The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-08-29
The Late. Destruction of Eyergreens.

There is much speculation and q
great variety of theory in regard to the
immediate cause of the recent death OF
so many evergreens of all sizes and oi
all degrees of hardness, and in all sorts
OF localities. Trees of sorts that endure
the climate of Labrador and of Norway
have succumbed about equally with ma
tives of lower latitudes, and without
much respect to age or vigor. It is as
IT an unseen axeman had, in some invis-
ible way, chopped off trees here and
there In wanton sportiveness and left
them without apparent marks of his
performance. If any have suffered
more than Others within my observation
it has been Irish jumpers. They and
harder things have perished alongside
OF tender Noisette roses, Japan epony-
muses. and honeysuckles, and MANY
other things counted as frail, which yet
have escaped. It is evident that the
cause is to be looked for outside of the
trees.
Nor does it depend upon position
according to the old rules of position.
BY them we learn that there is danger
In sunny exposures during the alterna-
ton of early spring. And we know
that sudden thawing after hard night
freezing, when the structure is full of
sap, does scald severely and discolor
sadly, but it does not often kill outright
ia this savage way. And in this case
we have the antagonistic experience
OF more injury on the shady side of
buildings, &C., ION the northwest side),
than on the sunny side.
Have the dry northwest winds, then,
done this mischief? No doubt of it.
For all the symptoms indicate that the
trees have slowly dried to death, and
large plants, most exposed to drying
winds, have suffered more than lowlV
box, &c, which usually suffer most.
They have dried slowly, so as to retain
the leaves and give time for their dis
ooloration. The trees were dead before
the leaves were brown. And they were
betrayed by the intense and steady
frost, aided by very unusual dryness of
the soil. For more than one hundred
days the soil and the streams were held
rigidly bound by a frost SO steady that
there was not one days cessation. Only
in soils of peculiar texture did anv of
the rains OF winter penetrate the ground.
The water ran off over the icy crust.
This unusual dry season was favorable
to rest of fruit trees and many other
declduous plants which had ripened
well too in the dry fall. And when
they were wakened from their rest by
the opening ct spring they were well
rested and ready to open with vigor.
But evergreens don't rest in this way.
Retaining their leaves, which are evap-
Grating moisture isa g. al all, the Wills. to,.a
tinual supply. This they could not
have in this case, because the frost,
which had penetrated the soil fully four
feet wherever it was compact and un-
mulched or unprotected by sod, of course
held the roots torpid and CONCEALED
without any intermission through all
this extraordinary length of steady
duration. No matter how hardy tree
may constitutionally be, it will perish
IT an axe or knife sewers the connec-
tion between the roots and the leaves.
These and the branches are then soon
dried up and exhausted. And if frost
cuts off the connection, and maintains
the blockade long enough, the result is
the same. 1t is only where deep beds
OF snow interpose and protect the soil
from this extreme and protracted con-
gelation that, in the far north, or on
lofty mountains, even the very hardest
deep and strong-rooting pines can
maintain themselves.
But these hardy habitants of Arctic
climes although they can conserve life
beyond all other trees, yet when they
lose it, lose it irrevocably. A deciduous
tree, deprived of its leaves and branches
at some timely season, will sprout again
from latent buds, feeding from a store
of materials laid up in the cambium in
the state; and this they do as soon as
moisture from the roots, and external
warmth of vernal air, occur to favor the
A coniferous evergreen
scarcely ever RECEIVERS in this way, after
being stripped of its leaves. Even the
deciduous conifers (the larches) do not
sprout again after being cut down. All
of this class of trees seem to live from
hand to mouth. Always possessed of
leaves, they have a daily income, not a
semi-annual one; and they do not per-
ceive the necessity of laying anything
up tor a morrow.-COuntry Gentleman.