PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 125 



of a forest, the trees are one sided and bent away from the object which cuts 

 off the light. 



The walnut is particularly subject to this law. One nut planted in the 

 midst of a quarter-acre field will in time extend its branches to cover the entire 

 field, but its trunk will be very short. Yet fifty trees grown upon the same 

 area will form tall trunks giving high value to the lumber. 



However, if 680 trees be planted on this same quarter-acre tract (the 

 4x4 feet system), none will make trees, but spindling shafts starved and stunted 

 forever. 



There are certain trees which have the habit of pushing forward their 

 terminal shoot with great vigor, the side branches also making upright 

 growth, such as the Lombardy poplar ; but these are few. 



In order that profitable timber be secured, and the greatest increase in a 

 given period, there should be approximately two hundred trees upon each 

 acre of land. 



We seldom appreciate any possession during its abundance, nor until it 

 has disappeared is its want felt. 



One of America's most abundant forest trees, the walnut, as a commer- 

 cial timber, is practically exhausted. Can it again be restored? Will the 

 National and State Governments render substantial assistance? And will 

 individual land owners begin its restoration, and, further, will it pay? These 

 are some of the questions which we propose to discuss. 



DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. 



The Creator in His wisdom has devised various methods and adopted 

 many agencies for the distribution of forest trees. 



The wind carries those seeds which are light and downy many miles from 

 the parent tree, and those of lesser weight but which are winged, to lesser distances. 



Streams of water bear others which will float, depositing them in the 

 soft mud along their shores. 



Others are surrounded with edible pulp or pleasant juice, which is relished 

 by birds, and such fruits are devoured by these feathered planters of forests, the 

 seeds growing into forests often very far distant. 



Wild animals, and especially the smaller quadrupeds, gather acorns, nuts 

 and edible fruits, store them for time of need, and dropping some by the way 

 or leaving others in their store-houses, become, unintentionally, the builders 

 of forests. 



Man has seldom been charged with forest planting in America, yet the 

 Aborigines were the principal distributers of the walnut and other nut trees 

 from which a goodly portion of their food was obtained. 



As the American Indians had no fixed homes, but wandered at will up 

 and down the great rivers from the St. Lawrence and the Northern Lakes 

 to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Hudson River westward to the Missouri 

 and beyond, camping along the streams, visiting with tribes with whom they 

 were friendly, and warring with others to whom they had enmity, they car- 

 ried the nuts from place to place, some of which were dropped and became 

 trees. 



