Ifi21.\ 89^ 



FOEESTRY. 



AN EXPERIMENT WITH A VIEW TO SEASONING 

 STANDING TIMBER, AND TO OBTAIN AN EFFICIENT 

 MEANS OP EXTERMINATING FOREST WEEDS. 



'By H. W. Moor, 

 Deputy Conservator of Forests. 



The lack of seasoned local timber in the Colony, and the difficult^-, 

 on account of the high cost of labour and transport, of seasoning it 

 ■without appreciably raising the already high initial cost of production, 

 led the Forest Departnaenb to consider the question of artificially killing 

 trees and seasoning them standing. The accepted metliod of girdling 

 (known locally as " barking ") the tree is not successful for all species 

 and is particularly unsuitable in a tropical country on account of the 

 large numbers of insects always ready to destroy any dead or partially 

 dead vegetation. 



The idea, originating in the '• Indian Forester "' for .January 1918, of 

 killing trees by an application of " Atlas Preservative "' on an exposed 

 ring of the cambium layer, resulted in an experiment, first on a small 

 scale and later elaborated, with a view to — 



(a.) Killing trees and seasoning them standing without exposing 



them to damage by msects and 

 (6.) Killing forest weeds without the initial cost of cutting and the 

 ever recurring cost of removing fresh growth from the stools. 



The first experiment involved 54 trees of miscellaneous species, on a 

 site in the Southern Watershed Reserve, about half a mile to the west 

 of the plantation ranch. The only large trees i.e. over 4 feet in girth 

 treated were one Crappo, one Angelin and one Hog Plum. The others 

 were small trees of the following species, viz. : — Mahoe, Bois Pols, Obie, 

 Acurel, Bois Oise, Gommier, Guatecaire, Bois Canon, "Wild Acoma, 

 Sacky-sac, AVild Gnava, Milk Wood, Ftedwood, Coopci-Iioop. Laurier- 

 Cyp, Gatia and Manac and Carat palms. 



The treatment consisted of cutting out a ring, about nine inches in 

 width, of bark only, and painting on the undiluted preservative with a 

 brush. In the case of the palms a ring about one inch deep was cut. 

 This experiment was carried out on the 20tli of -Tune 1918, early in the 

 growing season, and on a very wet day ; this latter condition, though 

 apparently unfavourable, did not interfere with the result of the expei-i- 

 ment. By the end of the following Juh', 19 trees were dead and most 

 of the others showed signs of dying, by the end of August a further 27 

 were dead and by the end of October all but 5 trees had been killed and 

 these 5 had dropped all their leaves and the bark was quite dry. 



The species most susceptible to the poison were Mahoe, Bois Pois, 

 Gommier, Bois Cannon, Obie, Acurel, Redwood, Angelin, Cooper-hoop 

 and Gatia, and those most resistant were Guatecaire, Milk Wood and 

 Hog Plum. 



