CHAPTER 16 



FOREST ENEMIES 



Any fool can destroy trees. JOHN MUIR. 



ALL life seems hedged about with enemies with living 

 things whose very existence depends on their ability to harm 

 or destroy other creatures also endowed with life. The strong 

 prey upon the weak, the big upon the little every living 

 organism is battling with whatever defensive and offensive 

 weapons nature gave it to preserve life for itself and for its 

 kind. 



To this universal law, the forest is no exception. It has a host 

 of enemies although not all of them possess life. Snow and ice 

 often break away branches; high winds may level long stretches 

 of forest to the ground; shifting sands have sometimes buried 

 whole groves. Coal smoke breathes death to woodlands and 

 lightning strips away the bark and shatters many a tree to 

 splinters. 



But all these enemies are negligible compared to the damage 

 caused by the great army of tiny, living things insects and 

 fungi. Insect enemies are always present in the forest and 

 would soon annihilate tree growth, were it not that following 

 the law these insects, too, have their own enemies that ordin- 

 arily serve to keep their numbers from increasing. Ants, for 

 example, help keep down the number of harmful forest insects. 



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