A BEGINNER IN FORESTRY 



753 



earth ; we've found patches out in the 

 open where the rabbits have evidently 

 held either a parliament or a ball, the 

 deer make their own convenient short 

 cuts and keep them in trim, and the 

 pheasants when they fly low do not 

 trouble to carry their heavy tails, but 

 let them train on the snow. It is so 

 droll to see where a pheasant came 

 quietly along, where he stopped and 

 scratched up some dinner, where he 

 jumped about a bit to warm his feet, 

 and then wdiere he flew lazily ofif, drag- 

 ging his tail. 



One of the most interesting studies 

 in a w^ell-brought-up forest is the tre- 

 mendous part played by the fallen 

 leaves. When a tree is wastefully cut 

 it isn't just its wood and its future 

 growth that are lost — it's also all that 

 annual crop of fallen leaver. What the 

 leaves here do is a never-ceasing won- 

 der to me. Not to speak of the joy it 

 gave us to kick them as we \valked all 

 through October and November, or 

 their lovely likeness to a plum-cake too 

 thinly iced, often, now, they do such a 

 vast amount of real labor in every thaw 

 that I am forever amazed. The object- 

 lesson in the prevention of floods is one 



that I shall never forget again. There 

 was a large, low place out of which a 

 little stream meandered across a road 

 and into a small hollow. The stream 

 was very slow and feeble as it was 

 choked with leaves, and Nanna took a 

 stick and s])ent some time making a 

 free channel. Then she and I wan- 

 dered farther on and, returning in half 

 an hour, found our stream again 

 blocked, ^^'e soon learned that we 

 couldn't free it. the leaves allowed the 

 water to filter through and that was all. 

 The fallen leaves are the cook and the 

 nurse and the personal bodyguara of 

 everv tree, and, like everything else in 

 this world, they cannot do their duty 

 well by one without doing a great good 

 indirectly to uountless others. 



As the davs go on and I fail to find 

 time to learn all the technical knowl- 

 edge that I so crave, I do find that, in- 

 directly, I am learning anyhow. As 

 a little child learns to love books by 

 playing in a library, so I find myself 

 gradually becoming a somewhat experi- 

 enced forester just by being very happy 

 for two hours dail\- in the Lichienber- 

 ger Wald. 



