8 



A PRIMER OF FORESTRY. 



been either long delayed or wholly impossible. (See 

 PI. I.) The forest is as beautiful as it is useful. The old 



fairy tales which spoke of it 

 as a terrible place are wrong. 

 No one can really know the 

 forest without feeling the gen- 

 tle influence of one of the 

 kindliest and strongest parts 

 of n ature. From every point 

 of view it is one of the most 

 helpful friends of man. Per- 

 haps no other natural agent 

 has done so much for the 

 human race and has been so 

 recklessly used and so little 

 understood. 



THE PARTS OF A TREE. 



Ill order rightly to under- 

 stand the forest, something 

 must first be known about 

 the units of which it is made 

 up. A tree, then, is a woody 

 plant growing up from the 

 ground usually with a single 

 stem. (See fig. 1.) It con- 

 sists of three parts: First, 

 the roots, which extend into 

 the ground to a depth of 3 or 

 4 feet, or still farther when 

 the soil is not too hard and 

 they do not find moisture enough near the surface. (See 

 figs. 2, 3, and Pis. II, III.) They hold the tree in place, 



FIG. 1. Roots, stem, and crown of 

 a young Shellbark Hickory. Mil- 

 ford, Pa. 



