FORESTRY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 



BY BRISTOW ADAMS 

 THE TREES IN WINTER 



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S BETWEEN skat- 

 ing, skeeing, sled- 

 ding, and tobog- 

 anning we manage 

 to be out doors a 

 good deal at this 

 winter season, and 

 also have abetter 

 chance than in the 

 summer to study 

 the trees. They 

 have uncovered 

 themselves to us, 

 and if we know them at all well, this is 

 the time that they are most easily recog- 

 nized. But most persons do not know 

 them well enough to understand the 

 messages they give us when their cloaks 

 of leaves are off. 



Last year our boys and girls went to 

 see the objects sent by other boys and 

 girls to the exhibit of work done by 

 children in the country schools of New 

 York. This was during "Farmers' 

 Week " at Cornell University, when 

 thousands of farmers, with their wives 

 and their children go to school for a 

 week at the college of agriculture. There 

 are lessons for every member of the 

 family, and even a nursery to take care 

 of the " teeniest-weeniest " babies while 

 their mothers learn about cooking, and 

 sewing, and how to look out for these 

 tiny ones, so they may grow up to be 

 straight and strong boys and girls. 



But that isn't what I started to tell 

 you. Last year four farm boys came to 

 Farmers' Week with great bundles of 

 twigs, just a lot of sticks and branches, 

 it seemed. They could tell at sight what 

 kind of a tree or bush each came from. 

 They knew by the shape of the twig, the 

 form of the bud, the color of the broken 

 end, as with the brown pith in a butter- 

 nut branch, and by a number of other 

 signs that they had learned. The pro- 

 fessors in the forestry school at Cornell 

 owned up that they couldn't have done 

 as well as these boys did unless they had 

 studied pretty hard beforehand. 



My boys and girls have an old book- 

 case that is their museum. Here they 



have shells, rocks, twigs, and all sorts of 

 butterflies, moths, and other insects that 

 their Aunt Ruby taught them to collect 

 and mount. The twig shelf is always 

 having additions made, and the keys that 

 unlock their secrets are being more and 

 more used. First, we note the bark, then 

 the buds, as to size, shape, and color; 

 sometimes the winter fruits are present, 

 and these help. 



HERE are some of the tags we have 

 learned: The position of the buds 

 is a good index; for example, 

 maple buds are opposite one another on 

 the stem, while those of elm, poplar, and 

 beech are alternated or zig-zagged up the 

 stem. The catalpa and a few others have 

 their buds in a circle around the branch. 

 Color will help; sassafras bark stays 

 green all winter, basswood is reddish, 

 and some of the dogwoods a brilliant red. 



Taste seems to be Toto's favorite 

 way of telling. Ever since he could first 

 grab anything it went immediately to his 

 mouth; and he has never got over the 

 habit. Sassafras and sweet birch are 

 easy for most of us to tell by taste, but he 

 says that tulip poplar, soft maple, cherry, 

 walnut, elm, and locust are just as easy 

 when you know 'em. The leaf-scar, 

 where the old leaf came off last fall, is 

 another sure sign, when you know it. 

 Some folks say that the horse chestnut 

 got its name from the fact that its leaf 

 scar is shaped like the bottom of a 

 horse's hoof. 



Buds are probably the surest way the 

 twigs have of telling their names, even 

 though they can not speak out for our 

 ears to hear. The sign-language of the 

 buds is sure to those who know it. And 

 one can't expect to talk on one's fingers 

 at school unless the alphabet has been 

 learned. Just so with the buds! The 

 horse chestnut buds are large and sticky ; 

 those of the beech are long and sharply 

 pointed, smooth and glossy; basswood 

 buds are little fat ones. Some of you 

 will note the silky buds of magnolia, 

 others the red colored buds of maple, 

 and the black ones of the pussy willow. 

 In a general way the buds are something 





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