I 
LIFE IN A PINE WOOD 
Propie, Birps, ANTS 
SoME years ago a clever gentleman, a landowner 
no doubt with pine plantations on his property, 
made the interesting discovery that the ideal place 
to live in was a pine wood, owing to the antiseptic 
and medicinal qualities emanating from the trees. 
You could smell them and began to feel better the 
moment you entered the wood. Naturally there 
was a rush to the pines just as there had been a 
rush to the hill-tops in response to Tyndall’s flag- 
waving and exultant shouts from Hindhead, and 
as there had been a rush over a century earlier to 
the seaside in obedience to Dr. Russell’s clarion call. 
I have no desire myself to live among pines, simply 
because I cannot endure to be shut off from this 
green earth with sight of flocks and herds. Woods 
are sometimes good to live in: I have spent happy 
months in a woodman’s cottage in a forest; but 
the trees were mostly oak and beech and there 
were wide green spaces and an abundant wild 
life. Pine woods, especially plantations, are 
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