IV. The Chautauqua Woodland 



Chautauqua has two distinctive features, which give charm 

 and beauty to the Assembly Grounds, and to the region. 

 These features are, first the lake, and second, the woodlands. 

 The woodlands are but remnants of the great primitive forest 

 that once covered all of western New York. The primitive 

 forest was mixed hardwoods and conifers, white pine, hem- 

 lock, maple, beech, and birch were the common species. 



In nature the tree rarely grows singly, by itself. The iso- 

 lated tree is the result of man's clearing or planting. Nat- 

 urally trees tend to form solid stands, either pure or mixed. 

 Pure stands are trees all of the same species, as white pine, 

 sugar maple, and beech. Pure stands are lumbered first, be- 

 cause of the larger quantity of timber of a kind. Mixed 

 stands include a variety of species. Most of the Eastern 

 woodlands are mixed stands. Some trees never form pure 

 stands, but occur only here and there in the forest, ex. horn- 

 beam, cherry, tulip-tree. 



The Chautauqua Grove is a mixed stand, with sugar maple 

 and beech predominant. The form of trees is greatly modi- 

 fied by their association in the woodland. The struggle for 

 head-room and sunlight is unceasing. When a veteran falls, 

 a score of saplings crowd into the opening. The woodland 

 is a distinctive life unit, with many features differentiating it 

 from adjacent areas. Contrast the life in a lake-side wood- 

 land with the life in the waters of the lake. 



The woodlands have been stripped from most of our East- 

 ern agricultural land. In the average region one may find 

 every stage, from the original, or the second-growth, forest, 

 through the clearings to the treeless tilled fields. The intro- 

 duction of wire fences is even robbing the fence-rows of their 

 last thin shred of forest. 



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