284 YELLOW POPLAR 



until it fairly overcomes its competitors for light, frequently 

 showing in adult trees seventy-five or more feet without a 

 limb. When it attains a mastery in the struggle for light, 

 it will develop large limbs instead of increasing in height ; 

 but if overtaken by its neighbors, and the contest is re- 

 newed, it will again mount upward and leave its ambitious 

 large limbs to care for themselves or die. These will, in 

 time, die and drop off, and decay in the main stem is likely 

 to follow. When growing in the open, it forms a conical 

 crown, the lower limbs reaching out so far that the base of 

 the cone is nearly, or quite, as great as its height. Its lead- 

 ing shoot, however, maintains its ascendancy and a forked 

 tree is seldom seen. Here, as well as when growing among 

 competitors for light, the foliage will mainly be found at 

 the outer ends of the limbs, where it forms so dense a cov- 

 ering that the twigs and small limbs there will die. 



The wood is soft, straight-grained, easily worked, not 

 strong, and is more or less brittle according to age. It 

 takes glue, stain, and paint well, no wood except White 

 Pine rivaling it in the latter feature. In most trees the 

 heartwood is a light yellow or brown, with thin, creamy 

 sap wood ; but, as stated, in some sections the heartwood is 

 nearly white, though not strictly so. There is little distinction 

 between spring and summer wood. The medullary rays are 

 small and inconspicuous. It is not durable when exposed 

 to the ground. It is used for interior finish, furniture, and 

 nearly all purposes for -which White Pine is fitted. 



Unfortunately its propagation is difficult, owing to the 

 fact that not over ten per cent, if so much, of its seeds are 

 fertile, and it has fleshy roots with few fibrous ones, and, 

 hence, is difficult to transplant successfully. It bears seed in 

 great abundance and when quite young. One thirteen years 

 old produced seed and has continued to do so for three 

 successive years, although not abundantly until the last 

 year. It sends up shoots from the crown of the roots. Some- 

 times these make a strong and healthy tree suitable for 

 the saw. 



