Firth. — On Forest Culture. 185 



closed until experience has developed some judicious system of felling the ripe 

 timber in such a way as to inflict as little damage as possible upon the young 

 and growing timber. With the view of minimizing the damage to forests in 

 the hands of private persons, the first efibrts of Government ought to be 

 directed to securing the forests out of which the large timber has been or is 

 being cut, and which then being of no value to saw-mill proprietors may be 

 acquired at a nominal cost. 



These abandoned forests when so acquired ought to be absolutely closed so 

 that the innumerable seedlings, saplings, rickers and spars may be secured from 

 further damage by fires and cattle. If nature be so assisted, even to this extent, 

 I am satisfied that we may hope for the renovation and restoration of our kauri 

 forests. For the kauri being the most difficult of all our New Zealand trees 

 to raise, cannot so easily be preserved for the use of future generations in any 

 other way, and under any other conditions than those which nature has 

 provided in its native habitat. 



Much may be done by transplanting kauri and other seedlings in the 

 denuded kauri forests ; and in order to encourage the growth of seedlings it 

 is very important that Government should arrange with saw-mill proprietors 

 to leave standing at frequent intervals kauri trees of ripe timber, so that by 

 the dropping of their cones, and by means of the kaka and other native seed- 

 eating birds, a constant supply of seedlings may be secured. It is hardly 

 necessary again to observe that the kauri will not grow south of the 38th 

 parallel of latitude. 



I have before observed that one fruitful source of the destruction of forests 

 arises from fires. These fires are greatly encouraged by the heads of the 

 kauri trees being left to decay and so providing ready fuel for fires kindled 

 by the careless hands of the bushmen and others. It is useless to expect 

 saw-mill proprietors or their contractors to incur an expense of two or three 

 pounds per tree to put kauri heads with their massive branches out of harm's 

 way. But if it can be shown that these heads and branches can be utilised 

 so as to give them a commercial value representing a considerable percentage 

 of the value of the trunk of the tree the difficulty of dealing with them will 

 disappear. Let us see whether this can be done. The kauri heads or crowns 

 consist of three parts. 



The crutch or point of insertion of the main lateral branches, varying 

 from 10 to 25 feet in length. 



The large limbs more or less crooked. 



The remainder of the head consisting of smaller branches. 



The crutch is cross-grained, the straight " grain " of the lower part of the 

 tree being twisted round the " knots " into a great variety of wavy, transverse, 

 and oblique lines, and showing "what cabinet-makers call " figure." Many 



