224 XATUFLVL HISTORY OP THE FARM 



not as indi\'i duals, but as masses, with their architecture 

 hidden, and their foHage piled in shocks of green, full of 

 lights and shadows. And on the far horizon they are still 

 in our \'iew, si^read out in innumerable companies in a 

 long thin line where overspread with pale haze. 



The well-grown cliunp of trees shows us, from the out- 

 side, only its leaves, with just enough of glimi^ses of supijort- 

 ing framework to suggest stabiHty. The leaves are all on 

 the outside, spread out broadly to the sun. We put our 

 head through the leafy cover to the inside and look up — and 

 it is like looking into an attic, seeing beams and rafters in- 

 stead of familiar roofs. Inside all is gray bare boughs 

 forking, and forking again, and stretching up to and sup- 

 porting the overshadowing leaf -cover. We examine the 

 outside carefully, and w^e see that all the leaves are mutually 

 adjusted to get the maximum benefit from the light. The 

 removal of a single leaf alters and mars the adjustment; 

 the overtiuTL of a single spray sets it grotesquely awr\\ 



How the outside of a tree appears in the foreground of the 

 landscape, depends on the size and form and niunber of its 

 leaves, and on the way they are held up into the light. Foli- 

 age masses are endlessly varied. They are ciunulous niasses 

 in the sugar-maple — ^masses of broad, shade-resistant leaves 

 heaped u]) and compound-heaped hke the front of a thunder- 

 cloud. They are cancellate masses in the white birch, with 

 its small thin lea\-es in open order like latticework. They 

 are frondose masses in ailanthus and sumac and oilier trees 

 ha\'ing compound leaves. They are soft and fun-y c\iinders, 

 rather s^Tnmetrically arranged, in the spruces and tamarack; 

 and other trees show all grades between these tyix^s. Hick- 

 ories are given to be a bit irregular, and to hold their sprays 

 rather stiffly, while the beech lets the fringe of its leaf-cover 

 run down in long ornate spra>'s, that are poised in the 

 hollows of the woods with exquisite iTace. The softest ef- 



