THE NEW FORESTRY. 73 



SECTION II. — RAINFALL. 



The rainfall is another factor that has to be taken into 

 account. Continental experts who have visited this country- 

 have remarked that the Scotch fir they saw cut up at saw-mills 

 in the north of Scotland was inferior in quality to the German 

 timber, and attributed the difference to the moister climate 

 and less constant summer temperature. No doubt these con- 

 ditions do affect the quality of timber in Britain, but they 

 are not the same everywhere, in either Scotland or England, 

 and the rainfall varies greatly in different parts of Britain, 

 and consequently the amount of sunshine, which in turn 

 influences the quality of the timber. A glance at the little- 

 known but excellent coloured rainfall map of the British 

 Islands, published by the Scottish Meteorological Society and 

 here given, by permission, will show that over nearly the whole 

 of the western part of Scotland the mean annual rainfall is 

 excessive — ranging from sixty to eighty inches and upwards; 

 that over a broad irregular belt running through the centre 

 of the country from Sutherland to the Clyde, and extending 

 over the greater portion of the lowlands, the rainfall is from 

 forty to sixty inches; and. that over a broad belt, stretching 

 inland, and following the contour of the east coast from 

 Berwick-on-Tweed to the Pentland Firth, the rainfall varies 

 from forty inches inland to less than twenty-five inches nearer 

 the coast. In England (with the , exception of a few portions 

 of it confined chiefly to Cumberland, Westmoreland, West 

 Yorkshire, Wales, and Cornwall, where the rainfall varies from 

 forty to eighty inches,) the mean annual fall over all the t coun- 

 ties is from twenty-five inches, or less, to forty inches, the 

 Eastern Counties and Midlands being the driest portions. 

 In Ireland, over the western half of it, forty to sixty inches is 

 the rule, falling to from thirty to forty inches on the eastern 

 half. There are a few local exceptions on both sides, but of 

 small extent. 



That a difference in the rainfall in different parts of these 

 Islands, amounting to about sixty inches annually, or six 

 thousand tons to the acre, implies a corresponding difference 

 in the amount of sunshine, exerting, in its turn, a corresponding 

 effect upon vegetation, goes without saying; while the quan- 

 tity of rain should also to a large extent determine the extent 

 of the drainage of woodlands if any, the species to be planted, 

 and the season of planting. Soils which in a dry climate 



