SAWMILLING SECTION.

Progress, Volume XV, Issue 9, 1 May 1920, Page 792

SAWMILLING SECTION.

[This Section is published by arrangement with the Dominion Federated Sawmillcrs’ Association (Incorp.) in the interests of the Sawmilling Industry of N.Z.] Editor: W. T. IRVINE.

Special Summary on Sir David Hutchins’ Deport, by Chas. E. Wheeler.

Sir David Hutchin’s report on the Kauri Forests of the North, and Forest Management, is a bulky compilation of two hundred pages. As it is entitled “New Zealand Forestry, Part 1,” we may expect further productions from Sir David’s prolific pen. Though we anticipate that our practical sawmilling readers will not completely agree with the official forester’s views, especially his very optimistic estimates regarding the reproductive power of New Zealand’ forests, the importance of the report, and Sir David Hutchin’s good standing as a forester, warrant a fairly lengthy summary of the document.

Commencing with a historical review, the author deplores the burning and waste of our kauri forests.

“It has taken the calamity of this great war to rouse attention to the fact that careful demarcation and judicious redemption may still'■restore a large part of the Kauri forests. Kauri seed remains long dormant in the ground; Kauri seedlings endure most evils short of being burnt, and fire-protection is so easy that it will go with ' forest-development and scarcely be thought of. The task now before the country is to build up national forest estates by raking into the national net every acre of Kauri forest or land where Kauri forests can profitably be restored ! ”

“Kauri, with half a million acres of demarcated forest, could still pay the cost of the —perhaps twice over.

An energetic policy of demarcation and redemption, put in force at once, would find half a million acres of restorable Kauri forest without much difficulty. It would mean little more than sixteen times the area of the Waipoua Forest. From inquiries which I have made at the Lands Deparment and a study of the coloured land-tenure map (May, 1916) issued by the Lands Department, it seems clear that demarcation and redemption can certainly secure half a million acres of restorable Kauri forest in Coromandel Peninsula and Hokianga (north and east of the Waipoua and Waramara Forests).” Sir David Hutchins refers to the methods of for-

est management in France and Germany, and claims that this half million acres of Kauri forest, cultivated as he suggests, would settle 6,666 families on the soil, earning good wages.» Working half on small farms, and half in the forest, as in Europe, the population supported would be some 1,000,000. The country would be opened up with roads and parcelled out into farms and demarcated forest, the latter enclosing some small valley farms suitable to la petite culture , (home farming) scattered throughthe demarcated forest areas.

“I here take a general average of 200 acres of

forest to support a family" But if we take European' figures the employment in valuable forest, such as Kauri forest, would be at the rate of one family per 75 acres. Probably about 200 acres per family may be taken as a general average of employment when once New Zealand forests were got into order as cultivated forests. Further, with the powerful sun of New Zealand latitudes, the ample rainfall, and generally rich soil, together with the unique timber market of the Southern Hemisphere, both forest production and population may be expected to eventually rise' higher than in Europe. It seems quite reasonable to expect that with its normal area of 16,000,000 acres of national forest there will eventually be a permanent forest population in New Zealand of between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 souls. The small English war-insurance forestry scheme of 2,000,000 acres only (with 1,770,000 as a war precaution) is calculated to permanently settle on the land 25,000 families— 125,000 souls—or in the proportion of one man per 71 acres." Kauri, a Quick Grower. Discussing the Kauri rate of growth, Sir David quotes the experience of the Hon. E. Mitchelson with some trees planted in his garden at Remuera. "At twenty-three years of age the following diameters: Kauri, lOin.; Totara, 13in.; Rimu, Bin.; Puriri, 9in. I remeasured these trees in 1916 and found the growth well maintained." Other authorities (Capt. Campbell Walker, Mr. J. C. Firth, and Dr. Hochstetter) are quoted as showing their opinion that the Kauri rate of growth is double the average rate of normal timber-growth in the pine forests of Europe. The author spent a day in measuring the growth-rings of felled Kauris near Dargaville, and his conclusions support the contention that Kauri is a rapid grower. "Kauri," he concludes, "grows in thickness nearly twice as fast as the five chief'European forest-trees, and in height-growth 2.3 times as fast. It grows about as fast as the quick-growing Cluser-pine of Southern Europe." This leads him to give the following advice: "Conserve the native trees, for they grow about twice as fast as European forest-trees; but if one has to, go to the expense of planting, use introduced trees, and take the risk of disease or' other failure. ? ' • : • Gum Bleeding. Sir David deals very comprehensively with the practice of gum-bleeding or resin-tapping. He shows that this is regularly done in European forests, while in India it is being practised increasingly, with the best results." If properly conducted it cannot injure the timber. In fact, Sir David suggests that it may k

promote a better growth. “The general aspect of resin-tapping in other countries is that whereas formerly it was done indiscriminately, and ruined much good forest, it is now being increasingly done under proper control, to the good of the forest revenue, and without harm to the timber. In France, and latterly in some of the Indian forests, the forest revenue is greater from the resin than from the timber. In Gascony resin-tapping improves the timber undoubtedly, and is believed to improve the growth, acting as a tonic. The industry there goes hack to Roman times.

"I see no reason why resin-tapping in the future Kauri forests of New Zealand should not be as lucrative as in Gascony, where as an industry it compares with sheep in New Zealand, affording, however, considerably more employment; in fact, to a large extent it has replaced sheep there. Gascony under sheep was a desert compared to what it is now. Few of the picturesque shepherds on stilts are now seen; but one can travel for a whole day, in a quick train, through an endless succession of farms where, as mentioned. above, ordinary farming and resin-tap-ping work in together; and all this in the climate of the Canterbury Plains!" A Lost Forest. Puhipuhi Kauri Forest, north of Whangarei, is taken by the author as an example of how the neglect of a systematic forest policy has caused enormous wastage of the country's natural assets. Fire went through this fine area of kauri at various times from 1887, when one-third was destroyed. It was originally 17,000 acres. As the timber became destroyed, dairying came in, and Sir David's comment on the change is this: — Employment: Forestry versus Grass. . Though the forest was so good the soil was mostly poor, and naturally became poorer with the loss of the forest covering. On the best of the soil dairying is in progress, with the result, from inquiries I made on the spot, that 200 acres give employment to one family and bring in about £1 per acre yearly in butter-fat, or 10s. net after deducting about 10s. per acre as the cost of labour. If the forest had been worked conservatively under trained foresters during the time that the crop of timber in the virgin forest was being cut, there would, have been two or three times this amount of employmentin logging and milling the timber, in roading and in organising the forest against fire, and in ensuring the full regeneration of the forest with the maximum Kauri crop. Mr. F. Mander, M.P., who milled a considerable part of the Puhipuhi Forest, and some others, have informed me that it contained a large proportion of young timber. Thus the timber returns from the Puhipuhi Forest would have been continuous from the start of systematic working. There would have been little or no transition period. The forest by now would have been earning some £7 per acre per year net, taking the present market Kauri royalty at 10s. And Kauri timber is rising so rapidly, in

price that in a few years the Puhipuhi Forest would have been in the position of the normal Kauri forest and earning some £lO net per acre per year. Full employment would then have been at the rate of about one man per 75 acres, as against one man per 200 acres under dairying. Money Return. The money-yield of dairying on this poor soil, impoverished by destroying the forest, is-now estimated, as above, to average yearly barely £1 per acre gross, or 10s. per acre net. The yield of the normal Kauri forest, allowing only £1 lis. per acre for Kauri "gum," is estimated at a yearly average of £l2 7s. Bd. gross (for timber, "gum," fungus, and all forest produce), or £lO 16s. net. This is arrived at by taking Kauri royalty at 16s. Bd. per 100 ft. sup. q.g. (2s. per cubic foot) —a fairly high figure, but a figure which it is believed' Kauri will ultimately reach, since in the coming timber scarcity it is precisely timbers of the durable softwood class which will become most valuabletimbers such as Teak, Kauri, Cedar, and Mahogany. It may be mentioned here that 16s. Bd. per 100 ft. sup. has already been realised for Cedar in Queensland and for Stinkwood in South Africa. Those who prefer to do so can estimate the future Kauri royalty at half this, and the revenue from the Kauri forest will still be high —viz., £7 17s. Bd. gross and £5 16s. net, The lower figure is about the. highest revenue from the most profitable of cultivated forests in Europe; but it must be remembered that such forests yield timber of a lower grade than Kauri— perishable softwood—and that they are open to the competition of other forests at no great distance away. This is npt the case in New Zealand. Whether the Kauri royalty be taken at Is. or at 2s. the cubic .foot—: which are about the extreme limits— revenue from a good Kauri forest such as Puhipuhi would be higher than that from all farm lands on such soil. Present-Day Values: Puhipuhi Timber. Royalty-value: 510 million sup. ft. at 10s. £ per 100 sup. ft .... .... . .... 2,550,000 Sawn timber average net value: 510 million sup. ft. at £1 ss. per 100 sup. ft .... .... .... .... 6,375,000 These figures represent, in round numbers two millions and a half lost 1 to the Public Treasury, and an industrial loss of some six millions and a third production in New Zealand; and what is more, production of a raw —timber. Against this loss there is nothing to set except the grazing on the burnt forest land and the proportion of timber worked up during and after the burning of the forestviz., 60 million sup. ft.—together with the saving (a drop in the ocean) of some few. thousands a year in the local cost of a Forest Department to look after the timber and protect the forest from fire. " - - . .. ,-c' Management of Forests. •: _ -After discussing in the course of 73 pages, the historical side of forestry, with many interesting

quotations from European, Indian, and South African practice, Sir David Hutchins proceeds to outline a general working plan for managing Kauri forests. 'He considers that the Kauri tree of the future must be one which' will mature at 90 or 100 years, at which it will be 24in. in diameter, with about 3iri. or 4in. of sapwood, and about 60ft. of bole. In mid-European forestry Spruce gives usually the best returns, and its rate of growth in the best quality of forest resembles that of the standard timbers in New Zealand— Totara, and Rimu. In first-quality European Spruce forest at the age of 80 years (when the timber acrim is at the highest— 200 / c.ft.) the average tree is 1 ft. in diameter and 93 ft. total height. In Spruce forest of average quality (when the timber acrim is barely past the maximumviz., 140 c. ft.), at 100 years of age the average tree is 10 in. diameter and 79 ft. high (Schlich’s Yield Tables). This is an indication only of what should be the economical size of the Kauri tree of the future, for Kauri must be grown larger in order to get a fair proportion of heartwood.”

“A Kauri tree 2 ft. diameter under bark at base (or, to speak quite accurately, above the base bulge, which is very small or sometimes quite absent in Kauri) and 60 ft. of bole, if one allows 5 in. of diameter for taper to the centre of the trunk, would cube 118 c. ft. This is the true volume. Taking what is approximately the cubic content of the squared log by the English log rule of “the square of the mean quarter-girth” (Hoppus), the Kauri tree of the future will have a cubic content of 93 c. ft. quarter-girth. Allowing 25 per cent, for waste in sawing, 93 c. ft. q.g. would represent 837 sup. ft. of sawn timber. If, however, one took the “two-thirds-diameter squared” log rule which is used in nine States of the United States of America, the superficial feet would work out to 801.4 sup. ft., or 890 board feet, taking Professor Somerville’s general factor for the chief American log rules. As will be seen later, I take rather more height and less taper than the average Kauri, as the “Kauri tree of the future” will be a tree grown in close forest; and I assign it a cubic content of about 100 c. ft. quarter-girth measurement.”

“In the plan for a normal Kauri forest sketched here the acrim, it is evident, will be low till the better growth produced by the foresters’ regeneration methods have taken effect, and the revenue will not be benefitted till that timber is fit to cut. I will assume that a few years after regeneration there will be an acrim of 100 c. ft., and that this acrim will spread gradually over the whole forest as the present crop of timber is cut and the forest regenerated. It will be .100 years before the first of the regenerated Kauri is fit to cut; and if twenty years be taken to work through and regenerate the . old -virgin-forest timber, it will be 120 years from now before the improved regrowth forest is all fit to cut. In the meantime the fellings and revenue will only be from thinnings and from the mid-rotation Kauri reserved trees left over when cutting out the

old timber of the virgin forest mentioned above. Then, from 100 years the revenue will be rising, rapidly as the first of the improved forest matures. "As mentioned above, I assume for the normal Kauri forest, after the virgin-forest timber is cut, and during the 100 years of the "transition period"" that must elapse before the regrowth timber matures, an average yield of 35. c. ft. q.g. of unliable timber per acre per yearls Kauri and 20 other. After that, 100 c. ft. q.g. Kauri per acre per year of millable timber. This 100 e. ft. q.g. is the normal yield. It will never be less than 100 and may rise - gradually to 200. "During the 100 years of the "transition period" there will be less than 35 c. ft. q.g. to cut at first, more afterwards. Forty Lean Years, with Fat Years at the End. The 35 c. ft acrim will be made up at first of light thinnings among the secondary' species and some deferred regeneration fellings of the Kauri virgin forest. These at first will yield nothing like the 35 c. ft. per acre per year, the average yield estimated for the. whole period. This, in fact, will be the lean period in the working of every Kauri forest, just as seventy or a hundred years later there will be a fat period with a plethora of mature Kauri. It will be the business of the working plans" forest officer.; to ~so anticipate and defer fellings that the yield will be more equalised, and with it, of course, the distribution of the age-classes.. He can help the lean years by running some of the virgin-forest fellings into them; he can help the plethora years by anticipating or deferring the felling of the 100-years rotation; and in doing this he is helped by nature, for that is the time when Kauri is growing rapidly and holding up its acrim against any rapid decline. In other words, there will be large supplies of Kauri timber on hand, and it will depend on the timber-market and on Government demands whether the timber is harvested twenty years sooner or forty years later. What the forester will be looking at will be a good distribution of ageclasses in the felling compartments. Ultimately there will be a series of compartments with ages varying from one year old to 100 years old dotted about the forest and numbered from 1 to 100. Towards the end of the "transition period" there will be a quantity of timber amongst the secondary species that will have to be thinned out, and some of the Kauri timber that in size will be nearly equal to the "Kauri tree of the future," with 2 ft. diameter and 60 ft. bole. The average 35 c. ft. acrim of the "transition period" will be derived mainly from four sources : (1.) Virgin forest; some deferred regeneration fellings. (2.) Kauri reserves at the- mid-period. (3.) Heavy thinnings towards the end of the "transition period.", (4.) "Where suitable, twenty-year crops of butterbox and packing-case timber planted' in vacant 'places.. -" - •". ■-" ', :• '<•-:;""- •"■; * .- '

The last item would be on waste areas falling within the forest-demarcation boundary," perhaps covered with Gorse, Blackberry, or scrub which might eventually, when cleaned with Insignis planting, go into Kauri, Cedar, or other valuable timber forest. Insignis-pine, on account.of its high yield of second-rate timber, is best placed in suburban forests. Owing to the neglected condition of forestry in New Zealand there are large areas of such Crown land which, if near a demarcated forest, would naturally be put into it so as to be turned to account. . Revenue Other Than Timber. In addition to the timber, there will be some considerable'revenue from what is usually termed "minor forest produce." Here resin-tapping is nearly certain to figure largely. Firewood, too, and fungus will also bring in some revenue. Fungusgathering was helpful to the settler's when butter was only worth a few pence a pound. It is- still regularly collected in the northern forests, being sold at 3d. to 6d. per pound for export to China. I hope, too, that an industry killed by poor forestry and now extinct in New Zealandcharcoal-burning may be revived under the protecting care of better forestry, together with the teaching of better cookery at the technical schools. Few things would help more to improve a somewhat inferior diet than the substitution of French cookery with charcoal from New Zealand forests in place of cookery with gas or imported American oil. Employment. Sir David is of opinion that the Kauri, on account of its valuable timber and gum, can support an organisation as complete as any good forest in Europe, where the average works out at one fulltime employee per 105 "acres. An elaborate balance sheet of a Kauri forest is reproduced by the author, who considers that during the first period (the working of the virgin forest) the timber in such a forest as Waipoua would produce £lB 17s. lOd. per acre, and the kauri gum may be Worth 10s. an acre more. In the second or transition period, there would be a revenue from fellings and thinnings, which would provide a net return of £1 4s. 2d. per acre. The third period, is reached in 80 to 120 years, when the forest is fully stocked. The forest is also well on its way to that gradation of ages which is - essential to regular production coupled with economical milling. Foresters will gradually complete the age-classes as they regulate the fellings. For this third period it becomes possible to frame with more exactitude the figures of revenue and expenditure, using figures from forests in. a similar condition in other countries. The preceding figures, depending more -or less on the present quality of the forest, are variable. The following figures, with the forest better stocked and approaching regularization, are definite and variable only within certain close limits; —. ■ ' "

Revenue— V, •■'; -*■-» Timber yielded by the 100 c. ft. q.g. £ s. d. Kauri acrim referred to above at 2s. - per c. ft. (16s. Bd. per 100 ft. sup) 10 0 0 40 c. ft. q.g., more or less, of other timbers, at Bd. per c. ft.. (ss. 6d. per ■ - 100 sup. ; ft.) .... .... .... .... 16 8 Kauri "gum" from a fully stocked Kauri forest, with light tapping from all the trees, and heavy tapping from those being felled: as a rough general estimate, say £1 lis. per acre per year, including fungus, firewood, ,■• '- and all minor forest produce ..... 111 0 . ■ £l2 17 8 Expenditure — -• Labour at full European rates for a £s. d. full forest: Permanent yearly average at the rate of one man per 75 —man at £l5O yearly, with house, ground, etc. Labour includes all forest work up to putting the logs by the roadside, road-making, timber-felling, natural-regeneration aid work, and interplanting where necessary : 2 0 0 Supervision: One man per 2,000 acres, materials, and direction as above, per acre per year .... - .... .... 0 18 £2 18 : : Therefore average net revenue per acre for the third or final period is £l2 17s. Bd., less £2 Is. Bd., equal to £lO 16s. "At 4 per cent. £lO 16s. capitalises to £270. This is an important figure in considering land-values, since on a 4-per-cent. basis, or twenty-five' years' purchase, land under normal Kauri forest will have a capital value of £270. Just as the stocking and age-classes of any existing Kauri forest approaches the normal Kauri forest will its present value (capitalised at 4 per cent.) , approach £270 per acre. Thus it is only land in the very best districts of New Zealand that has a higher value than well-stocked Kauri-forest land. This ■ brings one round to European conditions, where patches of forest land and agricultural land stand side by side, and it wants little change in relative prices to say which is the most profitable. s . v , : ' High Net Revenue. "£lO 16s. per acre per year is a high net revenue from even the most productive forest. It will be criticised. The various figures on which it is founded have already been discussed. The Kauri "gum and ■'other timbers''are uncertain, but do not bulk for much in the estimate; the , former is probably underestimated. Of the £l2 17s. Bd. only £1 lis. is the estimated yield from Kauri "gum," firewood, and all minor forest produce. No one yet knows what systematic resin-tapping will produce. If resin-tapping should be abandoned.altogether for

Kauri, the correction to these figures is hut slight and is easily made. It is much more likely that Kauri resin-tapping will be conducted successfully, and that there will be a substantial addition to these figures in consequence.

“The timber-yield item in the . above estimate figures at only 140 c. ft. q.g. per acre per year, of which 100 is from the Kauri and 40 from .other timbers. This is a comparatively low figure for such a climate as New Zealand, and is certain to rise.”

The book deals also with interplanting, the use of exotic trees for northern forests, fire danger, and risk in planting insignis-pine and other exotic trees. Then in the last thirty pages, Sir David recapitulates his arguments and selected facts, and draws a comparison between New Zealand’s disregard of the future of its forests, and the regular revenue obtained by systematic forestry in European countries. Here and there throughout the book are bits of quaint doggerel which seem quite out of place in a semi-scientific bulletin, but Sir David’s efforts do not appear to. have been subjected to an official editing, so his curious verses appear as mnemonics, to “point the moral and adorn the tale.” They are, unfortunately, hard to memorise, but a sample above the average is as follows: