8 riEST BOOK OF FORESTEY 



cover of leaves by dragging out the logs. Then a great 

 man}' seeds would reach the ground, and if they germi- 

 nated Avould have room and light to groAV. 



Here is the stump of a tree apparently cut last A^-inter. 

 Let us examine it. It appears made up of numerous rings, 

 one within the other. Let us count them, beginning with 

 the pith which we see near the center. Eighty-five rings. 

 So this tree was as high as the stump eighty-five years 

 ago. Probably it was al30ut three years old then; so that 

 the tree was cut down when about eighty-eight years of 

 age. Quite an interesting fact in itself. But let us look 

 at these rings again. They are rather narrow near the 

 pith. This would tell us that the tree did not fare so very 

 well at first ; probably it was shaded too much by the 

 older mother trees which were here at that time. From 

 the twenty -fifth ring on, they are quite broad, — the tree 

 grew more thriftily; perhaps some of the older trees were 

 blown down and thus the 3'Oung tree had more light and 

 room. But from the seventieth on, the growth was evi- 

 dently slow ; the rings are narrow and seem to groAv nar- 

 rower each year. This reminds us of old age. Do the 

 trees ever grow old and cease to be active growers ? If 

 we keejD our eyes open to these man}' records of the woods, 

 they will tell us many a tale, and probably they will show 

 us that trees, though they are generally quite long-lived, do, 

 after all, grow old ; that trees, like people, pass through 

 stages similar to our youth, manhood, and decline. 



