SQUIRREL BURVIXG A XUT 



187 



estry for the use of this remarkable 

 illustration, taken from an interesting 

 article entitled "Commercial Uses of 

 Tulip or Yellow Poplar." "American 

 Forestry." beginning with the August 

 numbei, has made a remarkable ad- 

 vance. The magazine is enlarged and 

 in every respect improved; the quality 

 of the paper is good; the printing is 

 first-class, and the reader must wonder 

 where the editors find so great an 

 amount of interesting material pertain- 

 ins: to our forests. 



Squirrel Burying a Nut. 



BY EWING SUMMERS, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



For the first time in my life I saw a 

 few days ago the beautiful and interest- 

 ing operation of a squirrel burying a 

 morsel of food. As I was passing a park 

 I noticed the dear little creature work- 

 ing with all his rapid might, with his 

 nose close to the ground not more than 

 two feet from the sidewalk, and was 

 surprised that he did not notice me, he 

 was so enthusiastic in his task. Having 

 been drilled for many years by nature 

 study writers into the importance of 

 close observation, I immediately thought 

 that now there is a golden opportunity 

 for putting the principle into practice. 

 The provident little animal was digging 

 a hole in which to bury a peanut which 

 he was holding in his mouth with ends 

 up and down, not horizontally. There 

 was a wise object in this, as we shall 

 presently see. On his finishing the ex- 

 cavation I noticed that it was about two 

 inches wide at the top and two inches 

 deep. He stuck the peanut down end- 

 wise into the bottom of the hole as 

 tightly as he could and commenced to 

 cover it, not as we men would, by paw- 

 ing in the loose earth thrown up, but by 

 tearing in the unbroken earth next the 

 peanut. At first I did not discern the 

 reason of this, but I soon saw it. He 

 saved the soil first thrown up for the 

 final covering, so that it would not be 

 of a color diflferent from the surround- 

 ing surface. With his characteristic 

 quick movement, as rapidly as a small 

 dead leaf tree fluttering in a violent wind, 

 he finished ofif the surface by skillfully 

 patting it down so swiftly I could not see 

 what he was doing, and jerked a dead 

 leaf over the center and scampered 

 away, and not till then did I discover 

 what he had done. I peered at the com- 

 pleted task closely and could not see 



even the least marking to show that the 

 surface had been disturbed ! 



Now the object of his plunging the 

 peanut down endwise at the bottom of 

 the hole w^as evidently to facilitate tak- 

 ing it up when he came to dig up the 

 store, by grasping the upper end with 

 his mouth as soon as he reached it, with- 

 out having to dig more for it had it been 

 laid horizontally. How he can ever find 

 the place again, I cannot imagine. Can 

 any of my readers suggest? The odor 

 of the soil is much stronger than that of 

 the nut. We men would have to de- 

 scribe the exact point in surveyor's 

 terms, as for instance, so many feet and 

 inches from a certain designated tree, 

 north 202 o mm 'i^y east. 



Well, after the squirrel had run off 

 about twenty feet from me he noticed 

 that I did not go along about my busi- 

 ness as a decently behaved man ought 

 to, and his suspicions were aroused. So 

 he reared up into a statuesque position 

 to watch me. I took the warning and 

 passed on, and then he passed on his 

 way. 



Studies of the White Pine. 



The seasonal growth of the white 

 pine is the subject of a careful study 

 by an English botanist. He finds that 

 increase begins in March with the ex- 

 pansion of the soft tissues without cell 

 division. Late in April, the tissues 

 begin to divide — at first rapidly, then 

 more slowly. Growth begins in the 

 trunk, near the top, and spreads both 

 upward and downward, reaching the 

 tips of the branches some time before 

 the base of the tree. The butt, how- 

 ever, continues to grow after the crown 

 has stopped. The total growth period 

 is about five and a half months. 



Rate of growth depends largely on 

 the temperature, and varies from day 

 to day and even from hour to hour. It 

 is most rapid in May and early June. 

 It then becomes less rapid, only to take 

 a new spurt in July and August. In- 

 crease is, however, not the same at all 

 levels in the tree, though in the end the 

 differences are evened up. 



New wood begins to form early in 

 August, starting at the top. The new 

 shoots, however, stop elongating about 

 the beginning of July. But the needles 

 continue to grow until more than a 

 month later. 



