In Winter Quarters 



shadows from whence they sprang. 

 You can get much closer to a tree in 

 winter than in summer. You can no 

 more know a tree when in full regalia 

 than you can judge the carcass of a 

 long-wooled sheep by looking at it 

 before its fleece has been shorn. There 

 are crooks and curves and gnarls and 

 knots and hollow trunks, beloved of 

 bees or birds, which you will never see 

 except when north winds blow. I am 

 speaking now of native growths. Your 

 well-groomed nursery stock is all well 

 enough if you can't get trees any other 

 way. But I know single glorious pines 

 and chestnuts standing on a West 

 Virginia mountain ridge that are worth 

 all the counterfeits I am going to see 

 from my library window this winter 

 in town put together. And in plant- 

 ing, why will so many people persist 

 in trying delicate exotics that cannot 

 possibly do any good? Build your 

 house near native forest trees if you 

 can. If you can't, then use the stock 

 [8] 



