136 AROUND AN OLD HOMESTEAD. 



tinguish this separate clump from the rest of the 

 younger growth. These thrifty hickory saplings have 

 sprung from the fruit of a majestic shagbark above us, 

 and the two farther down the slope near the brook 

 evidently came from a couple of nuts that bounded off 

 down the side of the ridge. The reproduction is thicker 

 on the south side of the ridges, where the sun reaches 

 the seeds. If these smaller saplings could only be 

 judiciously thinned out, what a magnificent forest there 

 would be here in the years, trees with glorious old tops 

 to them and without a dead limb, whose lumber would 

 be straight-grained and clean of knots; whereas, if left 

 to grow too crowded in this way, some will surely die, 

 being choked by the others, and those remaining will 

 not always be the best trees or the most desirable. 

 These little hickories, and those ironwoods and dog- 

 woods yonder, ought especially to be watched; for the 

 hickories will make good maul or ax handles, the iron- 

 woods will make first-class beetle heads, and the dog- 

 woods will make the best of light wedges or gluts, if 

 seasoned or burnt properly in the fire. And, besides, 

 young trees make excellent firewood, better than that 

 split from the sap wood of the old dead trees; for the 

 saplings are in part heart wood, which is more solid 

 and gives out a greater heat. That would be another 

 advantage in thinning out the woods. 



There is much difference between the growth of a 

 tree under forestal conditions and that of one unhin- 

 dered in the open. The former, unless it be a shade- 

 endurer, like the beech, is forced because of the dense 

 stand to shoot up at the top for its life. See, how those 

 massive boles have struggled up into the light! The 



