Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-07-31
TREE CULTURE.
How the Seed of Forest Giants
is Distributed.
Wind and Water, Man and Beast All
Active Agents.
something About Earth Which Certain
Trees Like Best.

which is beyond reach And, in this
connection, it may be said, and truth
Iully, that there is more or less differ
ence or opinion on the matter by those
WHO nave spent years in close obserVa-
tlol ana study of the growth of trees
mat 1t is so, is not strange, when one
stops to consider that in all of the sci
ences, or nearly all, there is a differ
ence of opinion between the experts
but to the average man, the reading of
the article on this subject which Prof
w. M. Munson of the University of
Maine, prepared for the last report of
Forest Commissioner Ring, comes as a
revelation.
| 1t gives him a new knowledge of
something which has hitherto been a
great puzzle to him. To one of a
thoughtful turn of mind it creates a
desire to know more of the subject and
causes him to study the matter Of tree
culture.
Prof. Munson says in part jim his ar
| ticle.
1T is matter bf common observa-
| ton that given species of plant is
usually distributed over a somewhat
extended area, an that under similar
conditions of environment certain
species apparently come in spontane-
| ollsly. For instance, in travelling in
any direction through Maine, and west
ward to the Mississippi valley, the COM
mon white pine is almost constantly
found. The beech, the oak and the
| poplar are hardly less common. These
and hundreds of other species which
! are distributed over wide areas and
widely separated districts, indicate
| either that there must have been sepa-
| rate creations of the same species in
! different places, or else that all the in
diNiduals of a given species must have
descended from single original parent
form, and have been distributed over
! the areas where now found.
THE idea of spontaneous genera
| tion-that a certain "germinal princi-
pie" exists in the ground and that
under proper conditions a growth of
pines or oaks or beeches, etc, will APP
pear-haS long since been discarded,
But, even at the present day, there are
many intelligent people who believe in
special creation or the multiple origin
of species. Even Agassiz believed that
teach species originated where it now
occurs, probably in as great a number
of individuals and occupying the same
areas as at present" DR.. Gray, on the
other hand, held what seems the more
rational view, that all individuals of
given species are descended from a
common parent and have become widely
distributed, as we now find them, by
modes which nature has obviously es-
tablished for that purpose. Or, as he
says: "Why should we suppose the
Creator to do that systematically
which would be naturally effected by
the very means he had set in opera
| ton"
The white pine, for instance, may
readily be conceived to have come from
I one original parent and to have been
disseminated by natural means. The
scales of the ripened cone open, allow
ing the seeds to escape. Each seed is
provided with a wing which, acting as
a sail or parachute. retards it's fall and
allows it to be borne, often for great
distances, by the wind. The cones, too,
do not all ripen at the same time, so
that seeds, falling at intervals, may be
| borne i'm different directions and scat
tered over a wide area, even in a single
season. If now some of these seeds
fall in favorable places they will ger
inmate and in time produce crops of seed,
and so continue the distribution in geo
metrical ratio, practically without
| limit Obstacles of various kinds, as
| the sea or a mountain range or climatic
conditions, may however intervene and
thus the actual area of this or any
other species may be definitely limited.
Mature abhors bare ground. and if
any good soil is without a plant cover
there is always some obvious reason
for it. Plants of different form and
habit may, however, grow together in
a sort of plant society, as result of
what Darwin called divergence of char
acter, and thereby a given area may
support more plants than'would be pos
sihle if only one kind were growing up
on it, In almost any forest, for in
stance, may be seen the tall timber
trees, a lower second growth" usually
of different species, the low under
brush and finally, still lower, shade
enduring ferns and annual herbs and
"scrubby" perennials. The plant that
is first established, however, appropri-
|
difficulty in getting start. Last
spring, under row of Norway naples,
I observed hundreds of young seedlings
struggling with the grass on the and
with the bare gravel of the adjacent
drive in vain attempt to extend the
number of maple trees on the univers-
ity campus. BY the first of September,
however, not a half dozen of these seed
lings could be found, and before anoth-
err spring these, too, will have sue
cumbed and the same process will be
repeated. Conditions of soil, climate
and exposure have a very decided linn
ting effects The shade-loving plant
that flourishes in the dense forest per-
!. ishes as surely when exposed to the
| scorching sun and biting winds of the
plains as do other plants removed to
unwonted shade,-a fact to which is
due in a large measure, the succession
of forests about which SO much is
said. Climate also is most potent
force in modifying or limiting the dis
tribution of plants. The same climate
which favors the growth of our males
tic elms, and oaks and white pines is
destructive to the equally choice ma