INDUSTRY OF CHILDREN

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1933, Page 9

INDUSTRY OF CHILDREN

BIRD SCHOOL FORESTRY PLOT. FINE RANGE OF YOUNG TREES. In a comer of the Bird school grounds there is a comparatively small plot of ground nestling cosily under the shelter of a Lawsoniana hedge, but that plot contains the results of four years of intensive forestry study, and its neat appearance, with trees ranging from seedlings to hardy three-year-olds, is evidence of the keen industry with which the pupils have applied themselves to the work of establishing a nursery that embraces a wide variety of trees. A News reporter who called at the school yesterday was shown the plot by the teacher, Mr. V. J. Henderson, and was impressed by the achievement of the children, who not only collect the seed, sift it and sow it, but also carefully tend the seedlings, keep the beds cultivated and free of. weeds and gradually coax the plants to the stage where they can be planted out to grow into healthy young trees. There are 4000 two and three-year-old trees comprising pinus radiate, pinus muricata, barbary, lawsoniana, maerdcarpa, Californian redwood, Bentham’s cyprus, golden wattle and numerous species of eucalyptus. Of these lines 40 pinus radiata are particularly well advanced, the three-year trees being taller than is usual at that age. There are also extensive beds of seedlings incorporating the. same trees, with the addition of black wattle, pinus pinaster and a small bed of karo. Greatest difficulty in getting a good strike has been experienced with the redwoods, but frosts have had the worst effect on the golden wattle. Last year blight attacked the gums, the stems of which went black and acquired a kind of mildew. This year the blight has been more severe in its ravages, and of a handful of 17 gums selected at random in the bed only one was unaffected. The plants are about a foot to 15 inches high, and growing together in a bed. Mr. Henderson hopes that by planting them out in rows much of the trouble will be overcome. The gums are being studied to see what species is the most suitable for the locality. Considering that the plot has been in existence for only four years the results achieved are marked testimony to the assiduous care that has gone to its making by children who commenced the work without any conception of its many intricate phases.