14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Miiy 



loin. 



New Influences Bring Changes in National Life 



THE CUl'NTRY liim !iM'iiiiii(;ly Invumo imniiiiio to iindiio excite- 

 nioiit over nn,^ tiling oiiire tlip m-s ri>hi<n<l ciiiitiniiH on ilnily |in|>cr« 

 liavo Itornmo ao roinmon. It iiw<l to lx> tliiit n ciipliun i'xt4-nilini; 

 iirr Uirro or foiirincli ty|x' woiiM niuso cvorytioily to 



for_ nj iM'conu' oxoiti'illy inlori'stoil in tlio siilijivt rov- 



cmhI. Hoivover, tJio extonsivi- use of litis kin.l of ilinpliiy lins lm<l 

 a moTf or Iitki stabilizing elT(<ct on everybody. I'eojile nrc not so 

 easily geared by the headlines us tliey used to be, and as a consequence 

 have a tendoni'v to wait for verified di-tiiils of iiroliiniiinry reports on 

 almost any subject. 



This hns resulted in the mnint^iinin); of ii oiiliii front which fol- 

 lowed the exi-itenieiit of the Lnsit.nnin ilisaster, nuil the real calmness 

 of tlic country as n whole spi'aks well for its basic stability. 



The uneasy stirring which can be sensed at almost any place in the 

 United States today is not only n result of the turmoil on the other 

 side, but is undoubtedly attributable to a large extent to the chang- 

 ing of our own economic plans within our own Vtorders as applie<l 

 to our internal relations. 



The astonishing growth of the automobile industry and continued 

 increase of sales of automobiles in spite of business conditions, means 

 more than appears on the surface. Unquestionably the automobile is 

 effecting a change in the customs and habits of the average individual 

 in a jiosition to buy any machine from the $200 or $300 roadster to 

 the high-priceil limousine. In other words, those of the middle class 

 who make up the bulk of the purchases are changing their method of 

 life to the extent that they are enjoying themselves more out of doors 

 in their automobiles and are sacrificing to a certain extent their sense 

 of demand for the comfortable luxuriousness of the inside of the 

 home. A great deal of money formerly spent in beautifying and 

 making more complete the home furnishings, is now spent in pur- 

 chasing and maintaining the automobile. 



That this condition is here to stay is undoubtedly true and its 

 effect will always be felt, although it is entirely likely that it will 

 be felt in a lessening degree when once the crest of the demand for 

 machines is reached. In other words, the automobile will become 

 more and more, and is becoming more and more, a business necessity 

 rather than merely an organ of pleasure, and when it is generally 

 accepted in that light, its effect upon the purchases of other com- 

 modities will not be so keenly felt. 



This development, coming in connection with the general neces- 

 sity for economizing, has made exceptionally populr.r the moderate 

 priced articles in almost every line that goes to the inside of the 

 American home. Thus the prospects are best for sales of articles of 

 that classification and for raw material going into the construction 

 of such articles. 



The wise manufacturer of the household commodity is he who 

 devotes his thought and energy to making as attractive as possible, 

 without increasing the cost, his line of moderate priced goods — that 

 is, making them desirable from the purchasers' standpoint both by 

 reason of quality and appearance as well as by reason of price. 



The Cover Picture 



FBEAK TREES ASSUME all sorts of fantastic forms, and many 

 persons amuse themselves trying to explain the origin of various 

 nnusual shapes and postures. A favorite explanation put forth by 

 unscientific people has been that Indians had a hand in bending, 

 binding, twisting, and distorting forest trees to make them grow in 

 the form of freaks. That origin may be dismissed once for all as pure 

 guesswork, and wholly outside the domain of probability. Each tree 

 of unusual shape has its own explanation and it is often very simple. 

 The slender palmetto palms which in Florida often describe beautiful 

 parabolic curves with the top tufts resting on the ground thirty or 

 forty feet from the base, are victims of their own top-heaviness. 

 They careen because the stems are too limber to sustain the heavy 

 crowns. Similar cur\-es in the long, slender boles of hardwoods are 

 frequent in northern thickets. Weight of winter snow on the crowns 

 IS usually the cause of the bend. It is seen in white oak sap- 

 plings oftener than in any other because young white oaks retain 



their dry lenvcii during the winter and provide a lodging place for 

 ■mow. 



In some localities where the prevailing winds blow from one direc- 

 tion, and are very Klrong, the tre«w are apt to hnvn niont of their 

 limbs on one side, |iointing nwny from the wind. Such deformitie* 

 are most freipiently seen on exposed sen coasts. If the wind is very 

 strong and iiicesHnnt, trees may grow lint on the grouml like logn. 

 The wind holds the sapplings ilown until they grow prostrate. 



The cover picture which ilhiKtrates this issue of II.Mcliwooii Hf.oohd 

 is a freak of another kiml. \ brunch is common to two trees, and 

 apparently has grown out of each. The phenomenon is interesting, 

 but the cause is not far to seek. It is a case of natural grafting. 

 The common branch ilid not originate in Imtli trunks. It sprang 

 from one and after pressing for a time against the other, grew fait 

 to it by a jirocess of grafting. In the case under present consid- 

 eration it occurred when both trees were small. 



The form of the connecting limb shows that it sprang from the 

 free on the left — the one with the badly ileoayed trunk. That tree is 

 larger than the other and is jirobalily considerably older. It is likely 

 tliat the liniti of the larger tree grew fast to the tnink of the smaller 

 when the latter was quite small. That form of union among trees 

 would be much more common than it is, except that the swaying of 

 the trunks in the wind prevents branches in contact from healing over 

 with young bark. Any person familiar with forests of broad-leaf 

 trees has many times seen branches rubbed raw and barkless where 

 they lie against a trunk or another branch. That is the wind 'a work 

 in defeating the natural growing-together process. Once in a great 

 while some peculiar circumstance prevents the rubbing, and then a 

 graft, like that in the picture, is likely to take place. Trees of dif- 

 ferent species may thus unite. Such a union between a sycamore and 

 a red oak was featured in the covier picture of this paper for March 

 10, 1914. In that case, the oak's limb united with the sycamore 

 trunk. 



The two beech trees shown in this issue stand four and a half miles 

 south of Salem, Indiana. The trees have been known nearly one 

 hundred years, and were united when first discovered. They have 

 grown very slowly. The connecting limb is about twenty feet from 

 the ground, and was, of course, at that height when the first joining 

 took place, since the growth of a tree does not elevate limbs any 

 higher than when they first appear. 



Danger in Overdoing. 



ENTIIUSI.\STS AHE PEONE to ^puil tilings. State forest lands 

 among the Adirondacks in New York have been standing out as 

 a shining example of it. People with more enthusiasm than sober 

 judgment want those splendid regions left alone as a home for wild 

 life. Nature must not be molested in those favored haunts. It is inti- 

 mated that the sentiment which bucks that policy is not unadulterated 

 enthusiasm but has some leaven of politics mixed with it. At any 

 rate, it seems to an outsider that it is carrying the matter pretty far 

 when no timber on those lands can be cut, though much of it is 

 mature and falling by decay. 



The case in New York is a pretty good text for sermonizing for 

 other sinners. There is a line between overdone enthusiasm ami 

 underdone business which a goodly number of people fail to see. At 

 the Forest Products Exposition in Chicago last year, a man wlio 

 stands high enough in the scientific world to entitle his opinion to 

 weight, was heard to say that lumbermen ought to be sent to prison 

 for cutting timber. That was simply a case where over-zealous 

 enthusiasm in the cause of conservation tripped the scientist's judg- 

 ment and induced a remark which the occa.sion did not call for. 



The foregoing may be excused as extreme cases; yet they are not 

 so extreme but that they represent a class of people who hurt a 

 good cause by misrepresenting it. They are the people who would 

 lock up all the national and state forest lands and keep them as 

 parks and reserves. Persons of the other extreme would throw all 

 reserves open and let the spoils be disposed of in a free-for-al! 

 scramble. 



The middle ground is the safe ground in most instances, and that is 

 particularly true with the question of handling public resources like 

 the Adirondack forests and the government's timbered lands. A 



