Waterlogging trial

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33987, 30 October 1975, Page 1

Waterlogging trial

The Forest Service will try out a huge sprinkler irrigation scheme at Balmoral to see if it can store sawn logs. The service will try to find whether the sprinkler method will prevent sap stain from spoiling untreated timber. Sap stain is a fungus which i spreads internally from the I ends of a cut log and spoils' the appearance of the tim-. ber. ; Experiments in Europe,! notably Germany and Scan-1 dinavia, have shown that!

I logs left in large pools oft ■ water for long periods do not] become sap stained. The staining begins once the moisture content of a log! falls appreciably. The sprinkler system will spray water on to a five-acre pile of logs stacked in rows with the sprinklers about 13ft : i apart. , ■ The service does not know ;how effective the system will,, [be, but believes that the ex-1, [periment is worth doing fori, [scientific and preservation [ [ [studies. 11 ! The service will apply tor

ithe North Canterbury Catch- | merit Board for rights to draw underground water at the rate of 500,000 gallons a day. If | the application is successful (the service will install the irrigation system progressively as the stockpile grows. The moisture content of fallen timber lying in the forests is about 140 per cent. Experiments held after the ;windthrow of Eyrewell forest ! timber several years ago [showed that the moisture I content took two years to | [drop from 140 per cent to! 170 per cent.