NATURAL REGENERATION. 119 
In the regeneration of the Australian Eucalypt forests usually all that 
is required is one good fire and fire-protection afterwards. Full details 
are given in my “‘ Australian Forestry.’’ 
In southern Europe when the pine forest is burnt young pines come 
up like grass from unopened cones and dormant seed in the ground. 
Again, in the great forests (three or four million acres) of Chir-pine 
(Pinus longifolia) in the Himalayas, where the climate in the wetter 
parts, and the latitude, are similar to Waipoua (Dodonea and Myrsine 
are common shrubs there, as they are in New Zealand), ‘‘ the burning of 
the soil-covering, and particularly of the thick layer of undecomposed 
needles, in good seed years, is a regeneration measure of decided value 
if it can be carried out with safety: this would include the cutting and 
burning of undergrowth and the collection and burning of debris where 
necessary ’’ (‘‘ Indian Forest Memoirs,’’ Vol. 1, Part I, p. 51). This is 
an authoritative statement from the pen of Mr. R. S. Troup, F.C.H.. 
whom I know personally, and who is now holding high office in the 
Indian Forest Service—Assistant Inspector-General, 
In forest more like that of New Zealand than pine forest, we read 
that the natural regeneration of Sal is improved by moderate burn- 
ing in the forests of the Terai; while it is destroyed by repeated burning 
(Burkell, in Journal of Asratic Society, September, 1916, p. 267). This 
is in dense forest with a heavy rainfall, the latitude and climatic con- 
ditions in the upper part recalling almost exactly those of Waipoua. 
Says Mr. Troup in a recent letter to me, ‘‘ In the damp Sal forests 
of the Duars of Bengal and Assam, continued fire-protection has induced 
the growth of a dense evergreen undergrowth, which effectually prevents 
the establishment of young Sal. We are now considering special measures 
for regenerating these forests.’? These words might be used in describing 
the present position in most New Zealand forests. 
In all these cases we see the truth of the old saying that fire is a 
good servant but a bad master. The use of fire will have to be long and 
carefully studied when foresters take in hand the natural regeneration 
of New Zealand forests. Atkinson Park (so called, really a Kauri forest), 
near Auckland, was worked, burnt, and then protected from fire by 
the interest of a local resident, Mr. Atkinson. The good natural re- 
generation of Kauri there is referred to in ‘‘ Waipoua Kauri Forest.” 
In the Waipoua Forest there will be little difficulty in keeping fire 
under control—in fact the difficulty will be in getting a good burn. In 
other Kauri forests fire can be used more easily. 

A Good Seed Year.—Kauri, like all other trees, bears seed much more 
abundantly in certain years, but there is never a great abundance of the 
seed. The Longifolia-pine, in its climate like north New Zealand, has a 
good seed year on an average about every third year. In northern France 
the forester has sometimes to wait eight or ten years for a good Oak or 
Beech seed year (glandée). When that comes he is busy with every method 
known to him for favouring natural regeneration. After a good supply 
of seed the first requisite is a clean soil. Temporary grazing will help 
that. Fire will help it more. 
In the one good State forest of England, the ‘‘ Forest of Dean,’’ 
visitors go to see a piece of show natural regeneration of Oak at Blakeney 
Hill. It is literally a sheet of young Oak, That came about in this 
way. It had been grazed bare for years. It was then closed to grazing, 
and a heavy seed year on the old Oaks occurred just afterwards. 
