74 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



might not need draining, might, under a heavy rainfall .be 

 water-logged during a good portion of the year. Some species 

 of trees, like the spruce, might be quite unsuitable for planting 

 where the rainfall was light or the soil dry, and vice versa, 

 while nearly all the pinus family and broad-leaved.' species, 

 except the birch, , alder, and mountain ash, would probably 

 succeed best where the rainfall was lightest and the sunshine 

 more constant. As regards planting, where the rainfall is 

 regular and sufficient, operations might be carried on in either 

 autumn or spring, but in those parts of England where the 

 rainfall is light, we are assured, by those able to judge, that 

 spring-planting is most unsafe because of the risk of drought 

 in April, May, or June, in which case the trees perish. 



With the map given from the " Scottish Meteorological 

 Society's Journal" of 1883, we append here an ( interesting 

 paper read by Mr. Buchan, in connection therewith, ,before 

 the Society. Mr. Buchan stated the results brought out by 

 the examination of the rainfall observations of Great Britain, 

 made during the twenty-one years ending with 1880, at 

 upwards of six hundred stations : - — 



" It would," he said, " be seen that the smallest rainfall, not 

 exceeding twenty-four inches a year, was confined to the south- 

 eastern part of England to the north of the Thames. In this 

 area, and about the middle of it, there was a small patch where 

 the rainfall did not exceed twenty-two inches, and this was 

 absolutely the driest part of the British Islands. In Scotland 

 there were several patches whose rainfall was between twenty- 

 four and twenty-six inches a year. One of these was the 

 country about Kelso and Jedburgh, which was sheltered by 

 the Cheviot Hills on the south-east and by the Lowthers on 

 the west, and was thus protected from rains brought by 

 westerly and south-westerly winds. The low ground of East 

 Lothian had also a rainfall of twenty-four to twenty-six 

 inches ; and there was a patch along the Moray Firth, includ- 

 ing Easter Ross, Culloden, Nairn, and on to Elgin, which was 

 likewise one of the driest districts of Scotland. The next 

 region was that having a rainfall between twenty-six inches 

 and thirty inches. On the east of Scotland this was a thin 

 strip along the coast, the rainfall increasing as the land rose 

 inland. A similar strip was to be seen on ,the coast of the 

 English Channel, there being here again an increase as the 

 land rose northward to the Downs. Nearly half of Ireland 

 had a rainfall not exceeding forty inches, there being only two 

 comparatively small patches where it was under thirty inches. 



