Wakelin. — Local Variations in Gravity. 468 



the poor plants were being alternately drowned in wet weather, and in dry 

 scorched for want of moisture. Such soils should be cut by a sub-soil 

 plough to the depth of 18 inches or 2 feet, drawing the furrow slightly down 

 hill, letting the surplus water away, while the pulverized and stirred clay 

 would retain sufficient moisture. It would be an additional advantage to 

 turn over a furrow of the top vegetable mould with the common plough, the 

 sub-soil one following in the same furrow ; by this means the young plants 

 would have the benefit of the old surface soil to start them. 



In an earthy kindly soil all that is necessary is to make a slit with the 

 planting spade — pushing the slit a little open — when your boy, with his 

 basket of seedlings, drops one in the slit, and puts his foot on the sod 

 closing it. 



Planting here should follow the sawmillers and this cannot be done too 

 soon. The remark is frequently made " cut down the forests, there will be 

 plenty of timber to last our time. Convert the forest lands into agricul- 

 tural holdings and cover the country with men, women and children." 



Those who make such remarks are evidently not aware of the fact that 

 in many parts of Europe and elsewhere the cutting down of the forests 

 resulted in converting countries formerly fertile and well peopled into abso- 

 lute deserts, necessitating the removal of man and beast to look for food 

 elsewhere. This ought to be a warning to the people of this grand country 

 to conserve their native forests ere it be too late. 



Man is cradled in timber, housed in timber, and coffined in timber, he 

 therefore ought to take care of his cradle, his cottage, and coffin, while he can. 



I intended to have produced historical proofs of the evil effects of the 

 denudation of forest lands, I will however do so, if well, on a future 

 occasion. 



Art. LVII. — The Surface Features of the Earth and Local Variations in 

 the Force of Gravity. By T. B. Wakelin, B.A. 

 [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 12th September, 1882.] 

 In a former paper the nature of the physical agent causing gravitation was 

 carefully considered. This paper seeks to confirm the views expressed in 

 that paper, and it will be necessary to recall three points on which much 

 weight was placed. They are — 



(1) That gravitation is produced by a physical agent, the ether, which 



according to a growing belief is what is commonly understood by 

 the " electric fluid." 



(2) That this ether is composed of corpuscules which have a very high 



velocity of rotation. 



