38 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



THE DWARF OAK OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



Quercus reticulata and Q. undulata, with Q. Arizonica Farther South. 



The oak family is represented in Colorado and Rocky Mountain region 

 by two varieties, which are ordinarily but low growing shrubs. They are 

 found in the lower altitudes, 5,000 to 7,000 feet, covering many slopes. Sel- 

 dom do either variety attain a diameter to exceed four inches and a height of 

 five to fifteen feet, but, occasionally, when isolated, and in favorable locality, 

 they attain a diameter of twenty-four inches and a height of forty feet. 



These oaks are propagated from acorns and also from underground root 

 stems a clump covering four hundred square feet and comprising fifty stems 

 are all connected by the same root system. This is at variance with the oak 

 family regulations, as known elsewhere. We present two views of these 

 trees, one which we photographed on the Divide near Palmer Lake, being 18 

 inches in diameter; the other view is a representative group, taken near Colo- 

 rado Springs. 



The acorns are small and form the principal food, in autumn, of the 

 numerous small animals and birds, and, as provided by nature, these animals 

 and fowls become the great tree planters and protectors, dropping an acorn 

 here and there, accidentally, however, which produce new clumps of oak to 

 supply future birds with necessary food, and by destroying noxious insects, 

 the birds also preserve the oaks from their depreciations. 



It would be a tedious process to cut cordwood from these small oaks; 

 they are not suited for milling purposes ; and thus to the fuel gatherer and 

 lumberman these bushes are of^io appreciable value for money making. 



Nature, however, has many and varied methods of planting forests and 

 covering the bare spots of the earth with verdure. 



These insignificant dwarf oaks are of vast importance in this great 

 scheme of nature. Where the lumberman is tearing down and destroying 

 the trees, nature is creating new forests and takes advantage of the oak the 

 birds and the squirrels to aid her. 



These deciduous plants accumulate leaf mold about the base of their 

 stems, soil is formed and held in place, snow is retained to moisten the soil. 

 the seeds of pine, spruce and fir, dropping in the clump of bushes, take root, 

 are protected from stock and from the scorching sun, and in a few years be- 

 come great trees. Other seeds in great numbers fall to the ground, "some on 

 stony ground," many on exposed spots where the sun quickly destroys them 



