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The Rural Voice, 1979-07, Page 10Wind control without trees by Prof. Frank Theakston In many cases, where wind control is not possible by devices remote from the structures, due to terrain, adjacent buildings, land ownership and other detri- ments, especially where open -front housing is employed, local wind control devices can be used at the building site itself. One of the most useful and easily applied is the "swirl chamber". This consists of a solid fence 1.8m to 2.4 m high placed at the windward corner of the open -front building. It should form a right angled section by being located 4.8 m back from the open front and then 4.8 m at a 90 degree angle to the end of the building. The long side of the chamber may extend Wind Direction Open Front 1.8-2.4 m any distance along the exercise yard on the south face of the building but at least 4.8 m beyond the corner. Wind energy is concentrated within the chamber preventing the wind currents from entering the building with resultant heat loss. Open -front buildings are usually oriented to the south and the roof shape is either a gable or shed type. Prevailing winds from the north, north-west or west directions pass over the roof and the wind currents are drawn into the open section by suction, the lower streamlines adhering to the surface of the roof and enter just under the eave. Since heat rises to the upper portion of the structure the heat losses are magnified by air currents moving along the Swirl Chamber ceiling or roof interior. A deflector place under the eave and extending the length of the building prevents the wind currents from entering the building by deflecting the moving air to the exercise yard. The deflector should be of solid material, such as plywood, and 0.6 m in depth. Buildings with open -front housing and over 15.0 m in length often create air circulation which removes heat through convection. Solid partitions at 15.0 m intervals extending from the front to the back of the buildings and at a height at least equal to the height of the front eave limits air circulation and consequently limits heat dissipation. Huron family has planted more than 100,000 trees Gordon Elliott first started planting trees by hand in 1946, covering 50 acres that have turned into "quite a bush now." Since that time, more than 100,000 trees have been planted on that SO acres, now sold, and the 100 acres west of Blyth Mr. Elliott owns now. "Each year we'd hire a number of Grade 13 students off the school bus," said Mr. Elliott, "and have a picnic while we planted." In 1946, he said, he paid for the labour and for the 50,000 trees planted on the 50 acres. Now, working in conjunction with the Department of Lands an Forests, you pay only for the trees. The 15 year agreement with the ministry is a "really good deal," said Mr. Elliott, even though you can't sell the land in that period unless you reimburse the ministry. "I've tried to encourage over the years anyone with wasteland to plant it in trees," he said, "It has to be something you are doing for another generation." "It is for the country, for the watersheds. I think that the government should encourage people to plant wasteland, instead di it just growing up in scrub land." Mr. Elliott brings back trees from his travels to plant at home. "It was our way of remembering our trip," he said, "It may look foolish, but it's a great idea." "Nobody realizes the personal satisfaction you get to walk PG. 8 THE RURAL VOICE/JULY (979 through those trees and see how those trees have done over the years." Mr. Elliott, an insurance agent and real estate broker in Blyth, said he and his wife reversed what most people do, retiring out �W a farm rather than moving to town. It has been his wife, he said, that has always been interested in trees and the outdoor life. "It has been our hobby," he said, in addition tothebenefits of conservation. This year Mr. and Mrs. Elliott planted 350 to 500 trees themselves. Lately, said Mr. Elliott, they have planted mostly pines and spruces. "We should live to see them a fair height," he said. His children, Mr. Elliott said, had "a corner on the Christmas tree market" in the area at one time. They would cut down whatever they could sell on the condition that they planted 1,000 trees back into the lot. The family would go out with their Shetland ponies, his daughter riding the pony in front of the skidded load to her father's truck. Sometimes they would get a bad of trees "two or three times the height of the pony," said Mr. Elliott. In those years, he said, "every Christmas tree that went into nearly every home in Blyth came off our farm." "You bring your grandchildren out and you tell them that you and your grandfather planted these particular trees," he told his children.