25-4 TKANSACTIOXS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. lxiv. 



The only weather-factor in which 1894 is better than 

 1891 is sunshine in the growing season; and these trees 

 in that year distributed their growth as follows : — 



Growixg Season. Sleeping Season. 



Millimetres. Millimetres. 



■2 Gum Trees . 116 106 



•2 Pines . . 31 54 



2 Blackwoods . 47 22 



194 = 51 "6 per cent. 182 = 48"4 per cent. 



Can we come to the conclusion that though a plus 

 amount of rain and temperature in the sleeping season of 

 1891 brought about what may be called an abnormal 

 growth in the sleeping season, yet the plus amount of 

 sunshine in the growing season of 1894 was sufficient to' 

 equalise the growth of the two years ? 



It seems doubtful. As previously noted, 1889 was the 

 best year for growth, and had the heaviest rainfall and the 

 least sunshine; and in 1893, the year of worst growth, the 

 rainfall was but slightly deficient in both seasons, and there 

 was a considerable excess of sunshine in the growing season. 

 But no other weather-factor, of those now taken into con- 

 sideration, appears to tend to equalise the tree-growth in 

 these two years 1891 and 1894. 



The years 1889, 1895, and 1898 each present an 

 increase of growth on the three or four years immediately 

 preceding them, and these years all have a plus rainfall as 



thus — 



Growing Season. Sleeping Season. 



1889. 1895. 1898. 1889. 1895. 1898. 



Rain . . + + + + + + 



Sunshine . — — — — + — 



Temi^erature — — — — 4- — 



Though 1895 has plus sunshine and temperature in the 

 sleeping season, as well as rain, its growth is not very 

 much more than that of 1894, whose weather conditions 

 do not seem to be much worse than those of 1893, already 

 pilloried as the worst year for growth of the fourteen. It 

 may Vje well to note that in the growing seasons of 1889 

 and 1895, the minima temperature means are a little over 

 the average. 



The year 1897, of worse growth than the three preceding 

 and one following year, has all plus weather-factors in the 



