1346 Rural School Leaflet 



place a small tree so that it will grow. He may be taught that with a 

 spacing of four feet by four feet these trees, before long, will suffer if left 

 alone; that they \vill crowd one another, and pinch and cripple their 

 crowns; that the weaker will die oft"; and that it is better to thin such a 

 thicket rather than to leave too many trees to injure one another and 

 retard the growth of the entire stand. 



The matter of protection of trees is important. The children know 

 that trees vSuffer if mutilated, and that a forest fire is always serious. 

 When children learn from teacher and parents about the value of the 

 woodlot, they will not be so likely to commit vandalism in the woods. 



THE OAKS OF NEW YORK 



(For special study) 

 John Bentley, Jr.^ 



" The genus Quercus, which consists almost wholly of trees, comprises 

 about three hundred species. Most of them attain a great age and are 

 very widely distributed over the American continent. There are nearly 

 fifty different species of oaks in the United States, and if the varieties, 

 some of which are indistinct, are also included, the list would be so long 

 that it would be discouraging to try to learn all the kinds. Fortunately 

 one can learn to distinguish those that are common in New York. 

 Although there are some fifteen or sixteen kinds of oaks reported as grow- 

 ing in this State, only eleven are described in this article. The others 

 are rare or of very local occurrence. It will be necessary to have not 

 only the leaves but the acorns, and sometimes the twigs and the winter 

 buds,. in order to distinguish all of the oaks described. 



In the first place the oaks can be divided into two general groups : 

 those that have acorns maturing in one season, known as the white oaks; 

 and those that have acorns maturing in two seasons, known as the black 

 oaks. 



White oak group Black oak group 



White oak Black oak 



Swamp white oak Red oak 



Post oak Scarlet oak 



Chestnut oak Pin oak 



Bur oak Scrub oak 



Blackjack oak 



A further distinction between these two groups is that the black oaks 

 have leaves the pointed lobes of which are tipped with bristles, while the 

 lobes of the leaves of the white oaks are smooth and rounded. Between 



6 Revised by Frank B. Moody. 



