Why the Tree Dies 



TREES, when allowed to grow, may live for a 

 hundred or two hundred years; some, in the 

 West, like that in the picture on page 40, have 

 lived as many thousand. Some trees die in their 

 prime, in middle age. Usually, however, it is 

 the young, tender trees, or those that have 

 grown old, that die. They do not die at once 

 when attacked by enemies in the forest, but 

 seem to die by inches. It may be many years 

 before all life in them is gone. 



Finally they decay, and perhaps the winds 

 blow them down. For many years they lie where 

 they have fallen; moss covers the old tree trunk; 



71 



