Noxious Gases versus Vegetation. 



By ANDREW SLATER, Rose Cottage, Loftus-in-Cleveland, Yoekshire. 



The evils arising from the gases generated by the mining and 

 preparing of ironstone for smelting are painfully apparent in Cleve- 

 land plantations. There is no kind of tree on this estate, within a 

 mile of these operations, but is more or less damaged by them, except 

 the Black Italian Poplar. 



There is a deep ravine running from south-east to north-west, with 

 a brook flowing along the bottom, which divides this estate from the 

 estate of Liverton, and on the north-west point of that estate mining 

 operations have been carried on for the last eight years on an exten- 

 sive scale. There is a large fan, worked by steam, for driving fresh 

 air into the mine, and also seven circular kilns in which the ironstone 

 is calcined previous to being sent to the blast-furnaces. The iron- 

 stone contains a large per-centage of sulphur and phosphorus, and the 

 gases arising from the burning jof these substances are carried by the 

 wind, and their smell can even be detected at the distance of two 

 miles from the works. 



On the opposite side of the ravine from the works there is a 

 plantation twenty acres in extent, and sixty years old, consisting of 

 oak, elm, ash, beech, plane, horse-chestnut, Spanish chestnut, lime, 

 holly, hazel, black Italian poplar, Weymouth pine, common and silver 

 spruce, larch, and Scotch fir, all of which, except the poplar, were 

 kiUed, and have been cut several years since. The poplars stood at 

 least thirty feet above the surrounding trees, and were in no way 

 damaged, while the others had the appearance of being scorched by 

 fire, and altogether had a forlorn-looking aspect. Before the wood 

 was cut, the hedge on the northern boundary of the plantation was 

 thriving well, but since the wood was cut it is nearly all dead, and 

 wire and other fences erected in its stead. Within the same 

 enclosure as the above, two acres had been cut and planted ten years 

 ago with black Italian poplar, with larch and Scotch fir as nurses. 

 The nurses are nearly all dead, but the poplars are doing well, and are 

 from twenty to thirty feet high, and of proportionate girth. They 

 stand within three hundred yards of the kilns, and are in no way 

 sheltered from them. Although the poplars thrive when established 



