Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-08-19
THE COWNSMAN
The Poor Relation

I
flowers and weeds and herbs Of grace
which latter charming phrase had less
to do with their beauty--although many
were beautiful--than with their useful i
ness, curative or culinary, their benef
cence, In n word, to man. So among
the trees there are flowers and weeds
and herbs Of grace. The first we place
on our lawns. Often they are far
fetched exotics, priced for their novelty,
their difference" from anything else,
like the monkey puzzler," so well be-
loved in Scotland, or the rubber plant,
most detestablc Of green things.
There is an old road up one of our
New Hampshire mountains called the
Old Mast road. 1t was down this that
tribute was hauled by oxen to Portland
IN colonial days, tribute of tall,
straight spruce spars for his majesty s
navy. The Gownsman doubts not that
many younger scion of these same
helped spas the Bon Richard or other
craft, the defenders Of something more
than a cup. howsocver that old contest
had likewise its origin in tea.
PUT besides such trees of grace, there
- are also the flowers of the forest.
trees which are only beautiful, as II that
were not enough. But, alas, we hesi-
tate to say useless trees even as to
them, when we think of our northern
rivers filled with bilets floating In thou
sands relentlessly on the flood to de-
struction. A tree, growing in the sun
iight, hunk, chopped, sawed, stand
ardized, drifting down stream, pulp
horrible amorphous word--a highly
priced commodity, enriching somebody
through several proccsses-we shall not
prctendfo say who; q commodity of the
utmost potentiality on which may be in
scribed the laws of the prophets and
statutes Of righteousness or only party
platforms and letters of acceptance.
1t is a strange metamorphosis, that
of our trees from the forest to the
printed page, in wonder surprising the
transmigrations Of Brahma into Mir
vana.
Unlike men, few trees are really
~ bad enough to deserve destruction
by fire. And 1t is a mistake, too, to
think that any tree is good enough to
burn. Our naples, which tapped in
early spring give such delicious sugar,
burn sturdilY almost as well as the
beech, king of the hearth. An apple, to
descend to somewhat antiquated slang,
becomes peach when it comes to burn
ing. Pines blaze. birchcs sputter or
Smolder, which is sullen or worse.
Nearly all our forest trees sigh and scethe
IN the fire when green as the spirits of
the wood exhale in fragrant odors.
Twigs crackle. Brushwood flares.
The Gownsman much prefers a back
log of beech with the lichcn still on it,
making spots reminiscent of sunshine
such log in touch with burning
mate will light up cool evening with
glow, warmth. cOmpanionship
which those know not who have not
wood to burn.
But we have nearly forgotten the
poor relation.
fNHERE are learned people who can
l. and do-discourse informngly and
nc length on the whole series of the
birches, from the blooded varieties that
sport red leaves when other trees are
green to the birch rod, which was use
tully employed in more vigorous days
for the encouragement Of erudition.
1t would seem that the brotherhood
of the birches is not unlike the brother
hood of man. There are white birches
and black birches. and yellow birchcs
as well. There are aristocratic birches
imported from clsewhere-the aristoc-
racy always comes from elSewhere-cut-
leaf, curly and curious; and there are
also gray birches or poverty brches. as
indigenous to the soil of our New Eng
land at least as are our poor relations
and as prolific
The white birch is the queen of our
American birches. Her bark is fair as
the petals Of lily. And out of it. as
everybody knows, were made those
beautiful aboriginal canoes. strong as
of steel, light as leaf afoat. 1t takes
a noble tree to make a twenty foot
canoe all of one piece.
There are bascr uses for the delicate
bark of this lady of the forest. Let us
speak not of the Indian" trinkets sold
by takers to tourists; such things are
depressing.
And have you noticed. observant
reader that the first thing that n cock
a feminine cockney-
does on seeing n birch is to take out a
knife and skin it? As Dean Swift once
brutally said of n human feminine who
had suffered like horrible fate: 1T
is surprising how much the process
her for the worse"
BIRCHES are used for
l. foorings. Keep down the yellow
peril by trampling on him, this is doubt
less the reason.
The writer finds himself peculiarly
uniformed as to the uses of the black
birch. 1t is often very fine tree. and
none too common hereabouts. He has
never heard the color line drawn as to
birches, except as to our poor relation,
the gray birch which has been abusively
described as the vcritable weed of our
northern forests.
The mention Of weed and the
theory Of the survival of the fittest, by
the way, are two ideas which may be
rubbed together for the production of
thought. ASsuredly there is nothing
which so survives as weed. And yet,
according to human standards, there is
nothing so unfit. We plant It not.
neither do We nurture it, and yet it is
always in the harvest. In fact, the
weed is a misfit, so far as the economy
Of man is concerned. Are there any
other economics?
OUR poor vegetable relation, the
" gray birch, emulates whiteness. and
nearly achieves it. But it's
ivory white trunk is always more or
less blotched with black at the elbows.
so TO speak, like the tell tale nails of
the African. The foliage Is delicate
and not too thick, and the whole tree.
under favorable conditions, has the
family characteristic Of a graceful
1t is a stubborn grower.
IL you cut down young sapling, next