“Poplar is light and strong,” said Ray.
“It makes good coffins and we're getting to that age.”
The “we're” was a little ambiguous — but it would be fair to say that, at middle-aged, Ray's son Stephen was the youngest in the party, a sapling among a copse of hoary oaks, if you will.
In a handout, Ray inventoried the forestry items planted on his and Grace's 580-hectare property. The list was comparable, possibly, with that of Cash's in William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying. As Cash sets about building his mother's coffin, he notes that he made it with bevelled (sloping) edges.
“1. There is more surface for the nails to grip.
2. There is twice the gripping-surface to each seam.
3. The water will have to seep into it on a slant. Water moves easiest up and down or straight across.
4. In a house people are upright two-thirds of the time. So the seams and joints are made up-and-down. Because the stress is up-and-down.
5. In a bed where people lie down all the time, the joints and seams are made sideways, because the stress is sideways.
6. Except.
7. A body is not square like a cross tie.
8. Animal magnetism.
9. The animal magnetism of a dead body makes the stress come slanting, so the seams and joints of a coffin are made on the bevel.
10. You can see by an old grave that the earth sinks down on the bevel.
11. While in a natural hole it sinks by the centre, the stress being up-and-down.
12. So I made it on the bevel.
13. It makes a neater job.”
Except Ray's list was about living trees, not planks.
Not yet.
“Forestry”, says the heading at the head of the list.
• 9ha of pine planted in 1972 and harvested by Rayonier in 1996. A great moral and financial boost on what, when planted, I only had erosion control in mind.
• 25ha pine was planted in 1976.
The next bullet point is mysteriously coded.
• 10ha pine planted in 1989 with afew acc/mre/x top end, with help from forestry grant.
The inventory ended on a pastoral, if slightly Faulkner-ish, note.
• 10ha Mac/Lucy planted 1996 by children on cut over pine block.
From there the list branches into pine alternatives.
In 1989, the Newmans planted out a 35 cedar deodara and oak avenue; an avenue of oak cypress went into the ground the following year, as did two hectares of Acacia melanoxylon (Tasmania blackwood), and macrocarpa in Gully Paddock.
More cedar deodara went in; 10ha of native bush, Douglas fir, black walnut, beech and eucalyptus varieties for Africa — muelleriana, pilularis, obliqua and saligna. Oak, liquid amber, gingko, elm amd more cedar varieties were planted over time.
Then came the mighty redwoods.
Redwood grows as quick as poplar, said Ray.
In 1998, Ray moved a section of fence to create a large garden with two ponds. A wee Eden, if you will — but better because instead of a juicy, seductive Golden Delicious, the large garden was planted with native and bird feed trees “and it's very rewarding to have bellbirds, herons, tui and kereru feeding and nesting within the section”.
“All of the above make retirement all the more rewarding,” notes Ray in his notes.
“Something to do for family and grandchildren to plant a special tree and relate to it. It brings us all closer to nature.”
Apart from the poplar boards, Ray has long-term plans — the stack is for sale.
“The price looks pretty strong,” said Stephen.
“Seven dollars a metre. All the sizes we have here, they (a Northland outfit) were quite keen on.”
“I plant trees mostly for drought insurance and erosion control,” said Ray.
“Eucalypts are good for flooring and fencing. It's tough timber. It comes up beautifully when dressed.
“Poplar doesn't have much character.”
Poplar might not have much character but it's a good rooter. The foot of a poplar pole can be soaked in a creek, say, then poked into the ground where it will grow with virtually no fuss. And it's hardy.
“Poplar poles were once used for cattle yards,” said Ray.
“It's still used for decks. It's light and it wears well.
“It wears out faster than it rots out,” said Stephen.
“From my experiments in the Netherlands these aren't really good timber trees,” said Forest Measurement NZ owner Kees Weytmans.
“The Lombardy poplar particularly is not a good tree but the Aspen and the Populus nigra, the black poplar, can be.”
But as the poplars' leaves drop to the ground they provide fodder, he said.
“Pennies from heaven.”
“In dry weather it's good to have poplars here, dropping leaves,” said Stephen.
“Cattle do exceptionally well under them.”
Not all poplar varieties have palatable leaves but the poplar is hugely underrated in New Zealand, said Ray.
“Pine will never match poplar for fodder. Poplar has so many uses. You get forest fires through pine. You won't get forest fires through these. Dressed, I'm pretty sure it'd beat pine hands down.”
Even after harvest, the poplar's remains are useful.
“Poplar coppices (latticed root structure) still photosynthesise and hold the earth,” said Ray.
“With pine, once harvested, the root coppice rots and the earth is subject to erosion.”
Poplars have their place on the farm, but the industry is set up for pine, he said.
Among the eucalyptus species Ray planted on his farm was the saligna variety.
“You can't bang nails into it,” he said.
“It needs to be drilled.”
Which means it's not so good for coffin-making. Poplar makes a neater job.
