CHAPTER 3 

 THE FOREST 



A virgin forest is a battle ground where varied and multitudinous 

 forces meet and fight for supremacy. JULIA ELLEN ROGERS. 



SOMEWHAT as men have come together to live with one 

 another in villages and cities, rather than pursue solitary exist- 

 ences, so trees over large areas are found growing in close con- 

 tact with their neighbors. These associations of trees we call 

 forests. 



But it would be a mistake to think of a forest as merely a 

 piece of land with trees growing on it. It is much more com- 

 plex than that. There is an interplay of forces, a setting up of 

 new conditions that make the forest a distinct unit in nature. 

 And between all these contending and cooperating forms of 

 life that go to make up a forest there is also a very delicate 

 balance. Every tree is affected for good or bad by the trees that 

 surround it. Even the soil in a forest is different from the soil 

 outside. It teems with countless living things, some made visible 

 only by powerful microscopes. Without this soil life the forest 

 could not live, for it helps provide the tree roots with certain 

 needed foods. Neither could these soil dwellers live without the 

 forest and although we know very little about this form of life, 

 we do know that in some way these microscopic organisms are 

 as necessary to forest growth as the sunlight or rain. 



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