The Press., 1883-08-16
THE GROWTH OF WOODLANDS.
ORIGINAL VARIETY HOW ORANGES ARE PRO-

tg@sstT Sa@a 'f}f DUcED. Aii's 's7 '-ts> I''5ss'
 There are few good chances now any where in New England to observe the manner in which generations of forest trees succeed one another in our woods: Much of our most valuable timber is now growing upon land which, has at some time been cleared, or closely cut oyer, and this is the case even in parts which have been settled within the present century
 Upon such lands the trees are apt to be of few varieties, and of nearly uniform age. To understand how ssthe forest primeval' consisted of trees at every stage of growth, and presented every variety which our eli mate and our soil would produce, one will need to penstrate far enough into it's depth to get beyond the ravages of the axe and of fire. There he will find the hazel and moosewood, mere shrubs in comparison, growing up under the shade of hemIocks and spruces centuries old, and their branches draped with long green moss. Evergreen and declduols trees. intermin- gle in the alternating sunshine and shade. Almost everywhere the growth is mixed, whether on the dry, rocky ridges or on the wet, spongy soil of the swales. The surface of the ground is strewn, ill soms places piled, with the decaying trunks of prostrate trees. These have either broken down under their weight and the. progress of decay or have been overturned by the winds. This latter fate has been most of ten experienced where the soil consists of from 8 few inches to two or three feet of rich vegetable mold spread over coarse loose gravel so cold and wet that the roots of trees extend widely over it without strik- ing deeply into it's bed. When large hemlock or pine is thus overthrown its roots will lift from this gravelly bottom ! two or three rods of the rich black soil with which 1t was covered. There is a bit of ground where birches and willows and naples will colonize at once. On the up- lifted soil which gradually sinks down into knoll that will mark the spot for ages, cherry and poplar and sumach thrive.
 Where the tree fell it carried down all the undergrowth before it, and let in the warm sunbeams where for ages they had not fallen before. In this way the conditions as were those of soil. Where the seeds of various trees are constantly scattered by the winds, birds and squirrels, it could not well happen that such changes should not
 be followed by changed growth of woods, and these places be occupied by trees best suited to the spot. .s :..e,5s. .;.az as., ,rs
 There is still another way in which these changes in forest growth are silently going on all the time under the operation of nat
 ural forces, working in accordance with certain laws. It has often been noted that on our sandy plains where fires have burn ed off the growth, and with it have con
 sumed all the vegetable mold mingled
 with the surface soil, the first efforts to rs- clothe these lands with forest are made
 by such trees as the pitch pine, which re- quire little water, and will send their roots down twenty feet or more through the
 loose gravel to bring up from that depth Il the potash and other soluble salts they
 need. These elements of fertility are slow ly returned to the surface soil by the fall
 erations of this growth, these lands again poplars and oaks This process of recu- Operation and renovation is familiar to all
 who have given the slightest attention to four woodlands and has often been used
 as evidence of the care which nature takes
 to fit the earth for the higher types of veg
 etable as well as of animal life. But there iI are many other changes going on which show as plainly that this fitting of the soi
 for more luxuriant growth is not without 1equal care for such trees as thrive best or a poor and sandy soil. As vegetable mold
 is slowly formed upon the surface of the
 plains, so is silicious sand brought uI
 through many inches depth of peat tc
 adapt the bogs and swamps to 8 growtl
 that could not otherwise take root upon
 their surface.
 No one who has observed with care the cultivated lands, or even the pastures o1
 New England, can have failed to notice
 that whenever hemlock trees have decay
 ed upon the ground, there. the soil would
 be exceptionally poor. Sometimes, :, aftel two or three ploughings of field, one car
 trace in the diminished growth of grass o1
 trees has lain. Its decay added to the soil
 no enriching for the growth of any culti
 vated crop. - Where. it lay. thrive sorrel and scoreopsis, which delight in sterile ] ground. If one would examine the decay ing wood of such g tree, 1hes would find i
 gritty in . pulyerized form and could de
 tect with the eye grains of sand, whicl
 are crystals of silex taken up in solution
 into the circulation of the tree, and becom ] ing manifest only when reverting to it crystalline form, when the vital forces ot ! vegetation have ceased to act. All work
 CTS of wood are we'll aware how much the
 earthly matter of decaying timber dulls tht edges of their tools. This is common in | } greater or less degree to every variety ,o growth. Its effects are as strongly marked
 upon the succession of forest growth as upor
 the crops on cultivated lands.T Let Q hem ] lock, spruce or pine be'uprooted in our wet peaty soils, and not only will deciduous tree gain foothoid upon the sand and grave
 brought up by it's roots, but all along tn, length of it's decaying trunk hazel and willow shrubs and the yellow and white birches vii spring up and flourish, taking root in thu newly formed soil of the rapidly wasting sal
 wood. Gradually the young trees gain strength
 to send their roots down either side of tn. ! prostratel tree, mostly within the bark, ant , those piercing the bed of mould and peat be \ meath take firm root in the hard, rocky sub
 soil. Years later, when the birches have be
 come large, and the tree on which they grey has wasted completely away, one may SCI Il where the roots unite in the trunk two O
 three feet above the surface of the ground, oi
 a spot so wet and of Q soil so fine that tree of such a nature as theirs would never hav 'j got 2 planting there had it not been for tn motherly care which nature bestows upon tn Il feebler and more delicate of her offspring.
 Boston Advertiser. }0 7 Il Young or middle aged men suffering iron
 nervous debility, loss of memory, prematur
 old age, as the result of bad habits, shoult send three stamps for Part VII of Dime Serie