1923] WILSON, NORTHERN TREES IN SOUTHERN LANDS 65 



for it is not at all certain that Eucalyptus will prove the solution of this 

 problem. Other exotic hardwood trees grow so slowly that it seems 

 doubtful if home-grown timber from this source could compete in price 

 with that imported from other countries. 



NORTHERN SOFTWOOD TREES 



In Australia the most useful exotic tree from the timber point of view 

 is undoubtedly the Insignis or Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) . In 

 South Africa also it is the most valuable conifer yet introduced. Alto- 

 gether, so far as the evidence goes, it rather looks as if this Pine will prove 

 the north's greatest gift to the new forests in these parts of the world. 

 It will surprise others no doubt as it greatly did me to find a species so 

 rare as a wild tree and of so little value in its native land to be of such 

 immense importance in the antipodes. The quality of all timber depends 

 very greatly on soil and climate. In the southern hemisphere the wood 

 of the Insignis Pine is much superior to that of the same tree growing in 

 California, its native state. It really makes quite good deals and for rough 

 carpentry, box-making and similar purposes it is good enough. In New 

 Zealand I saw the interior of out-buildings which had been fitted many 

 years before with the timber of this tree and its lasting properties were 

 quite satisfactory. 



In the lands of which I write this Pine is everywhere known as Pinus 

 insignis. It does not thrive equally well in all austral countries. In 

 South Australia and Victoria, on the Canterbury Plain of the South 

 Island of New Zealand, round Cape Town and Grahamstown, respectively 

 in the west and eastern parts of the Cape of Good Hope, it thrives best. 

 There are places like Rotorua in the North Island of New Zealand and 

 Strahan on the west coast of Tasmania where it also promises to do well. 

 In Western Australia it grows rapidly for the first 10 years and then shows 

 a tendency to die out. In that country it is inferior to the Cluster Pine 

 (P. pinaster Ait.). In parts of New South Wales it thrives, but round 

 Sydney, where there are plenty of good-sized trees, disease has made its 

 appearance. In Q 



The rate of growth of this tree is phenomenal. On St. Leonard *s farm, 

 a few miles from Hanmer Springs, Canterbury, New Zealand, I saw in 

 1921 a grove of Insignis Pine originally planted as a broad windbreak 40 

 years previously. It was being felled and the trees averaged 800 board 

 feet of timber. The usual height was about 100 feet with trunks 8 feet in 

 girth, but some trees were as much as 115 feet tall, 11 feet in girth of trunk 

 and yielded 1000 board feet of merchantable timber. In other parts of 

 the Canterbury Plain, notably near Greendale, I saw other windbreaks 

 of this tree almost, if not quite, as good as that at St. Leonard's. At 

 Macedon, a few miles out of Melbourne in Australia there are planted 



woods of this Insignis Pine where the trees average 100 feet in height with 

 fine boles. Round Ballarat, also in Victoria, it flourishes and woods 



