790 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



perched in the tree tops to nab him in 

 the act. All our soils, granite, lime- 

 stone, clay and sand seem to suit the 

 chestnut equally well, as I believe that 

 no section can show any larger or finer 

 trees than any other. Just why it will 

 not grow in Southern Michigan, for 

 instance is a little puzzling but out 

 there as eastern chestnut is a rarity, 

 while further west it is unknown. I 

 believe it is purely a matter of the 

 distribution of so heavy-seeded a tree 

 as the chestnut, and if planted it would 

 succeed. 



Last tree of all, the head of the family, 

 the beech. Grows over our whole 

 area extending to just west of the Miss- 

 issippi. The seed, a three-cornered nut 



about half the size of a chestnut. The 

 tree, one of the most magnificent giants 

 of our forests, a great, smoothbarked 

 fellow, with a huge round crown of 

 small green leaves, turning yellow in 

 the fall and then staying on all winter 

 in russet brown where they give a fine 

 note of color against the white snow. 

 When young, beech will endure shade 

 to an enormous extent, and it forms one 

 of the principal saplings in the under- 

 growth. Luckily they must have sun 

 later or perish, or else soon all our 

 forests would be pure beech, which 

 God forbid. However, the yearly leaf 

 fall from these young trees helps the 

 soil humus even though the roots of 

 these same trees rob the larger ones of 



The American Beech 



ONE OF THE GRANDEST TREES IN OUR FORESTS. WITH SMOOTH GRAY TRUNK AND PERSISTENT YELLOW LEAVES 

 IT IS ALWAYS AN ORNAMENT IN EVERY WINTER FOREST LANDSCAPE 



