506 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A FAVORITE HAUNT OF THE BLACK BIRCH. 



the keys ripen and come down in 

 early June --the streets are covered 

 with them along about Commencement 

 time. In the West this tree is exten- 

 sively cut and sold for the same grade 

 lumber work for which we use hem- 

 lock and "Carolina" pine in the East- 

 sheathing, underflooring, scaffolding, 

 etc., but in the Middle Atlantic States 

 the silver maple is not at all common, 

 growing wild, and you may not en- 

 counter more than one or two specimens 

 in your forest. It is preeminently the 

 maple for lawns and the border of 

 driveways, as its leaves are very easily 

 handled, burning easily or else disin- 

 tegrating on the sod during the winter. 

 Except for such purposes and for an 

 occasional touch of yellow on a forest 

 hillside, this maple is hardly to be en- 

 couraged. It will grow on almost any 

 soil not too swampy but cannot endure 

 shade, and should be planted where it 

 can get at least 10 to 4 o'clock sun. 



THE BLACK MAPLE. 



Setting aside the mountain maple and 

 the black variety of the sugar maple, 



the most plentiful member of the fam- 

 ily growing wild is the moosewood or 

 striped maple. A large, coarse leaf with 

 rounded base, somewhat resembling the 

 red maple but never to be taken for it, 

 for the moosewood is usually a large 

 bush, and all its smaller branches are 

 dark-green with characteristic white 

 stripes. Any New England country 

 boy can tell you all about it, for he 

 makes his whistles of it. The keys are 

 pretty, hanging in long, drooping pen- 

 dants in pairs, ripening in August. 

 The tree prefers the moist hillsides and 

 banks of lakes, and if Nature grows it 

 at all it will occur in such profusion as 

 to require discouragement rather than 

 encouragement. Although it occurs in 

 cool, mountain brook ravines as far 

 south as Georgia, I doubt if it would 

 thrive if grown in hardwood forests 

 much south of northern Connecticut. 

 On the whole, a rather handsome little 

 maple with its immense sap-green 

 leaves, turning bright yellow in Autumn, 

 but hardly important enough to require 

 especial effort in its introduction. Use- 

 ful to campers because a tea of its 



