^PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 181 



Many questions are easier asked than answered. Yet the three thousand 

 or more years of written history are crowded with records wherein nations have 

 been degraded and dispersed after the silent action of forests had ceased, their 

 influences having been lost with their destruction. The most powerful forces of 

 nature are silent forces, as witness the unexplained and unexplainable electric cur- 

 rent. Controlled by man, it moves his machinery, transports his messages deep 

 under the sea or over distant mountains, and carries his voice across a continent. 

 Controlled by nature, it guides the air currents laden with moisture, which is de- 

 posited upon the earth with systematic regularity, while uncontrolled it vents its 

 fury upon the oak or any object which intervenes in its pathway. 



Witness the power of gravitation, moving the heavenly bodies with precision 

 in their courses, or bringing the apple to the ground. Recall the influence of the 

 moon upon the tides. Yet not the least is the wonderful influence of the trees, 

 acting through electrical energies upon all the powers of nature. 



These questions have been discussed in ARIIORICULTUKE with frequency, and 

 are available to any who wish to pursue the subject. 



IMPROVING SOIL CONDITIONS. 



One of the most important problems is the improvement of the soil of the 

 State. 



A mountain range is slowly broken down by the frosts, washed far down 

 the stream by the force of flowing waters, finely pulverized by the continuous 

 grinding in its long passage to the sea, and is there deposited in the still waters, 

 where it remains until by some of earth's upheavals it is raised above the surface 

 and washed by ocean waves. Under certain conditions this pulverized material 

 may become stone again, while under other conditions it may remain as sand. 

 Still it is not soil. To form a soil there must be incorporated with it large quan- 

 tities of humus or vegetable material, and as this decays it becomes a fertile, plant- 

 producing earth. 



Nature's every efforts are to produce plant life in the greatest profusion. 

 First, the simple forms of vegetation are distributed, the seeds in myriads being 

 strewn by the winds. Then, as these decay, higher forms of plant life succeed, 

 until eventually the highest types of forest trees are produced. . 



Forests are important factors in converting this dead, inert material, pulver- 

 ized granite, quartz, lime and sand stones, as they came from yon mountain range 

 through these various channels to their present location, into suitable food for the 

 nourishment of living plants. The roots of trees strike deep into the soil and 

 subsoil, and dying, leave therein the carbon, nitrogen, potash and other elements 

 of which they are composed, which aid in this soil-making process. The atmos- 

 phere and water are carried down into the earth, following the many roots, bear- 

 ing such elements as are contained in air and water, and thus both chemically and 

 mechanically is this process aided. 



The annual deposit of leaves, decaying branches, woody materials and annual 

 weeds and grasses, incorporated with this sand, all add to the soil's fertility. 



Forest trees are capable of reaching and assimilating those elements which 

 are required for their support as they are dissolved by moisture, at various depths 



