A GARDENER'S BOOT 



together. " In this case, the struggle for life is intense : each 

 tree seeking for sunlight tries to push its leader-shoots up 

 above the general mass of foliage ; but all are growing in 

 height, whilst the lateral branches which are cramped by the 

 neighbouring trees are continually thrown off. The highest 

 branches alone get sufficient light to remain alive, but they 

 cannot spread out freely. They are strictly limited to a 

 definite area ; the crown is small and crowded by those of 

 the trees next to it, and the trunk is of extraordinary 

 length.*" 



The above quotation from Albert Fron's Sylviculture 

 (Paris, 1903) refers to an artificial forest cultivated and 

 watched over by man. But the trees in such forests have 

 " extra "" dangers and difficulties to fight against. Even 

 scientific foresters admit that they are very ignorant of what 

 they are trying to do. In fact, the more scientific they are, 

 the more readily they will confess how little they really 

 know. 



Watch a labourer in a nursery transplanting young pine 

 trees; each seedling tree has a long main root which is 

 intended to grow as straight down into the ground as it 

 possibly can. All the other roots branch off* sideways, 

 slanting downwards, and make a most perfect though com- 

 plicated absorbing system. With his large hand the man 

 grasps a tree and lifts it to a shallow groove which he has cut 

 in the soil. Then his very large, heavy-nailed boot comes 

 hard down on the tender root-system. The main root, 

 which ought to point down, points sideways or upwards or 

 in any direction, and the beautifully arranged absorbing 

 system is entirely spoilt. The wretched seedling has to 

 make a whole new system of roots, and in some trees never 

 recovers. 



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