CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT 



47 



striplings back, yet some of the latter are managing to get 

 through, and once clear, they will shoot up fast because 

 they will then be fully entered on their race for life. As 

 their tops close together the slower ones will in turn be 

 shaded out even though they may have survived the first 

 struggle. The shade will deepen ; their stems will not be 

 able to thicken up because they will not be able to manu- 

 facture plant food. Then will follow the successive 

 deaths of those which are the least fit to survive, and the 

 open space which you see now will in a few years be 

 occupied by not many more trees than were originally 

 there. 



If you look about you will find certain trees that are 

 crooked or lopsided, with all of their branches to one 

 side where they could more readily get at the light, 

 away from some tree which is crowding them. Some 

 trees have fitted themselves to survive under dense shade, 

 and can hold on to life for many years, waiting to take 

 their places in the upper stories of the forest when open- 

 ings occur. 



Yet as we have seen in the earlier articles, it is not 

 always a struggle. The older trees are not only the 

 parents, but are actually the nurses of the smaller trees. 

 They protect them from the fierce heat of the sun, which 

 would soon wither a growth which has become accus- 

 tomed to coming up in the shade. They protect the 

 smaller trees from winds and from heavy snow and 

 sleet, which would break them down while they were 

 still young if it were not for the nurse trees or big 

 brother trees that take the brunt of the storms. These 

 phases of the life stories of the trees the forester has 

 to read, and indeed, to know by heart. He is able to 

 overcome some of the wastefulness in nature, and he can 

 so manage the forest that he can help to grow better 

 trees than can be grown by nature unaided. 



But the man who does not think of forestry is likely 

 to add to nature's wastefulness. If he goes into the 

 woods to get fence posts, or repair material, or logs for 

 the sawmills ; and if he cuts out the best trees of the most 

 valuable kinds, his timber tract will be getting worse and 

 worse all the time. Those trees which he does not want 

 and can not use will be left to take the place of the good 

 ones which he cuts, and in the course of time he will 

 have a woodlot made up of timber weeds. The forester, 

 on the other hand, will see that enough of the good trees 

 are left to furnish a succession of crops, and to furnish 

 seed for future crops. He will destroy the trees that 

 are of no use to him. In New York, for example, he 

 will get rid of dogwood, the scrub oaks, and gray birch, 

 and will favor hickory and white oak in a hardwood 

 stand. In most places in the state where white pine 

 grows successfully, he will favor white pine. In a shorter 

 time than nature can bring it about, he will have a well- 

 stocked stand of useful trees. 



It can be seen, therefore, that when man enters the 

 fight, which the trees are waging against each other, he 

 will throw an advantage to some trees and will put 

 obstacles in the way of others. If he knows the ones to 

 favor, he will increase the usefulness of the forest to 



man, but if he interferes blindly, taking the best of what 

 he wants, he is very likely to throw the balance against 

 the very trees that he ought to have. 



This is the reason why everyone should know some- 

 thing about forestry, and should learn to use his or her 

 eyes in the woods to see how the trees grow, how they 

 struggle against each other, and how they help one 

 another. If one does this, he will soon get acquainted 

 with the general facts of forestry, and will know the trees 

 with an intimate and personal feeling which is much bet- 

 ter than merely knowing their names. He will realize 

 why the foresters make shade frames over the seedling 

 beds in the forest-tree nurseries, and will realize also 

 why the foresters in setting out plantations will supply 

 what are known as nurse trees, either to furnish shade 

 or to stimulate the young trees into the necessary upward 

 growth. 



The next story will tell about the different kinds of 

 trees, but in a new way, not according to their family 

 relationships as the scientists know them, but accord- 

 ing to their uses to man. 



STATE FORESTRY IN COLORADO 



AS the greater portion of the timbered area of 

 / \ Colorado is protected by the National Forests, the 

 * "State Forester, W. J. Morrill, is bending his 

 energies toward encouraging tree planting, and the preser- 

 vation of fence posts in the plains region of eastern 

 Colorado. He has just returned from a five weeks' 

 lecture tour in that part of the State, where he had charge 

 of farm institute work, the team comprising a dry 

 farming expert, a dairyman, and the State Forester. 

 Institutes were held in twenty-seven communities, good 

 interest being shown in all places. 



Much of the land has been homesteaded during the 

 past ten years ; the farmers generally are prosperous, and 

 the time is propitious to advocate tree planting for wind- 

 breaks and the ornamentation of dooryards. In most 

 places visited, the black locust, next to poplars and native 

 cottonwood, is most commonly planted, as borers are 

 attacking the former species only in a few localities. Mr. 

 Morrill is advocating in much of the territory visited the 

 "roof scheme" for windbreaks, using the black locust for 

 the center row, honey locust for flanking rows, and a 

 border of tamerix, Russian olive, and wild plum. 



He also exhibited a model of a farmer's fence-post 

 preserving plant for the open-tank treatment of posts, 

 but also strongly recommended the brush treatment with 

 coal tar. 



It is probable that a State nursery will be established 

 next spring at Fort Collins, to supply suitable stock at 

 cost of production. 



Villages in the State are also becoming interested in 

 reform in street planting, and interest is being shown 

 also in the landscaping or planting of village and rural 

 school grounds. 



