ENG-1957 — Page 139

114

4

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

Hang were opened early in the year and a new reserve, known as the Fu Shui Forest Reserve, was formed, plans being drawn up to afforest the whole area in three years. The forest reserves just mentioned extend unbroken across the mountains of the Colony from Castle Peak in the west to Tai Po in the east and comprise altogether about 13,000

acres.

Planting was also done in Kowloon Hills Forest Reserve (catchment of the Kowloon reservoirs) and, at Shap Long, afforestation of the small catchment area for the reservoir for Cheung Chau Island, started in 1956, was completed. Prisoners from the Chi Ma Wan Prison were employed on this last project. In the Tai Tam catchment area planting of eroded hills above the reservoir commenced and a nursery was formed to supply plants for this area in future years.

The forest reserves are divided into compartments of 300 acres and records and maps are prepared giving details of the areas of various species planted in each com- partment. In this way track is kept of each plantation, and replanting and tending prescribed annually, so that, in addi- tion to the new planting, there is great deal of other work to be done in the plantations. The main species planted is pine (Pinus Massoniana), but experimental plots of a wide variety of other species have been made and some of these are now being planted more extensively. Among the most promising are species of Casuarina and Eucalyptus.

200

W

In order to provide tree seedlings for afforestation the Forestry Division maintains a series of tree nurseries in the New Territories—a main nursery of 23 acres at Tai Lung, smaller permanent nurseries in each forest district and tem- porary nurseries in many of the areas currently being planted. Altogether there are some 20 nurseries with a total area of approximately 40 acres and capable of producing two to three million tree seedlings annually. Most of the seed- lings are grown direct in nursery beds and lifted for planting with bare roots, care being taken to see that the roots are not