My New Zealand Garden 39 



thing ever happened ; but I do know that in a 

 severe gale the whole place is strewn with minced 

 gum-leaf, about the size of a threepenny piece, 

 which no rake can collect : a brush and comb 

 would do it better. There may be something in 

 the gum-leaf peculiarly adapted for mincing, for I 

 never saw any other leaves so shattered. How- 

 ever, a broom gathers them sufficiently, and they 

 are conveyed to my rubbish hole, from which I 

 never fail to obtain twenty or thirty barrows of 

 manure every year. 



Another gale took the opportunity of visiting us 

 after torrents of rain, which reduced the sub-soil 

 to such a pulp that you might as well expect a 

 spoon to stand up in a basin of treacle as trees in 

 those water-logged holes. Down went a long 

 row of Pinus insignis like ninepins ; they were 

 12 feet high. So when the gale abated, they were 

 restored to their upright position ; but with their 

 heads chopped off. They soon recovered from 

 their execution, and now contribute to our top 

 shelter. 



Bad drainage, we settled, was responsible for 

 a good deal of this. The pipes, which were tiny 

 and a long way apart, were probably choked, and 

 had finished acting for ever. So we put down 

 drains here, there, and everj'where; not always 

 proper pipes, as the cost mounted up too much, 

 but makeshifts were substituted, such as stones, 



