or an evergreen, and sometimes it is known only as a Christmas 

 tree. We venture to state that not one out of a hundred of our 

 children know, that, as a rule, the Christmas trees are spruce trees, 



or that these trees loose their 

 leaves one by one but never all 

 of them at once. 



The conebearers or conifers as 

 botanists call them, and especially 

 our evergreen conebearers, are of 

 great value, not only for ornament, 

 but also for protection. In the 

 winter when the cold winds are 

 blowing and all the other trees 

 have lost their leaves, these ever- 

 greens form fine protection and 

 sheltering belts against the cold, 

 biting winds. Who has not seen 

 cattle and horses standing for 

 protection near these trees or 

 hedges? Perhaps we ourselves 

 have found out that it is more 

 comfortable when we have some 

 of these trees between us and the 

 wind. 



Let us consider the tree which 

 interests both young and old 

 about the time Santa Claus comes 

 around, namely the Norway 

 spruce. While this spruce is not 

 a native of America or found it) 

 over-abundance in this country, 

 yet because it is so extensively 

 planted for Christmas trees and is 

 perhaps the most numerously 

 planted spruce in the State of Ohio, 

 we ought all to be acquainted 



Norway Spruce. with it. 



The Norway spruce has several American brothers, the red, the 

 white, the blue, and the black spruce. It is, however, easily dis- 

 tinguished from the rest of our spruces, by its slender cones, which 

 are the longest of all spruce cones, sometimes reaching the length 

 of seven inches. There they swing on the ends of the top branches, 

 like the pendulums of clocks, till the wind and the sun dry them 



4 



