33 



ispcaks of the subsoil as being impervious, but this I cannot admit in 

 the true sense of tbo word. To a certain extent it may be impenetrable 

 to the roots of plants, but certainly not impervious to moisture. It 

 is in fact just the reverse of this. Being composed of greenstone gravel, 

 one of its great merits would be its efficient drainage, and, although not 

 wishing to advocate planting in holes — for I agree with all Mr. Sayce 

 says on this ])oint — yet I would not hesitate to adopt this plan, to 

 facilitate operations, in most parts of the Domain. This, however, should 

 only be done where plants are ready for planting before the ground 

 has been thoroughly prepared, and the intermediate spaces should be 

 trenclied as soon as possible afterwards. 



" Too little attention is often bestowed on the proper planting 

 of trees ; the prevailing desire appears to be immediate effect, and this 

 is too frequently purchased at the expense of the after welfare of the 

 plants themselves. 



" When entering on a work of this kind it should be remembered that 

 it is not the present generation which will reap the full benefit of it — that 

 will remain as a valuable and enduring legacy to future generations. 



" There is ample scope for improvement without doubt, and I hold a 

 higher estimate of the capabilities of the soil itself than has been attri- 

 buted to it. I believe it will be found that there are but few parts 

 of the Domain where a depth of 3 feet could not be obtained by trench- 

 ing, and even a greater depth on many of the lower parts, were it 

 desirable. A free admixture of the greenstone gravel with the top soil 

 would be beneficial to most plants, especially to coniferie, which appear 

 to luxuriate in a soil composed of little else than this loosened green- 

 stone. 



"If the surface soil was properly attended to this depth would be 

 sufficient to enable most plants to grow to more or less perfection ; but 

 certainly not to that degree of perfection which trees attain to in their 

 most favourable natural habitats, as this is rarely arrived at in artificial 

 plantations. 



"Attention has been drawn to the stunted appearance of the trees at 

 present in the Domain, and this has been taken as an indication that 

 the soil was not capable of growing trees to perfection, but I do not 

 think the reasons for this stunted appearance have been properly con- 

 sidered. In the first place there can be no doubt that between 20 and 30 

 years ago, many of the largest gum trees were cut down, some, I 

 believe, for shipbuilding purposes ; and, again, during the whole of 

 this time the surface has been depastured by sheep and cattle, which 

 has had the combined effect of consolidating the surface, and preventing 

 any seedling trees from springing up to supply the place of those re- 

 moved. The wattles again present a most unsightly and stunted 

 appearance, and, being naturally short-lived trees, are evidently rapidly 

 hastening to decay. This is partly due to the cause just mentioned, 

 and partly to the fact that the lower Ijranches have generally been 

 browsed oif when the trees were young. Again,, the depasturing of cattle 

 has not only consolidated the surface, but it has kept the grass close 

 grazed, which may be considered as removing nature's mulching, the 

 effect of which is that the rains, instead of soaking into the ground, rush 

 precipitately to the water-courses, and thence to the sea, and what 

 little does enter the soil is quickly dried up by the sun and wind. Here 

 we have another cause for the stunted appearance of the remaining trees. 



" One of the greatest difficulties that would be met with, when the 

 operations for planting were taken in hand, would be jjrocuring plants 

 of a suitable size. It would be useless to depend on these gardens for a 

 supply ; there is in reality no skilled labour available for this work. 

 The most the Society could do would be to supply young plants from 



