718
210
I have the honour to be,
Mby Lord,
Your Lordship's Most Obedient
Kumble Servant,
Hopeffumery
[No.03.]
TREE PLANTING.
The Surveyor General to the Acting Colonial Secretary.
C. 0.
440
SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,
28th August, 18730
SIR, With reference to the conversation I have had the honour of having with the Governor, upon the yearly work of the Forest Branch of this Department, and to His Excellency's advice, that on sanitary and other grounds, the scale of its operations should be extended, I beg to address you more in detail on the subject.
2. The present Forest staff consists of a Native Head Forester and five men, assisted from time to time by coolies hired by the day as occasion may require.
3. The duties of the Foresters are:--
(a.) Seed collecting.
(b.) Seed drying.
(c) Seed sowing in nurseries.
(d) Transplanting from nurseries to the hills.
(e.) Planting select shade-trees along roads and streets.
(f) Pruning, thinning, watering and general supervision.
4. The first of these, seed collecting, is begun towards the middle or end of November, and continued through December. At this period of the year, the Head Forester and his five men, with an additional half dozen coolies to help, all being provided with large baskets and long iron crooks, are sent out over the mountains in different directions to gather the berries and seeds of the indigenous trees found growing in the more sheltered valleys of the Island. Nine tenths of the seeds brought in are the cones of the China fir (Pinus sinensis), the familiar tall and extremely graceful evergreen conifer so admirably adapted for propagation in the Hongkong hills from its ability to thrive in the most exposed places and poorest of soils. In four weeks, enough seeds have been gathered to plant the very limited and inadequate grounds which comprise the Government tree-nurseries.
5. The seeds are then examined and sorted, and all the bad ones being discarded, they are spread out in the sun for four weeks, and when dry are shaken out, cleaned and stored. While drying, they are protected from the rain and dew, and otherwise all precautions are taken to preserve their vitality till required for use.
6. By the month of February, the available ground in the Sokonpó nurseries having been previously prepared, the seeds are sown in rows about eighteen inches apart, and three or four weeks afterwards, the young plants begin to appear above ground. Two months later, they are thinned, and after this little else is done, except weeding, raking and occasional watering until March or April of the following year, when the young trees, already twelve inches high and sufficiently robust to bear removal, are taken out and transplanted on the hills overlooking the City and Harbour, and in other suitable places, the baldness of which they are gradually covering.
7. In addition to the foregoing, due attention is paid to the culture of select shade-trees for roads and streets, and public walks in Victoria. Previous to my assumption of this office, the bastard Banyan (Ficus retusa) was almost exclusively used for this purpose, the ease with which cuttings and even large branches of this tree could be made to take root having the advantage of requiring but little attention or care in its rearing. I felt obliged, however, to point out the damage which in course of time must accrue to sewers, pavements and foundations of house-walls by its long straggling surface roots, which travel to great distances in search of moisture, and insinuate themselves between the joints of stones which they eventually upheave. The Banyan has accordingly been superseded by the Red Cedar of Australia (Cedrela australis), the mahogany (Swietenia mahogani), the Moreton Bay chestnut (Castanospermum Australe), the Ailanthus glandulosa so famous in Italy for its grateful shade, two kinds of Bombax, and the Camphor tree (Camphora officinarum).
8. To a less extent, many other foreign varieties are being also grown experimentally with the object of testing their adaptability to the climate and soil, and of ultimately selecting those which are observed to succeed best, and which, it is hoped, may be able to multiply without cultivation, and thus form, under proper conservance, the future woods of this now naked tropical rock.
9. In these efforts to induce the beginnings of a tree vegetation, Hongkong owes much to the interest and kindness of sister colonies, and to the liberality and public spirit of private individuals. The Governments of Queensland, New South Wales, and the Straits Settlements assist us, from time to time, with valuable contributions of seeds and trees, while Steam-ship Companies and individual Ship-owners voluntarily assume the care of these welcome consignments, bringing them to us free of freight or other charges.
10. Among other interesting contributions from Australia are the Blue Gum trees (Eucalyptus globulus), small plantations of which have been made in the more malarious districts of the Island, with the view, when the trees shall have grown and spread, of testing their reputed prophylactic virtues.