ol 
VII, 
THE REVENGE OF THE BUSH. 
IN OR fuller detaiis as to our State 
135 nurseries and plantations J must 
je refer my readers to the many 
valuable and interesting reporty 
issued by the Lands Department, and to 
other official publications of the same 
type. But the general impression I 
wish to convey must be by this time suf- 
ficiently clear that, while the work done 
by the State in this direction is good as 
far as it goes, there is not enough of it 
to meet the requirements of our situation. 
| have intentionally refrained from enter- 
ing at length into the technical details 
of afforestation, but I may remark here 
that there are certain points in the offi- 
cial reports that encourage comment even 
from one who can make no claim to be 
regarded as a forestry expert. For 
example, there is the important 
and highly debatable question of 
the choice of trees best fitted for 
planting in different localities. It 
seems to me that many ordinary people 
reading the reports upon the large num- 
bers of trees that have been experimented 
with and proved a failure because of 
frosts, winds or other unfavourable con- 
ditions, would be inclined to regard tree- 
planting, especially by private enterprise, 
as rather a hopeless task. Even the ex- 
tremely valuable papers published by Mr 
T. Adams, of Greendale, upon his experi- 
ments with varieties of eucalyptus and 
many European trees produce a rather 
misleading effect through their constant 
reference to the injurious effects of frost 
and cold winds. It seems to me highly 
desirable to emphasise the fact that many 
valuable varieties of the eucalyptus and 
many important European timber trees 
can be grown in most parts of this coun- 
uy without the least risk of injury or 
loss from climatic causes. And I may 
add that it seems te me a most serious 
disadvantage to the North Island, which 
possesses large areas of waste land, well 
suited for afforestation, that the major- 
ity of the important experiments in tree- 
planting officially placed on record have 
been made either in the South Island or 
in the elevated and inclement region of 
Rotorua. Results thus obtained, 1 may 
Suggest, cannot safely be applied to 
localities in which the climatic condi- 
tions are of an entirely different charac- 
ter. 
THE REMEDY. 
The only remedy is, of course, for 
the Lands Department to extend its 
operations over a large number 
ot districts differing as far as possible 
in their local characteristics. And it 
is manifestly desirable that the Depart- 
ment should circulate as widely as pos- 
sible the most accurate information ob- 
tainable about the right method of 
crowing approved timber trees, and the 
best way of dealing with them when 
they come to maturity. I may illus- 
trate the importance of this last sugges- 
tion by one or two detailed references. 
Take the eucalypti, and for special in- 
stance, the blue gum. Even in Austra- 
hha, as the Melbourne ‘‘Age” has recent- 
ly pointed out, the value of the blue 
gum is constantly depreciated and un- 
derestimated, because it is cut at the 
wrong season of the year. The euca- 
lypti generally speaking are rapid grow- 
ers, so prolific that in many cases they 
secure their own reproduction by heavy 
seeding; they furnish a great variety 
of valuable timbers; and many of the 
most important species acclimatise read- 
ily here. But if, when ready for use, 
they are cut at the wrong time of the 
year, and are utilised at once with- 
out proper seasoning, the results are 
