The Maples 



August or September. Then of a sudden the tree stands clothed 

 in scarlet! It was not so yesterday. And one by one the leaves 

 fall while yet fresh and smooth. 



There is no more desirable tree for the home grounds, for 

 parks and roadsides than the red maple. It is quick and sure 

 to grow in the East if the soil is moderately rich and moist. Young 

 trees are trim as beeches in their snug pale grey bark. The fram.e 

 of the tree is admirably adapted to resist breaking in the wind. 

 The branches are short, numerous, erect, not heavy, nor spread- 

 ing enough to be torn loose from the trunk as the silver maple's so 

 often are. The tree is beautiful at all ages and through all seasons, 

 and it has no bad habits. 



As it comes quickly from seed in the woods, there can be no 

 objection to taking up woodland saplings for home planting. Or 

 they may be obtained from nurseries. If seeds are desired, 

 collect and plant them in early summer; they will not, as a rule, 

 germinate if kept until the following spring. Nature gives 

 helpful suggestions. The woodland carpet and the neighbouring 

 cornfield show a forest of tiny red maples under six inches high 

 by the middle of summer. 



Unfortunately, the silver maple, a quick, cheap and sure 

 grower, has been exploited by nurserymen to the overshadowing 

 of the claims of its handsomer but more exacting relative. It 

 is rare to see a red maple in the upper valley of the Mississippi, 

 though its natural range covers these states to western Iowa, 

 and along the lower course of the Ohio River and following the 

 "Father of Waters" it becomes a dominant tree in wet land. 

 Nurserymen near Chicago complain that it is hard to get good 

 seed; that the tree grows very slowly at first, and the dangers 

 of drought and hard winters make the cost of one red maple 

 equal to that of ten silver maples. One of these days people 

 will realise that it is ten times more beautiful. Then the study 

 of its preferences and peculiarities will pay the nurseryman, and 

 the tree will be more generally and successfully planted to super- 

 sede the silver maple in the moist soil and humid air of the North 

 Central States. It is a foregone conclusion that a swamp-loving 

 tree would die of thirst on the plains. Nebraska and Kansas 

 have tried in vain to introduce it. 



Nobody knows what red maple log is going to reveal the 

 beautiful curly and bird's-eye grain when sawed into boards. 



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