FORESTRY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 



857 



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"Isn't that wonderful," said Mrs. 

 Squeaky. "You must feel very proud 

 of him now. I have often wondered 

 where those bunches of little trees 

 came from." 



"That's the way it happens," said 

 Chatter Box pleasantly, "they have 

 come from forgotten squirrel caches. 



So you might just as well have the 

 ones I would lose and I'll be more 

 careful with the rest." 



He scampered off to collect some 

 cones for himself and left Mrs. 

 Squeaky to explain the mystery of the 

 little groups of pine trees to her hus- 

 band. 



THE BALSAM AND THE BIRCH 



Said the little balsam seedling to the big white birch 



You tower up above me like the spire of a church, 



But the day is fast approaching and it's not far away 



When I'll be growing faster than you dream of today. 



I shall still be growing upward when you have reached your height 



And then I'll drop my leaves on you with all my might! 



THE CONIFERS WHICH ARE NOT EVERGREENS 



(ANSWER TO BOY SCOUT QUESTION NO. 1) 



HERE are in the United 

 States just two genera of 

 coniferous trees which drop 

 all of their leaves, or need- 

 les, in the winter like the 

 broadleaved trees. All the 

 other conifers, or cone-bearing trees, 

 drop some of their needles every year, 

 but always retain enough of them to 

 be called evergreens. 



One of these genera is the larch, of 

 which there are three native species, 

 one in the lowlands of the Rocky 

 Mountains and the West Coast, one 

 near the timber line on the very high 

 mountains of the west, and one, the 

 tamarack, in the swamps of the North- 

 east and around the Great Lakes. 

 The needles on these trees turn a quite 

 brilliant yellow in the fall, about the 

 time that the hardwood leaves are 

 turning, and later fall off, leaving the 

 tree bare through the winter. The 

 fresh, green needles of spring, ar- 

 ranged in rosettes on little bumps 

 along the twigs, make them very 

 pretty. 



The other genus, of which there is 

 only a single species, is the bald 

 cypress. It is one of the largest trees 

 in the Eastern United States, and is 

 found only in the swamps of the 

 southern states. Like the larch, it 

 sheds its needles and many of its 

 smaller twigs in the fall and remains 

 bald through the winter. 



It has another and very interesting 

 peculiarity. Since its roots are almost 

 continuously under water and there- 

 fore very much in need of air they 

 send up peculiar growths, resembling 

 irregular cones, to the surface of the 

 water. These are known as "cypress 

 knees" and there are often dozens of 

 them rising from the roots of a single 

 tree. Where the water is deep the 

 roots are tall, where the water is 

 shallow, they are short. If you wade 

 around a cypress tree, you will cer- 

 tainly discover some of the knees 

 that are below the surface of the 

 water, even if you do not see any 

 above it. 



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