THE AILANTHUS-TREE FOR WOOD-PULP.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XVIII, Issue 4, 21 April 1919, Page 223

THE AILANTHUS-TREE FOR WOOD-PULP.

Interest in the wood-pulp industry is being aroused in various quarters. The proposal is in the first place to utilize various native plants in certain areas. Before the industry can be established on a sound and permanent footing, however, it will be necessary to provide for regeneration of supplies.

In this connection a notice in a recent issue of the Monthly Bulletin of Agricultural Intelligence and Plant Diseases, Rome, of an article by an Italian writer, V. Fedele, is interesting. It states, “ The author, as a result of experiments he made, mentioned the ailanthus as an excellent paper-yielding plant. It has the advantage of growing well •everywhere, even in arid or purely rocky soils. By pollarding every three years and keeping the crown about 3 J ft. to 4jft. above the ground the author obtained about 200 lb. of wood, which yielded 44 per ■cent, of easily bleached cellulose of a quality suitable for paper-pulp. One acre may contain from 240 to 280 trees.”

Ailanthus glandulosa is vernacularly known as tree of heaven. It thrives admirably in New Zealand, 'and has the remarkable habit of ■only making its strongest growth after pollarding. This habit, together with its rapid growth, particularly fits this tree for replanting worked•out timber areas. The ailanthus is readily propagated by root-cuttings, and transplants well at any age. An acre of trees would yield approximately 25 tons of wood every third year. — W. H. Taylor, Horticulturist.

Cereal Yields at Moumahaki.— Recent threshings of this season’s ■cereal crops at the Moumahaki Experimental Farm gave the following results per acre : Oats, 100 bushels ; barley, 73 bushels; wheat, 42 bushels. The yields for oats and barley are said to be records for that part of the coast.