PRIMARY PRODUCTION AND MARKETING
113
has, however, been found near Pai O on the Mui Wo- Cheung Sha Road.
Depending on the weather, planting is usually started in the cool, wet spring and is continued until June or July. Although planting has been done successfully in the late summer, it has usually been found that trees planted after July have too short a period in which to settle down before the onset of the dry weather in October.
1957 was not a very favourable year for planting. April was abnormally dry, and although it was possible to plant through the torrential rains of May, landslides blocked most of the roads and interfered with the transport of planting material. In some cases newly planted seedlings were washed out of the ground and in others water-logging of the ground caused the plants to rot. Dry periods followed in June and caused heavy losses in some of the new plantations. Typhoon rains in September, however, enabled planting to continue later than usual so that the losses were largely made good.
A total of approximately 1,300 acres of new plantations was formed in the forest reserves, the latter usually being co-extensive with the water catchment areas. In the Tai Lam Forest Reserve afforestation of the seriously eroded hills near the newly formed reservoir was completed after six years of persistent effort to establish trees on the most unfavourable sites, and attention was turned to the grass covered areas. In the Shing Mun Forest Reserve afforesta- tion continued on the southern slopes of Tai Mo Shan where pine plantations have now been established from the catch- water up to a path and fire barrier at about the 1,800 foot contour. Afforestation of the Tai Po Kau Forest Reserve was practically completed and a proposal was made to extend this reserve to include a further 1,500 acres to the south. In the Pat Heung Forest Reserve, where the soils are better than average, progress has been rapid and since 1955 more than half of the total area has been planted. Near Castle Peak two new irrigation dams at Lo Fu Hang and Hung Shui