AMERICAN FORESTRY 



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WrHAT SPRUCES CAN DO FOR A FOREST SCAPE IN WINTER. 



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its winter coloration. It is one of the 

 few trees whose leaves stay on all win- 

 ter, giving you a big flame of brown- 

 yellow to show against the white of the 

 snow and the gray of the bare trees. 

 And if you can clear the way for some 

 thrifty young six-inch specimen that is 

 already succeeding, it will astonish you 

 with its subsequet rapid growth. The 

 white oak you save, always and every 

 time. Not only for its fine timber, 

 beautiful bark, and stately spread of 

 branches, but for its foliage effects. By 

 the middle of October it will be one vast 

 bank of purplish copper, then brown, 

 and finally light yellow-brown, hang- 

 ing on through the winter and helping 

 the beech to keep the forest cheerful. 

 If you plant enough pyramidal spruces, 

 feathery white pines and sap-green 

 pitch pines to paint in dashes of color 

 contrasting with the tawny beeches and 

 oaks, you can always be sure that your 

 snowy forest hillsides will be beautiful 

 in December, January and February. 

 Look at the Adirondacks in winter if 

 you would realize what spruces can do 

 for a hardwood forestscape in winter. 



And do not let anyone persuade you 

 to keep the red oak in preference to the 

 white. It is true that it grows slightly 

 faster, reaching maturity ten years 

 ahead of the white, but it is a flashy 

 tree having no lasting beauty or utility 

 and its big glossy green leaves turn to 

 a dull brown in autumn without giving 

 us any color, after which they drop off 

 and cumber the forest floor. Its wood 

 is reddish and brashy, giving the tree 

 its name, and in no way to be compared 

 to the wood of the white oak. For vivid 

 reds in autumn we must look to the 

 scarlet oak, black oak and the pin oak, 

 not the red. The pin oak prefers rich 

 loamy creek bottoms and those flat 

 tables at the bottom of ravines that are 

 overflowed by spring freshets. If there 

 is a pin oak in your grove, save it for 

 its autumn colors and its pretty little 

 round acorns. 



Of the hickory family the shagbark 

 will stay and be favored because of its 

 nut crop. The mockernut is also edible, 

 and gives you a tremendous flare of 

 orange in the fall, while all the shag- 

 bark can offer in that line is a dull 



