INTP)LLIGBNCE IN TREES. 219 



put on fresh vigor. I have known these trees perched on high bluffs to 

 send roots down the steep hillsides, a hundred feet, and pump up water 

 to them. In some instances I found roots from trees two hundred feet 

 away drinking up the water and sending it back to the trees and these 

 were very fresh, vigorous and thrifty, retaining their foliage while 

 those beyond on the mountain side from necessity had to drop a portion 

 of theirs. 



It is remarkable what keen intuition a tree has to know just how 

 much it can stand, so that it can adjust itself to circumstances. A 

 neighbor had occasion to move quite a load of red cedars. He said, 

 "I am going to take my time and move them so carefully they will not 

 know it." He took up a lump of earth with the roots,- but of course 

 he could not take all the roots, for they were not at home when he 

 went after the trees. Be careful as you may, with large trees you can 

 not get all the roots. The feeders have wandered off on a foraging ex 

 pedition some distance away. Well, the man dug with greatest care 

 and took pains in planting and watering them well. In a few weeks he 

 came to me and said, "All my trees are dying." 'No," said I, they know 

 a good deal more than you do and are acting accordingly. They have not 

 roots enough for all those tops and so they are hauling in to 'cut the 

 coat according to the cloth.' When you cut off the roots in digging you 

 should have cut the tops back to match and that is what they are 

 doing." We examined and found they had discarded about one-half 

 of the limbs, and those near the trunks were green. I told him to con- 

 sult his trees and find just what they wanted, and cut off all the limbs 

 they refused to carry. He did so and found he had cut them severely. 

 But following the judgment and wish of the trees he saved every one 

 and they had fine, heavy, compact tops as soon as they could be ^ell 

 rooted to sustain them. Now where is that intelligence lodged? It Is 

 there. Does the tree have a soul? It surely has wisdom. 



Did you ever notice how the trees practice self-surgery? Next time 

 you go out you will notice that there is a burl at the base of very 

 limb. Sooner or later the tree seems to know that the lower limbs 

 will die and after a time they will break off by that burl. Then it 

 pushes that over the wound and closes it up, just as in amputation when 

 the surgeon saws off a limb he carefully saves a flap of flesh to cover it. 

 In trimming a tree nature should be aided. The best time is in June 

 and don't wait till the limb gets large; cut it off close to the burl and 

 the flap closes over it and it is soon healed. 



As intimated before the tree is very shrewd in looking for its food. 

 I once moved to a place where my predecessor had abandoned his gar- 

 den because he said, "there was too much shade and nothing would 

 grow there." Now it was one of the richest pieces of ground in the 

 village and I thought I knew what the trouble was. A hundred feet 

 away was a thrifty row of trees and I knew where they found their 

 nourishment. Taking a spade I dug down and found the little feeding 

 roots of those trees were so thick that a lump of earth was like a 



