TEE WIND AND TEE WOODS. [March 



THE WIND AND THE WOODS. 



PEECAUTIOJSTARY measures to combat the effects of wind, 

 exercise considerable influence on some operations, and on 

 the general internal arrangements of the forest. These are under- 

 taken on the assumption that the direction of stormy winds is for 

 most districts tolerably constant, and that it may be determined. 

 Observations and meteorological records prove that in these latitudes 

 the most violent and frequent winds blow from a westerly direction. 

 Therefore on all tolerably level ground, the westerly winds have to 

 be taken into account and specially guarded against. These it is, 

 as a general rule, which overturn trees by their violence at the time 

 of the autumn equinox, and later during the winter. Judging from 

 personal observation, which does not, however, embrace much of the 

 eastern coast of Britain, it is the greatest rarity to see a windfall 

 tree which has been overthrown by any other than a westerly wind. 

 In mountainous districts and in valleys, other winds may have to be 

 guarded against ; but on the flat and on level uplands, it is generally 

 the westerly winds which endanger the woods. In exposed situa- 

 tions, the prevalence of westerly winds is often visible at a glance 

 from unmistakeable marks exhibited in the forms and inclination of 

 the trees growing there. Most of the single and isolated trees 

 especially lean away from the west, and have fewer or less flourish- 

 ing branches on that side. Some dwarfed ones, again, present the 

 aijpearance, at a distance, of a strong west -nand perpetually blowing. 

 In short, in most districts westerly storms are prevalent, and in 

 order as much as possible to avoid windfall, attention when planting 

 must be paid to this fact. 



"Woods which have grown up exposed to the wind during 

 their youth, learn to adapt themselves to the endurance of storms. 

 Their pliability and elasticity, when young, enable them to bend 

 like whips before the blast, and to recover their straightness and 

 uprightness as soon as it is blown over. Under such circumstances 

 the trees along the edges on three sides at least of the wood, and 

 especially those on the windward margin, root themselves more 

 firmly, developing their roots more on the windward side, probably 

 through their labouring and straining loosen the soil on that side. The 

 wiudproof qualities of marginal trees may be assisted by an early 

 thinning after their twentieth year, confined to the margins alone of 

 the wood ; but at a later period the margins should not be thinned 

 at all. 



On exposed situations, it is well to start young wood behind the 

 windward shelter of maturing trees — of trees approaching maturity. 



