784 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



fertile. These burrs hang on as orna- 

 ments nearly all winter and will attract 

 many a wandering troup of winter 

 goldfinches and other hungry feathered 

 citizens. The wood of the sweet gum 

 is disappointing. It seems Hke such 

 a perfect pole or post, and it peels as 

 smooth as if finely sandpapered, but 

 after a month or so it has warped and 

 checked with so many deep cracks in it 

 as to be entirely untrustworthy for any 

 purpose whatsoever. Nature has been 

 so lavish with this tree as an ornament 

 that she evidently intended it strictly 

 to remain so. 



The sour gmn is an odd, curious 

 denizen of our forests, growing on any 

 base soil provided that it is wet enough ; 

 prefers sand or clay base for its best 

 developments. With us it reaches as- 

 tounding proportions, 15 and 20 inches 

 thick, generally hollow inside and much 

 prized by gray squirrels as a rainproof 

 and shot-proof home. Even when a 

 mere sapling the sour gum shows its 

 growth characteristics, which are to 

 put up a reasonably straight trunk and 

 then twist the top into a sort of flat 

 umbrella with all the other branches 

 drooping at their tips to match. One 

 of the first signs of spring is the red 

 leaf buds of the sour gum which are so 

 numerous and noticeable as to make a 

 red patch on the landscape wherever 

 there is one of these trees. Its leaves 

 are out early, and soon after come the 

 flowers, green and insignificant, followed 

 by the double berry of the fruit. In 

 the fall this tree is a show. Its leaves 

 turn a brilliant crimson, then spots of 

 dark blue and blotches of purple appear, 

 later the whole leaf gets a darker and 

 more magnificent purple-black; finally a 

 deep black, and then it falls to the 

 ground, the whole ijrocess taking the 

 month of October and part of November. 

 Meanwhile its multitude of deep blue- 

 black berries have attracted every 

 robin in the fall flights and there they 

 feast from morn till night. It is a hard 

 tree to transplant and the nurseries do 

 not offer it, but it is no trouble at all to 

 get fine seedling on any site desired, not 

 too dry, by planting a seed spot and 

 saving the finest specimen resulting. 

 They endure shade well, in fact we have 

 millions of young ones under the parent 



trees in the Interlaken forest and the 

 older trees manage to get a growth in 

 spite of competition from the white 

 oaks, red maples and sweet gums which 

 abound, finally fighting their way up to 

 a niche in the general forest cover. 

 The wood is tough, white and strong, 

 and is used a good deal in wood turning. 

 Poor stuff as a fire wood; makes good 

 backlogs. 



Belonging to the same family as the 

 sour gtun are the two dogwoods, both 

 interesting, and one of them, the flower- 

 ing dogwood, one of the most beautiful 

 objects in the forest. If Nature has 

 not given you all the dogwoods you 

 want, by all means plant in some as 

 they will grow in any base soil not too dry, 

 in fact I cannot recall a forest south of 

 the spruce belt that has not its dog- 

 woods. In the region of deep snows and 

 intense cold it is sure to be winter- 

 killed; anywhere that 10° below zero 

 is an unusual occurence go ahead and 

 plant in where wanted. Perhaps its 

 most distinguishing characteristic, which 

 it shares with the beech, is its ability 

 to grow in the deepest shade, all its 

 life, however, whereas the beech has 

 to get out to sunlight sooner or later if 

 it is going to make a tree. You can 

 plant in dogwoods where you know 

 well that they never may hope to have 

 a patch of sunlight all to themselves, 

 yet year after year the lovely white 

 crown of huge flowers will greet you 

 every May, and the handsome scarlet 

 berries resulting will feed the robins 

 every fall. The converse of this propo- 

 sition does not follow, for the dogwood 

 thrives equally well in the broiling sun. 

 I am acquainted with two such, which 

 are the only trees their owner boasts, 

 yet his have a fine thrifty crown and 

 an abundance of flowers. Not only 

 that, but for variegated reds, purples 

 and yellows in the autumn, commend me 

 to the leaves of the dogwood bush. It 

 takes an air brush in the musetmi 

 laboratories to reproduce the shadings 

 and mottlings of the autumn color 

 of these dogwood leaves. The museum 

 artists color the white wax imitation of 

 the leaf a fine yellow, next they stipple 

 on blue spots, and then sprinkle in 

 some of red, and finally tip the leaf with 

 purple, and at that will be somewhat 



