NATIVE FOREST AND PLANTATIONS OF INTRODUCED TREES, 151 
NATIVE FOREST AND PLANTATIONS OF 
INTRODUCED TREES. 

Pr ji Let honourable members not mistake me. There is no planting. This stand 
of trees is obtained solely by the art and by the craft of the forester °— 
Hon, R. T. Rosryson, Forest Bill speech, Westralia, 1918. 
ComparinG the native forest with plantations of exotic trees there are 
advantages and disadvantages which may be enumerated thus :— 
Disadvantages of Planting.— 
(1.) The heavy first cost in a country with labour at 10s. or 12s. 
per day. 
(2.) The interest charge, increasing the cost 5 times with 40 
years’ maturity and 4 per cent. interest. The forest has 
no interest charge, since the balance is struck yearly, the 
timber taken out more than paying for the cost of putting 
the forest in order again. 
3.) The fivefold risk in planting exotics (p. 153). 
4.) Loss of the forest soil in destroying the forest and planting 
on bare ground. The best proof of the value attached 
to the forest soil, in timber-production, is the thought and 
attention given to it in practical forestry. The forest soil 
is never uncovered without due cause. Its merit may lie 
chiefly in its fungoid and low forms of vegetation, helpful 
to root-function. 
(5.) Difficulty of planting trees of the ‘‘shade-bearing ” or 
‘tolerant ’’ class, which in the damp and forcing New 
Zealand climate are those that may give the best acrim 
(timber acre-increment). 
( 
Advantages of Planting.— 
(1.) The early production of timber (not always of the best class). 
"with some very quick-growing trees such as Insignis-pine, 
Cuban-pine, and many of the Eucalypts. 
(2.) The less quick production of good matured heartwood timber 
such as Californian Redwood, Douglas-fir, and some of the 
Pines and Eucalypts. 
The introduction of the valuable trees of other countries is an ad- 
vantage which can hardly be exaggerated, but that is common to both 
cultivated forests and forest plantations. Silviculturally the native 
forest of New Zealand is erying out for the introduction of quick- 
vrowing trees of the ‘‘ light-demanding ”’ class. The Beech forest notably 
is without a tree corresponding to the Oak of Europe. 
The above advantages and disadvantages weigh to a greater or less 
degree in every country. Generally, on account of the expense, countries 
do not plant more than they are obliged to. We have seen that New Zea- 
land up to date has sunk £2,000,000 in plantations of exotics. There 
would have been a more certain return if this money had been spent in 
(1) developing the native forest (as in Europe) with roads, (2) the assist- 
ance required for a strong natural regeneration, and (3) just such 
planting as the forest ‘‘ working-plans ’’ showed to be necessary. 
