Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-08-11
THE GROWTH OF WOODLANDS.
Original variety-How Change are
Produced.

There are few good chances now anywhere In
New England to observe the manner In which
generations of forest trees succeed one another
In our woods. Much of our most valuable tim
Der is now growing upon land which has at
some time been cleared, or closely cut over. 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 1.-THE forest primeval' consisted of trees at
every stage OF growth, and presented every
variety which our climate and our coil would
produce. one will need to penetrate far enough
Into Its depth to get beyond its ravages OF the
axe and of fire. There he will find the hazel
and moosewood, mere shrubs In COMPARE
son, growing up under the sha de of hem
locks and spruces centuries old, and their
branches draped with long gray moss. Ever
green and deciduOus trees intermingle in the
alternating sunshine and shade. Almost every
where 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, in
some places piled with the decaying trunks Of
PROSTATE 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 often experienced where the
soil consists of from few inches to two or three
feet OF rich vegetable mold spre ad over
coarse loose gravel so cold and wet that the
roots Of trees extend widely over it without
striking deeply into its 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 it was COW
cred There is bit of ground where birches
and willows and naples will cOlOnize at once.
On the uplifted 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 underground
before 1t, and let in the warm sunbeams where
for ages they had not fallen before. In this way
the conditions Of climate were changed almost
as much as were those of SOIL Where the seeds
OF various trees are constantly scattered by the,
winds and birds and squirrels it could not wei
happen that such changes should not be fol
lowed by changed growth of woods, and these
places be occupied by trees best suited to the
spot.
There is still another way in which these
changes in forest growth are silently going on
all the time under the operation of natural
f0rces working in accordance with certain laws.
1t has often been noted that on our sandy
plains, where fires have burned off the growth,
and with 1t have consumed all the vegetable
mold mingled with the surface soil, the first
efforts to reclothe 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 the potash and other
soluble salts they need. These elements of fertil
ity are slowly returned to the surface soil by the
| falling leaves Of the pines. After some gen.
eratiOns OF this growth these lands again be-
come capable of producing brches and poplars
and oaks This process of remuneration and rem
! ovation is familiar to all who have given the
slightest attention to our woodlands; and has
often been used as evidence of the care which
nature takes to fit the earth for the higher types
of vegetable as well as of animal life But there
are many other changes going on which show as
plainly that this fitting of the soil for more
| luxuriant growth is not without equal care for
such trees as thrive best on a poor and sandy
soil. AS vegetable mold is slowly formed upon
the surface of the plains, SO is silciOus sand
brought up through many inches depth of peat
| to adapt the boys and swamps to growth that
could not otherwise take root upon their sur
| face.
| No one who has observed with care the cult
vated lands or even the pastures of New Eng
| land can have failed to notice that whenever
| hemlOck trees have decayed upon the ground
| there the soil would be exceptionally DOOR,
Sometimes, after two or three pioughings of a
field. one can trace in the diminished growth of
grass or of grain the line along which one of
| these trees has lain. Its decay added to the
soil no enriching for the growth of any cult
waited crop. Where it lay thrive sOrrel ard
| coreopsis,- which delight in sterile ground. If
one would examine the decaying wood of such
tree he would find it gritty in pulverized
| form and could detect with the eye grains of
sand, which are crystals of slick taken up i'm
! solution into the circulation of the trees, and
becoming manifest only when reverting to its
crystalline form. when the vital forces of vege-
| tation have ceased to act. All workers of
wood are well aware how much the
earthly matter of decaying timber dus
| the edges of their tools. This is common in
| a greater or less degree to every variety of
growth. Its effects are strongly marked upon
| the succession of forest growth as upon the
| crops on cultivated lands. Let hemlOck.
spruce or pine be uprooted in our wet, peaty
| soils, and not only will deciduOus trees gain
foothold upon the sand and gravel brought up
by Its roots, but all along the length OF its de-
caying trunk hazel and willow shrubs, and the
yellow and white birches will spring up and
flourish, taking root in the newly formed soil of
the rapidly wasting sap-wood. Gradually the
young trees gain strength to send their roots
| down either side of the PROSTATE tree, mostly
within the bark, and those piercing the bed Of
mould and peat beneath take firm root in the
hard, rocky subsoil. Years later, when the
birches have become large and the tree on
which they grew has wasted completely away,
one may see where the roots unite in the trunk.
two or three feet above the surface OF the
ground. on a spot SO wet and of soil 80 fine
that trees of such nature as theirs would never
have got planting there had it not been for the
motherly care which nature bestows upon the
feebler and more delicate of her offspring
The COachman Episode.
From the New York World.
The daughter of SurrOpate Warren of Trov