Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1905-03-24
TREES AS ENGINEERS
How Nature Meets Varvinf
Problems as Re-
quired

quired
The better We are acquainted with
tree the more we appreciate it. and
W. ere at times astonished BY an in.
teiligence which seems to be almost on
the borders of reason.
Take one standing out IN the open.
1t is seventy. five feet high and the
limbs have spread of fifty feet, and
1t Is filled with leaves. the whole
presenting an immense frontage to
the winds which are blowing at the
rate OF sixty miles an hour.
Just hand that problem over to a
civil engineer, the best educated one
you can find. Tell him of this i'm.
mense leverage the tree gives to the
wind and that the base where it
touches the earth is only four feet
through and he must so strengthen it
that it will not blow over. What
would he Say if you told him he
must tree are converting in the
main braces and clutching the earth,
and each telling the ether. to hold
fast. and they do. The storm RACES
with redcubled fury. The great mass
sways and bends before it, Each limb
Is q canvass to catch the gals. What
mighty battle between the storm and
those unseen tent cords which are
holding the tree. For an hour the
fierce conflict RACES. ana the tree has
conquered. Every fiber has been
toughened. and the process Of resis
tance has made the tree stronger for
future emergencies.
If you go into dense forest you
0n0$ho0 04n@S+A4~ Tlan
trees standing on the outskirts are the
sentinels which guard the rest. and
how we'll rooted they are. They inter.
pose their own sturdy forms to protect
those within.
Now in the deep woods where trees
stand in companlonship and help one
another, where the wind cannot single
one out to pour all lis wrath upon it,
they do not need to be 50 well rooted.
and are not braced like the one out in
the open. But let the guards and pro-
tecto,s be cut away. Leave an acre
thus trained to TIE mercy of the
wind. and the storms find them all
unprepared and they are torn up by
the roots. Tell builder erect house
seventy6ve feet nigh and fifty feet
broad-all on base of only three or
four feet. He would tell you it could
not be done. That to be safe you want
foundation az broad as the house
itself, and that 1t was not in the
power of human skill TO meet q prob
lem like that.
And yet that tree without ever hav.
ing been to school, without studying
engineering and without q knowledge
Of the higher mathematics, quietly
goes to work and solves the problem
without mistake, and the most
difficulty problem too.
While in Illinois I bought place
on which we're eturdy oaks that had
to be grubbed out. I learned etter
than to cut down the tree first. l
wanted u leverage of the top and it
made wonderful difference. Then
could study the marvellous feat of en-
cheering. What huge bulge there
was at the base where those tremep-
dous brace roots went out to clutch
the earth like tent cords. There was
the tap root which bored lis way
deep into the ground. If you fol-
lowed out those lateral traces you
would find them like cables of steel
throwing out al almost infinite num-
Der of smaller roots and these would
wander out like net work hundred
feet away. Now let the tremendous
root pressure come. How tough that
trunk fs If not we'll WOVEN it would
snap like pipe stem. Let the top
bend and sway, 10000 little cords Gov
ering the whole area of u circle Of zoe
feet around the roots as we have seen
in very many instanceR.
Thus We see nature ever on the
alert to met the varying conditions
that she may be ready for them. She
has no energy to waste with extra and
needless roots and braces in deer
woods. BIT out in the open she hal
every needed devise brought init
play. There seems to be q presiding
genius somewhere in that tree, whicl
like general In q besieged fort pre-
pares for any contingency. Ever!
tree. 10 q Port Arthur standing sieg
for ages and the commanding genera
unseen by us is always near to strength
On every point of attack and rep<
every effort, and successfully resis
the bombardment Of every storm. An
when I pass such . grand monarch
feel like taking of my hat to som
superior genins presiding there.
s...Harrison in st. Paul Farmer:
SCHOOL TEACHERS FOR MEX.
YEAR.
At q meeting of the board Of edu
cation Saturday evening grade teach
ere for the ensuing year were electe
as follows:
Louis Gunderson salary So
Bessie BurralI
Cora Gates
Elsie MacMartin s
Josephine Lindberg 4
Thorborg Swanson
Grace ChalRren