THE SOILS OF TUTIRA PAST AND PRESENT 



23 



scoparium) which at a later date, as we shall see, took possession of 

 the run. These table tops then, almost alone on the station, remained 

 free of the pest. Presumably it had grown on them alternately with 

 bracken for so long that the particular chemical constituents needed 

 for the plants' growth had become exhausted. Corroboration of this 

 theory is to be found in the fact that upon the small proportion of other 

 land on Tutira where manuka had flourished prior to the 'seventies and 

 'eighties subsequent crops were also scant and poor. 



These elevated scraps of plateau or " comb " backs a few acres 

 altogether still remain samples of what all Tutira was. To this day 

 on them there can be discovered more clearly than elsewhere the original 

 soils in their original order of deposition the dark dusty humus, the 

 grey grit, the bed of packed red sand. On their heights not only has 



top-dressing by slips been impossible, but they have been less tapped 

 by " under-runners," less torn up and intermixed by uprooted timber, 

 less slipped away by land avalanches than any other portions of the 

 run. 



It will be most convenient to consider the lowermost first, and 

 thus take them in the order of red sand, pumice grit, and humus. The 

 red sand deposits are of a firm, impervious, slightly greasy texture. The 

 whole run has been plastered with the worthless stuff. It is common to 

 west, central, and eastern Tutira. It shows up red on the naked " wind- 

 blows." The quadrilateral mosaics of the topmost limestone sea-floors are 

 set in it. It rests in sheets on the conglomerates. 



There can be little doubt that these red sand deposits are of 

 volcanic origin. Their substance may prove to be waterlogged pumice- 



