jfrom jQa^aretl), bp Reatung anD Leba- 

 non, to Carlisle 



From Christiansbrunn to Allen-town, n miles, we 

 passed over a new road, for the most part through 

 woods ; we saw only a few insignificant houses. The 

 dead trees still standing numerously in the corn fields 

 was proof besides that these were new settlements 

 mostly. It would be impossible for the new settler to 

 bring a piece of woods-land thoroughly into cultivation 

 the first year, felling all the trees, getting them out of 

 the way, and rooting up the stumps. And so at the first 

 they have to be content with ' girdling.' This opera- 

 tion consists in cutting a ring out of the bark, in the 

 lower part of the tree, one or two spans wide. In this 

 way the sap taken up through the roots is checked in 

 its ascent through the veins found particularly in the 

 bark, and the upper part of the tree gradually dies. 

 Death follows quickest with the pine ; leaf-trees appear 

 to be somewhat more tenacious of life. We observed, 

 in these and other fields, oaks girdled last year and a 

 few as much as two years ago which notwithstanding 

 have put out new leaves this year, although few and 

 small.* 



* Therefore it must be that the veins carrying up the sap lie 

 not only in the bark but in the outer spongy wood-rings as 

 well or, the suction-veins in the bark may for a certain time 

 supply nourishment to the upper parts of the tree or the little 

 sap still remaining in the sap-tubes after girdling may be 

 expended entirely in forcing the leaves I saw on Long Island 



