TREE 



5871 



TREE 



How to Study Trees. One need not be a 

 scientist to know something about trees, and 

 their study affords much pleasure. In the first 

 place, begin with the trees in your locality. 

 Select one tree and study it through the year. 

 The time for beginning this study is not espe- 

 cially important provided you continue your 

 observations to the same date in the following 

 year, but your observations should be directed 

 to the feature that is the most prominent at the 

 time. If the tree is in blossom when it first 

 interests you, study the blossoms; if the leaves 

 have fully developed, study them. Should the 

 observations begin in the winter, study the 

 bole, branches and bark. The flowers and fruits 

 are of special interest. Do the flowers appear 

 before the leaves? Are they large and showy, 

 or small and apparently insignificant? How 

 does the tree scatter its seeds? Are the seeds 

 enclosed in a bur? Are the seeds of value to 

 man? If so, for what are they used? Study 

 the wood. Provided you can do so without 

 injuring the tree, procure specimens. Can you 

 tell the different kinds of lumber by the grain, 

 as pine from spruce, and oak from beech and 

 maple? Small pieces of boards that will enable 

 you to make this study can easily be obtained 

 at carpenter shops. 



AGE OF A TREE 



Cross section of a tree showing rings of annual 

 growth : 



( a ) Rings of annual 

 growth 



(&) Boundaries be- 

 tween rings 



(c) Interior layer of 



bark 



(d) Hard plates of 



dead bark 



The Age of Trees. Each year the hardwood 

 or the softwood tree records its age by adding a 

 layer of new wood to its bole and branches. 

 When the bole of one of these trees is cut 

 across and the surface made smooth, these rings 

 can be counted, so that it is easier for us to 

 determine the age of a tree than that of any 



other thing that has a long life. Many trees 

 are living witnesses of a distant past and have 

 recorded in their boles events that took place 

 about them. The average life of nearly all 

 classes of trees is more than a hundred years, 

 and many live several centuries. Though the 

 tree grows as long as it lives, it grows more 

 slowly after reaching maturity. The oak, for 

 example, reaches maturity in 120 to 200 years, 

 and after that the annual layers of wood are 

 very thin. The oak is said to live a thousand 

 years. As Dryden expresses it: 



Three centuries he grows and three he stays 

 Supreme in state ; and in three more decays. 



The Charter Oak must have stood several 

 centuries when in 1687 the charter of Connecti- 

 cut was concealed within it. This tree was 

 blown over in 1856. The. Washington Elm was 

 an old tree when Washington in 1775 took com- 

 mand of the American army under its protect- 

 ing shade, and it still stands. Many of the 

 great trees in the region of the Rocky and 

 Cascade mountains are from 800 to 1,000 years 

 old. In 1900 there was felled a giant California 

 redwood that began its existence 271 B.C. A 

 scientific study of the trunk of this tree re- 

 vealed many interesting facts in its history. 

 It was 1,763 years old when Columbus discov- 

 ered the New World, and some of the "big 

 trees" are older than this (see SEQUOIA). 



"Of our swift passage through the scenery 

 Of life and death, more durable than we, 

 What landmark so congenial as a tree, 

 Repeating its green legend every spring, 

 And with a yearly ring 

 Recording the fair seasons as they flee, 

 Type of our brief but still renewed mortality?" 



Planting Trees. The following suggestions 

 will be found helpful to those who have not 

 had experience in planting trees: 



1. See that the soil is suited to the tree. Trees 

 often die because they are taken from, a locality 

 having a different soil from that to which they 

 are transplanted. 



2. Make the hole large enough to spread the 

 roots out in their natural position. Make it so 

 deep that the tree will be about three inches 

 lower in the ground than it was in its former 

 position. 



3. Have the soil finely pulverized and moist, 

 but not wet. Work the soil around the rootlets 

 with the hand so that all the rootlets will come 

 in contact with it. 



4. After filling the hole drive three stakes firmly 

 into the ground about a foot from the tree. Wind 

 a piece of cloth around the tree on a level with 

 the top of the stakes, and brace the tree firmly 

 by winding a strong cord around it and tying this 

 to each stake. 



5. Cut off the ends of the branches and the 

 trunk to prevent growth the first year. 



