2 CRAIB—-REGIONAL SPREAD OF MOISTURE IN Woop OF TREES. 
sation on results obtained from a set of trees grown under similar 
conditions, 7.e. subject to the same external factors. But the 
main conclusions of my investigation are such as appear to be 
independent of the influence of external factors except to the 
extent that the stage reached in the moisture spread at any 
particular time will, in an early district, be correspondingly in 
advance of that at the same time in a late district, 7.e. the main 
conclusions apply generally to the species. From such observa- 
tions as I have been able to make on other species of trees, I 
infer that my conclusions based upon Acer Pseudoplatanus 
_may, with but slight modifications, be regarded as applicable 
to most if not all broad-leaved deciduous trees here. 
Method of Procedure-—When the first tree was felled in 
October I was faced with the problem of how to utilise it to the 
best advantage so that 
(1) the results would give some satisfactory idea as to the 
distribution of moisture throughout the trunk, and 
(2) the work done on this tree might serve as a guide to the 
method to be followed in any similar work in the 
future. 
With these objects in view, I finally decided to use three 
transverse cuts from the bole (from near ground level, from near 
the top of the bole, and from a point nearly midway between 
these two) and also two transverse cuts from the crown (one 
from near the bottom and one from about the middle of the 
leader). These five cuts were all about 4 cm. thick, and were 
all sawn off just after the tree was felled. Of each cut I used 
a strip of 3-5 cm. breadth from the outside to the centre. 
Each of these strips was then chipped up into smaller blocks, 
the moisture percentage of each of which was determined 
separately. 
As already mentioned, the work done on this tree was to be 
regarded, to some extent at least, as experimental. How far 
this is the case may be understood by stating that whereas in 
this tree the moisture percentage of only some 66 pieces was 
ascertained, in the remaining trees the numbers were 278, 
386, 394, and 407. 
Generally in these trees six transverse cuts were selected, 
three from the bole, as in the October tree, and three from the 
crown, the third one here being taken from higher up on the 
leader. The larger number of Pieces examined from the later 
trees is accounted for by two facts 
(1) the individual pieces were much smaller, and 
(2) instead of using one strip from the outside to the centre, 
4 I used four strips from each transverse eat 
