The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1894-11-23
EoW FORESTS GROW.
The Best Time to Study the Wonder of She
Beginnings OF the Trees.

beginnings OF the Trees.
When the supera bundant vegetation
of summer no longer cumbereth the
ground, is the time to walk along the
edge of woodland and learn how
forests grow. Rising through the grass,
sometimes only few inches, sometimes
foot or more, one now sees the
younglings of the forest, seedlings
from nuts and every form of forest
fruit sown last autumn, or perhaps the
year before. Nature in her reckless
profusion sows her forest seeds right
and LETT, at the root of the parent tree,
and by the aid of the wind out beyond
the edge of the woodland. Millions
rot upon the surface of the ground, or
are eaten by birds, beasts or insects
Comparatively few are covered with
earth and terminate. Many of those
few perish by thousand accidents
when they first peep above ground.
Some fractional percentage of the
whole number of seeds sown live to the
end of their first year, and it is these
that now greet the eye upon the wood
lands edge, pretty mimics of their
giant parents.
One gets notion of the forest trees
tenacity of life when one attempts to
uproot the baby tree. yearling
hickory is found with deep struck tap
root thicker than the stem above
ground and often longer. Only
strong arm can uproot the infant from
the spot, where he has set firm foot
in his native soil as if he knew his
destined towering height and six feet
of girth. So the oak; his infant tap
root exceeds in length his height above
ground, and he braces himself with
lateral rootlets as il he felt the temp
est in his locks century hence.
The nobler forest trees, too, in their
youth have to make provision for the
needs of age, to dive down into the
bowels of the earth and draw thence
the stuff from which giants are mold
ed, the water that shall serve for life
and growth when droughts destroy
the puny ANIMALS towering in their
mushroom growth of a season above
the tiny oak with its heritage of
centuries. The birches are less firm
ly rooted. They content themselves
with a modest depth and a wide
lateral spread of branching roots.
The beech spreads wide and sinks deep
in preparation of the time when the
secret alchemy of its cells shall trans
NIT the food drawn from earth and air
into the marvel of it's giant limbs.
There is peculiar charm in the in
fancy of these future giants. The tiny
young oaks of the larger varieties some
times exceed their parents in the size
and richness of their leaves, and for
some years the growing oak has pc
cular autumn splendor that comes late
and fingers long. The leaves of the
young pin-oak are more delicate than
those of the parent. They take on
early the tints that glorify this variety
of oak. The almost 'pentagonal leaves
of the Seeding tulip tree also are tiny,
while transparency unknown to the
broad rich greenery of the well-grown
tree. The foot-high elm wears his dark
green flannel leaves far into the au-
tumn and seems to escape the beetle.
The baby birch when uprooted has a
pretty secret to reveal of the way her
hlnu grows III olSIcTtlOOuS vi tuTtc,
five, or more. All about the base
of the baby trunks, just be-
meath the surface of the
ground. are little buds that will in time
develop into Independent trunks, at
least such seems their promise. The
elms propagate abundantly. Sodo the
naples, growing in single tall straight
The tulip tree is also the par
ent of great brood, and the young
wild cherries spring abundantly. The
oaks seem less prolific, probably be-
cause the acorn is an excellent food for
a great number of creatures. So, too,
the chestnut, whose seed escapes the
worm only to fall into the clutches of
the schoolboy. The birches spring up
IN all directions, but the beech is less
found in its infancy. The
,assafras surrounds itself with whole
colony of young shoots from its far
spreading roots. Hence the charm of
The natural plantations of the sassa-
ras. The beauty of its family groups
should be perpetual reminder to hui
nan families that few of us in the mass
ire so well worth the photographers
lrt as the spontaneous vegetable prod
lets of nature. Y. Sun.