504 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



reflected in the placid water. The wind 

 blows, and instantly there is a flutter 

 and a flash of upward-turning red 

 leaves, and a sheen of silver white 

 glances over the whole tree as the lower 

 faces of the leaves become exposed to 

 view. Poets have loved this tree since 

 the world began. The first to tinge the 

 woods with red in late March, the 

 spring zephyrs waft breaths of its 



barren ridge and reds and yellows, and 

 even pure yellows in more kindly soil. 



It is almost as hard as the rock or 

 sugar maple, has a remarkable wavy 

 grain in old specimens and is the gun- 

 maker's choice for a maple gunstock. 

 Like the sugar maple, it has the pe- 

 culiarity of growing knobs of sapwood 

 over old suppressed branch scars, and 

 to own a woodsman's drinking cup all 



The Red Maple. 



heavenly perfume in the warm sun- 

 light — the odor of red maple blossoms, 

 as sure a sign that sj)ring has really 

 come as the first bluebird. Along in 

 May while the tender leaves are yet 

 unfolded, come the great clusters of red 

 samaras (keys) which flutter down in 

 June and immediately sprout, giving us 

 a thrifty forest of young seedlings 

 wherever there is sunlight. Through 

 the summer the red maple is a shade 

 tree of the first class, and then in the 

 fall, when the Great Show begins, it is 

 in the thick of the fray, flaunting its 

 great plumes of red along lakeside and 



Chestnut 0.\ks and Red Maples on the 

 Lake Bank. 



one has to do is to saw oft' one of these 

 knobs, and. while the sapwood is still 

 green, gouge out the interior following 

 the contour of the sap layers and getting 

 them out, all but the last two. 



Unlike the sugar maple, which is an 

 almost perfect firewood, the red maple 

 makes one of those logs which can 

 hardly l)e l)urnt. It gives a fine back- 

 log for your fire, nevertheless, and will 

 stand a lot of burning in front before 

 it takes fire itself. Dry and seasoned, it 

 burns fairly easily. It is instantly and 

 easily distinguished from the sugar 

 maple because its leaf is virtually 



