Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Connecticut, 



Subscription, $1.00 a year Single copy, 10 cents 



Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12, 1909, at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897. 



Voli 



IX 



FEBRUARY, 1917 



Number 9 



The Friends and Enemies of an Oak 

 Tree. 



The words of the well-known fairy 

 song-, "Come to the old oak tree," have 

 been used as a slogan invitation to the 

 many parties that have gathered under 

 the old oak tree at ArcAdiA for demon- 

 strations at the bee apiary. It seems a 

 fitting place for the gathering of nature 

 lovers and nothing could be more ap- 

 propriate than this tree as an emblem 

 of the AA and what it is doing in behalf 

 of nature. It would be difficult to find 

 anywhere another tree that suffered 

 So long and so severely as this oak at 

 the hands of its thoughtless enemies. 

 In all the experience of the expert 

 workmen connected with The F. A. 

 Bartlett Company of Stamford, no 

 other tree has had more extensive nor 

 more skilled care than this tree has 

 had. 



Its misfortune is that it stands near 

 the skating pond and in the heart of a 

 thicket where tramps and picnicking 

 parties could have a rendezvous. The 

 tree's good fortune is that it stands at 

 the center of ArcAdiA. 



Some of the old residents of Sound 

 Beach tell us that what is at present 

 known as Nymphalia, a nature study 

 park, was formerly a skating pond in 

 frequent use every winter some thirty 

 years ago, and known from the owner, 



Archie Macaphee, who lived in a large 

 house near-by, as "Archie's Pond" or 

 "The Macaphee Pond." Mature men 

 and women tell of their youthful ex- 

 periences on this pond and recall that 

 grandfather and grandmother said that 

 from their earliest memory it had been 

 a skating pond. 



For many years, perhaps for a half 

 century, winter after winter a bonfire 

 was built against the tree until finally 

 it was completely excavated with only 

 a thin shell left on the side. What in- 

 duced boys and girls for a half century 

 to build a bonfire within a hollow tree 

 would be hard to discover, but no 

 greater evidence of the need of The 

 Agassiz Association can be presented 

 than this victim of thoughtlessness, 

 this utter disregard of the dignity and 

 the rights of a tree. Skaters were not 

 the only offenders. The tree suffered 

 in summer as well as in winter. With 

 the approach of warm weather and the 

 time for outdoor picnic parties, clam 

 eaters gathered under the tree and 

 there built their fires. When The Ag- 

 assiz Association first took possession 

 of the land it is no exaggeration to say 

 that there was a cartload of clamshells 

 in the vicinity of this tree and of one 

 or two others that have suffered almost 

 as badly and from similar causes. 



It does not seem possible that the 



Copyright 1917 by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn. 



