312 BEECH 



production of excellent fuel. In such cases it need not be 

 planted as closely as when grown for saw timber, for the 

 trees will produce a greater weight of wood when grown 

 ten or twelve feet apart than if planted closely enough to 

 compel them to drop their lower limbs when young. Its 

 little nuts are rich and delicious and are highly prized by 

 men and nut-eating animals of all kinds. They should be 

 gathered as soon as ripe and not allowed to become at all 

 dry, for their vitality will be destroyed if they do. They 

 should be planted at once or stratified in moist sand until 

 spring and placed in the ground as soon as conditions will 

 permit. Beech is a favorite timber tree in Europe, but it 

 is there quite distinct in growth and character in fact, 

 a different species. 



In some localities it is seriously affected with what is 

 known as " white rot." A fungus attacks it, and while the 

 outside may be alive nearly the whole interior is decayed. 

 The United States Forest Service states that ninety-five 

 per cent of the Beech in the Adirondack forests of New 

 York is affected. The disease is known to exist quite seri- 

 ously elsewhere. 



