504 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



April, i9i4 



® XKe Fa.rm ® 



the contrary, is of excellent quali- 

 ty, and that if people can be in- 

 duced to grow the pine on their 

 holdings it will prove more useful 

 to the man on the . land than any 

 other tree. Owing to its density 

 and toughness in grain it will 

 prove useful for all kinds of farm 

 work and implements, such as 

 fruit cases, barrows, bodies of 

 drays, churns, butter boxes, ami so 

 forth. As regards a return for 

 labour in planting, as it comes to 

 maturity so rapidly it will supply 

 timber from the same land three 

 times in 60 years, or in the ordin- 

 iirv lifetime of a healthy man. 

 Xo other cone-bearing or softwood 

 tree will give this result, except the 

 Larch which, however, is not so 

 fine in grain or tough in fibre, 

 and not so valuable as a cabinet 

 wood. 



In concluding this short refer- 

 ence to the salient points m the 

 foregoing article, it may -be help- 

 ful to anv in the audience who are 

 interested in the Monterey Pine as 

 a shelter tree to comment again 

 on what has been recently written 

 in refutation of the mistaken no- 

 tion as to the absence of butt 

 branches. No one who has ever 

 seen the habit of growth in the 

 voung tree, or the appearance of a 

 good adult (properly cared for), 

 could entertam such an idea, for it 

 has been proved over and over 

 again that it is only want of 

 guanling when j'oung which pre- 

 vents the Pinus radiata from being 

 " feathered to the ground," and 

 that it retains its branches down 

 to the butt until it has acquired 

 an imimense size. It is, as just 

 said, the only pine in which this 

 characteristic obtains, a proof of 

 which can be had by referring to 

 the descrijjtions of the foliage of 

 the genus Pinus in standard works. 



Turning now to the main object 

 of this note — namely, the use of the( 

 Monterav I'ine as a timber tree — 

 planks of the wood of a young 

 tree only 12 mches in diameter, 

 show its excellent quality and 

 toughness of fibre, the latter being 

 made evident by driving a 3-inch 

 nail close to the edge of the sawn 

 end. Its use for fruit cases is 

 then demonstrated, which is fur- 

 their proved by the feasibility of 

 extracting the nails without any 

 injury to the lids, and so making 

 the case do a second time. 



No pine stands higher in the 

 opinion of the experienced Conser- 

 vator, Mr. Walter Gill, F.L.S. He 

 has all along endeavoured to bring 

 its value to the front by experi- 

 menting in various directions with 

 its timber. 



Land Drainage. 



One characteristic of undrained 

 soils is their coldness. As the air 

 passes over a wet surface evapora- 

 tion takes place with greater or 

 less rapidity, according to the 

 state of atmospheric humidity and 

 to the degree of motion of the 

 wind. This is easily exemplified 

 with regard to the last mentioned 

 factor by moistening the forefinger 

 and exposing it to the air, when a 

 sensation of coldness wiU be ex- 

 perienced upon the side exposed to 

 the direction of the wind, which 

 simple experiment is sometimes 

 tried when the motion of the air 

 is too light for one to be sure from 

 what quarter the wind comes. 

 These winds exert a most powerful 

 evaporating iniiuence, with a cor- 

 responding lowering of tempera- 

 ture, which is liable to exert an 

 injurious effect upon soils as well 

 as upon stock and vegetation. The 

 latter may be protected to a large 

 extent by shelter belts of trees and 

 other means, though with regard 

 to the soil the sun exerts a power- 

 ful evaporative effect, which is, 

 however, to some extent compens- 

 ated bv the heat which it imparts. 

 In the case, however, of the un- 

 drained soil, this benefit ds largely 

 nullified by the physical properties 

 of water in relation to heat. 

 Warmed-up water is lighter than 

 cold, and if the source of heat is 

 applied to the surface the warmer 

 water remains there, and the water 

 beneath it remains for a long time 

 unaffected. On the other hand, if 

 heat is applied to water from 

 beneath, the water rapidly rises 

 to the surface, layer after layer 

 coming up, until the water 

 acquires one uniform temperature, 

 and eventually boils, if sufficient 

 heat is ai)])lied. This property of 

 water is exemplified in the process 

 of heating a copper of water, for 

 soon after the fire is lighted if the 

 hand be iir.mersed m the liquid, it 

 will be found warm at the top 

 and colder as the hand is more 

 deeph' immersed. In the case of 

 water being cooled at the surface 

 by wind evaporation or by a re- 

 duction of the atmospheric temperi- 

 ature, as in the case of frost, a 

 cold laver is formed upon the sur- 

 face, which sinks owing to the con- 

 traction of its particles, which 

 renders it heavier. This same pro- 

 cess goes on in the case of an un- 

 drained soil, which approaches the 

 saturated condition near the sur- 

 face ; but, where a compara.tively 



dry layer of soil of any thickness 

 overlies the saturated soil beneath 

 it, reduction of temperature by the 

 abo\'ementioned process need, not 

 be seriously considered. The cold- 

 ness of the surface in the latter 

 case would be owing to evapora- 

 tion of the water brought up from 

 below by cajjillary attraction, and 

 this might affect the growth of 

 cro]3s to a serious extent, as well 

 as act in an injurious manner upoii 

 the health of stock, especially in 

 the case of grass land so circum- 

 stanced. The effect of evaporation 

 in reducing temperature is well ex- 

 exeinplifie'd in the case of the porous 

 earthenware jars used to keep 

 water cool in warm climates, or in 

 that of the porous butter-coolers 

 now so much used in households. 

 The water carried off by evapora- 

 tion, especially in dry windy wea- 

 ther, from exposed reservoirs and 

 water tanks is very great, and 

 where these can be covered in there 

 is naturally much less waste of 

 water from this cause, which, al- 

 though an invisible one, should be 

 suHiciently manifest in its effects 

 to make it worth while, in dis- 

 tricts where water is scarce, to go 

 to the ejcpense of roofing in (where 

 this is practicable) reservoirs or 

 tanks devoted to water storage. 



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