardy, quick-growing tree in the Auckland district, it is now being planted in order to ensure the supply of fruit cases in the years that are to come. Thirty to forty years ago piuue insignis was considered useless as a timber, but those were the days when a 2001 b case for kauri gum could be bought for Us. To-day gum cases made from pinus insignis cost 10s each. Evidently the high cost of other timbers has created a value on pine, which has now proved to be quite suitable for fruit and other cases. Many a land owner has made money of late years by selling plantations of pinus insignis, which, being aged, had become useless for shelter purposes, and also in many instances unsightly. Formerly such trees were cut down, and allowed to rot or were burned out of the way, but now almost any big tree has a market value if farly accessible. In some instance. 0 *ixiall mills are _ set up to cut pinus insignis plantations into sizes suitable for fruit and other cases on the ground where the trees were grown. At the present time workmen are felling a plantation of tall pines at the southern end of the racecourse at Ellerslie, It is quite probable that the timber is also being used for other purposes than that of providing fruit cases. As a matter of fact, this week a section was fenced with palings of picas insignis nailed on to 4 x 4 planks of the same timber. Good-sized macrocarpa trees also find ready sale, many of them being cut on the ground and sold for firewood, though the timber is worthy of a better use, as it makes good.posts for fencing, lasting in some known instances over thirty years.