496 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



it gets over ordinary ground with rapidity. Then, too, if 

 poshed it will start to burrow, and it is truly marvelous 

 to note how rapidly it can make such an excavation in 

 favorable ground. Should the fellowget well started before 

 you overtake it, it requires a tremendous pull by the tail to 

 get it out it keeping up a plaintive squeaking all the time ; 

 it will almost allow its tail to be pulled off before relin- 

 quishing its hold. It is very fond of ants, but will also eat 

 certain vegetables and even carrion, if hard up for food. 



Down in Nicaragua they keep this animal as a pet, for 

 the practical use of ridding their houses of ants ; not in- 

 frequently they have even bred in captivity, producing 

 three or four very cute little young ones to the litter. In 

 color, our armadillo is of a pale gray, the hair grayish 

 buff, sometimes tipped with blackish. When captured, it 

 is often caked with hardened mud, which evidently stuck 

 to its bony buckler while burrowing where the soil 

 was wet. 



UNWRITTEN HISTORY 



BY DONALD BRUCE 



T^iHRTY-SIX years ago, a telegraph bracket and in- 

 sulator was nailed to a Douglas fir tree near Areata, 

 California. A few years later a falling branch badly 

 damaged it and the wire which it had been supporting 



TELEGRAPH INSULATOR 



Class insulator wooden bracket and iron nails uncovered in sawing 



a Douglas fir stave bolt. 



was removed. The tree was growing thriftily, adding 

 every summer to its diameter a new layer of woody 

 material and this growth gradually pushed out around 

 the bracket on all sides leaving it burried in the tree 



trunk. At the end of 26 years (or 10 years ago) the 

 tip of the glass insulator finally disappeared from sight 

 and the only trace of it that could still be seen was a 

 scarcely noticeable lump which looked like nothing more 

 than a healed-over branch stub. A few weeks ago the 

 tree was felled and the wood manufactured into barrel 

 staves. The screech of the saw which happened to 

 graze the edge of the glass called attention to this un- 

 usual "fossil." 



On spliting open the stave bolt the whole story be- 

 came clear in all its details, as is shown by the accom- 

 paning illustration. The clearly defined annual rings of 

 the rapidly growing tree form an unimpeachable his- 

 torical record. The wood of the insulator bracket is still 

 in good condition, and the oak of which it was made has 

 received an unintentional preservative treatment, being 

 thoroughly impregnated with the resin of the surrounding 

 fir. The interesting specimen can now be seen in the 

 wood collection of the Forestry Division at the Univer- 

 sity of California. 



ONLY A SAPLING 



IN 1902, a tract of long leaf pine timber was cut at 

 * Urania. A small sapling about 10 inches in diameter 

 was left standing, which, with other suppressed trees 

 commenced to grow rapidly. Year after year this tree 

 bore seed, which as they ripened were scattered by the 

 winds and soon four or five acres were reforested with 

 a fine growth of seedlings, some almost as large now as 

 the parent tree at the time the forest was denuded. An 

 occasional fire would sweep over the. forest, leaving a 

 scar which would soon heal. Hogs exacted their toll 

 and other enemies were constantly at work, but today 

 there is a full stand of 500 to 1,000 seedlings and sap- 

 lings to the acre, and regeneration is complete.. In 

 May, 1920, Professors Chapman and Bryant, with a 

 class of thirteen students from Yale University were at 

 Urania pursuing a course of study in forestry, and in 

 studying tree growth, decided to cut this seed tree, for 

 that is just what it was, in order to make careful meas- 

 urements and to cut sample sections therefrom to prove 

 to the careless that forests could be grown profitably and 

 that seed trees must be left on ^c..-..'-d lands if our 

 forests are to be perpetuated. "Only a Sapling," has 

 performed its mission a young forest is growing. 



