218 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTIIIAI- SOCIF/IV. 



rest, and how well rooted they are. Thej^ interpose their own sturdy 

 forms to protect those within. 



Now in the deep woods where trees stand in companionship and 

 help one another, where the wind cannot single one out to pour all its 

 wrath upon it, they do not need to be so well rooted and are not braced 

 like the ones out in the open. But let the guards and protectors be 

 cut away. Leave an acre thus trained to the mercy of the wind, and 

 the storm finds them all unprepared and they are torn up by the roots 

 as we have seen in very many instances. 



Thus we see Nature ever on the alert to meet the varying conditions 

 that she may be ready for them. She has no energy to waste with 

 extra and needless roots and braces in the deep woods. But out in the 

 open she has every needed device brought into play. There seems to 

 be a presiding genius somewhere in that tree which like a general in a 

 besieged fort prepares for any contingency. Every tree is a Port 

 Arthur standing siege for ages and the commanding general unseen by 

 us always near to strengthen every point of attack and repel every 

 effort, and successfully resist the bombardment of every storm. 



And when I pass such a grand monarch I feel like taking off my hat 

 to some superior genius presiding there. 



SECURING FOOD A^D DRINK. 



If you watch a tree closely and study its habits you are surprised 

 at its shrewdness in searching out its sustenance. It is almost as cun- 

 ning as a rat in finding out good food and plenty of drink. I have 

 seen a cottonwood, green and fresh in the dryest part of a dry summer, 

 have leaves of deepest green, putting out at the same time a vigorous 

 growth, while a little beyond and all around were trees and shrubs 

 badly wilted and suffering with the terrible heat. 



What made the tree so fresh and vigorous? Two hundred feet away 

 was a cistern, the tree found it out and sent its roots plowing through 

 the hard earth to that cistern. It was a large one, had never failed 

 Itefore and the people wondered what became of the water. On exam- 

 ination it was found that the roots had gone down outside the brick 

 and pushed their way through the cement and had carried the water 

 200 feet up to that tree. And the tree seemed to be crowing like a tri- 

 umphant rooster over its victory. 



I spent much time in the mountains studying the evergreens. One 

 fall it had been very dry, in short, but little rain had fallen during the 

 summer. There was a grove of Ponderosa pine that seemed to be dying. 

 Was it possible that these hardy trees were going to succumb? I went 

 up to see them. They seemed to have taken counsel and decided that 

 there was so little nourishment they could not carry all the family 

 through, so they would take what they could. And they dropped about 

 two-thirds of those long needles and retained the rest. And when 

 spring came with plenty of moisture from the melting snows they 



