56] 



CHAPTEK VI. 



PROTECTION AGAINST SNOW. 



1. Damage done. 

 A. General Account. 



SNOW injures forest plants by its downward pressure when 

 lying on their branches. 



The resulting damage consists either in snoiu -pressure or 

 snowbreak. 



The action of snoiv -pressure consists in the bending or 

 uprooting of entire stems, often with the ball of earth round 

 their roots, or branches may be torn out of the stem. 



Snowbreak is said to occur when the stern or branches yield 

 to the weight of snow accumulated on them and break, either 

 across the bole, the crown, or branches. When the ground 

 is soft, bending chiefly occurs, when it is frozen breakage. 



A special form of injury arises when a mass of snow sliding 

 down a hill-side falls on undergrowth and crushes it ; this 

 resembles an avalanche, and is not uncommon on cold aspects. 



B. Damage under Special Conditions. 



The direct results of excessive snowfall resemble those 

 occasioned by storms (p. 533). Much game is also destroyed. 

 Fortunately rabbits cannot thrive in snowy mountains, as 

 in the higher Ardennes. 



The indirect damage done by snow is the softening of the 

 soil and predisposition to denudation and landslips ; swelling 

 of mountain torrents, owing to rapid melting of snow, causes 

 disastrous floods. 



a. Species of Tree. 



Trees with pendulous or flexible leaders or branches, such 

 as birch, larch, deodar, and others with a tendency to a squat 

 shrub-like habit and to form side-shoots into leaders, such as 

 the mountain-pine, green alder, and most rhododendrons, are 



P.P. 



