December, 1900. 



Junior-Naturalist Monthly. 



Issued by the College of Agriculture and Experiment Station of 

 Cornell University, under Chapter 430 of the Laws of 1899 



of the State of New York, 



Entered in the Post office at Ithaca, N. Y., as second class matter. 



VOL. n. CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N. Y. NO. 11. 



THE V/AR AMONG THE TREES. 



Not a sound was heard on the battlefield, — no firing of guns, no 

 tramping of feet, no roar of cannon, no cry of victory. Neither 

 tlie birds nor I felt the least fear even in the very midst of the 

 strife. Rank upon rank along the stream stood the army, eacli 

 soldier erect in his place. To be " as straight as a young sycatnore," 

 you must know, is to be very straight indeed, and every warrior on 

 this battlefield was a young plane-tree. The conflict has been going 

 on for years past ; it will go on for years to come. Each winter 

 wdll bring its time of peace ; each summer will bring a renewal of 

 the struggle. 



Yisitincr a vouno- forest is much like readins; an interestino; story 

 of warfare. An armv of trees contendino; for food, for sunshine, 

 and for breathing space, stands before us. Can we tell, thus early 

 in the history of the struggle, which are most likely to be the 

 victors ? This is the question that I asked as I stood among tli^ 

 plane-trees last summer ; it is a question that I asked again as I 

 walked among them this wintry afternoon. The trees are white- 

 limbed and straight, — you cannot mistake them; yet two or three 

 stand out unlike their fellows in vigor and in the power to hold 

 their places in the struggle. Probably one of these two or three 

 warriors will some day gladden the eye of the nature-lover, as the 

 veteran plane-trees along the roadside do to-day. It will spread its 

 branches to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west. 

 Its bark will peel off. The cut-shaped base of the leaf-stalk will 



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