The Beech 127 



Two or three of the sweet, three-cornered beech 

 nuts come in a prickly husk which splits open 

 at the top. With the first frosts of fall they ripen, 

 and while the burs remain on the tree, the nuts 

 fall to the ground below. Squirrels, mice, blue- 

 jays, and even deer are very fond of them. 



The beech has smooth, silvery bark. Its wood is 

 light red, strong and tough. It has so little taste or 

 smell that boxes and barrels for holding butter, 

 sugar, and other foodstuffs are made of its wood. 



In the first days of our own land there was 

 little use for beech, for it was tough and hard to 

 split. The trees were seldom cut except to clear 

 the land for crops. Later, when the wood became 

 better known, and the uses for wood grew, it was 

 sometimes made into axles and shafts for water- 

 wheels, where its strength made it lasting and 

 valuable. It also, as charcoal, soon found its 

 way into some of the earliest blacksmith shops. 

 The shoes which many Dutch children wear are 

 nothing but pieces of beechwood hollowed out 

 and shaped to fit the foot. Thousands of these 

 shoes are made in this country every year. 



