Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1903-01-20
OUR
!: N AT " F.
TREES
&c. Bly,.
THOMAS H. MACBRIDE, Phi. D.,
Professor 6f Botany, IOtpd State
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M.-PlantinS Trees.

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!, M.-PlantinS Trees.
no a great many people the start
i ing Of trees seems to be a mat
Il ter Of no little mystery. Sucl
!. folks cannot quite make on
how the tree is reproduced. In fact, IL
case Of many Of our trees the inflor
escence is inconspicuous. the flowers 81
small that they are with difficulty seer
at all. Besides, as we know. sterile ant
fertile flowers on different trees char
acterize certain species. so that 1t l:
really fact that some individual trees
never show fruit or seed ut all. Ac
cordingly, although everybody in the
world knows that the seed Of the OAK
is the acorn, there are people not few
who think that oaks sometimes appear
without regard to any such germinal
antecedent. For such people the earth
brings forth of herself vegetation after
its kind. Trees are sort of natural
efIlorescence of the SOIL Different soils
produce different kinds Of trees. A
sandy soil in the north will push up a
crop of willows. thousands upon thou.
sand Of them; an abandoned sandfield
in the south will put up peculiar
species of pine, the "old field pine" In
fact In Pennsylvania rocky hillside
will spring up thick with chestnuts; in
Iowa loess ridge produces white oaks.
Everywhere where forest Of pine has
been cut away forthwith appears new
| forest Of deciduous leaved trees.
Let US see what all this means. In
the first place, we may note that the
seeds Of some trees are extremely
small. They are adapted to transpor-
tation by wind or water. Every spring,
for instance, along our northern streams
the air is filed with flying seeds of
poplars and Of willows. The seeds of
the pine, the maple. the birch, the elm,
are likewise so distributed. In time of
storm the winds will often carry such
seeds to distances almost unlimited.
On the other hand. the seeds Of some
most common species are carried by
the birds and dropped to come up In
unexpected places. Such are the seeds
of the barberry, red cedar and even OF
the oak, surprising to relate. y blue
jay has been known to carry the acorns
of bur oak to distance of three
miles, dropping the nuts all the way
along at various intervals. 1t is there.
fore not difficult to see that even the
most surprising cases Of the upspring'
Ing of forests may yet be explained W
reference to the ordinary sequence of
seed and shoot. If one who passes
through pine forest will observe care
fully, he will often find small areas al
ready given to other sorts Of trees and
If he will look still more closely be will
find often among the pines themselves
hundreds of little trees, not pines, tenn
porarily overshadowed and suppressed.
which wait only the removal Of the eX
listing forest to spring up rapidly and
SO to produce in a few years the re-
markable transformation so often not
ed. After a terrible sweep Of fire in
the mountains Of the west the whole
mountain side is often blackened with
ruin so complete that it would seem
as if no living thing could ever appear
In that locality again. But beneficent
nature sends relief. On the wings of
the wind the seeds of the mountain asp.
en- float, and in year or two the ruin
may be almost effaced, at least by asp
en- saplings. standing so thick some
times as to be utterly impenetrable.
These form nursing cover for young
forms of other species, conifers among
the rest, and after long years the origi.
nal forest may possibly resume Its
sway. But every tree has sprung from
adventurous seeds.
The proc, sses Of nature thus briefly
noticed are for our example. If we
would plant trees. we cannot do better
than to observe how the thing is done
In nature and then do with precision
that which in the natural world is al
ways correct in principle, but often
quite haphazard in execution. We dis
cover first of all that we shall have
trees, fine ones. and precisely in the
places where we wish them, If we sim
ply plant the seed and let time do the
rest In the case Of several sorts of
trees this is the very best possible pro
cedure. All trees having vertical or
tap root are so much harmed and set
back by the necessary pruning in trans
planting that seed in the place where
the tree is wanted will usually far out
strip in few years the transplanted
specimen. The writer has on his prem
ises two oaks planted sixteen years
ago. one as an acorn. the other a
nursery grown specimen. The former
Is thirty-four feet high and six inches
thick at the ground, the latter twelve
feet high and three inches thick. A
white oak set out thirty years ago is
only forty feet high and about seven
inches thick. For walnuts, oaks, hick-
cries. chestnuts, the only fortunate
method, or ut least the surest method.
Is to plant the seeds where you wish
the trees. Would you learn how nature
plants such seeds? Visit the forests in
early autumn, and you may easily dis
cover. She throws her walnuts to the
ground with the falling leaves. These
cover the seeds, but by no means deep
ly. The soft husks rot away. and the
frosts of winter freeze the hard nuts
through and through. spreading but
not loosening seam that fast binds
the two valves together. The :hawing
of spring completes the work. sets free
the halves of the otherwise unpierce-
able shell and permits the emergence
of the imprisoned shoot The musk
probably still holds enough to keep ev'
erything yet together until possibly a
spring freshet dashing by over the al
luvial bed where the parent walnut
stands bears the terminating nut away
to leave it buried farther down in some
bank of drifted sand. Here the young
tree makes q start in life, sends up
slender stem, sends down a long stout
root to stay waiting the demands from
the upper wa,hd when these shall come
as come at length they will, from
spreading branch and leaf. Perchance
thoro 20 M frashet tn carry the nut down