148 Effects of Climate and Soil 



EFFECTS OF CLIMATE AND SOIL ON THE ROOTS OF TREES. 



If we go into the forests of New England or New York, we find the 

 ground covered with a network of roots, pushing themselves above the 

 surface. When this forest is cleared of the timber and brushwood, it is a 

 tedious process to cover the newly-sown grain. The roots that reticulate the 

 entire surfirce prevent the harrow from stirring the soil, and repeated har- 

 rowings are required to accomplish the object ; and, even then, the work is 

 .but imperfectly done- To plant orchard-trees under this condition of things 

 is simply absurd. We must wait patiently for the forest-roots to decay, so 

 that the surface-soil can be broken up, and something like culture attained. 



The roots of the deciduous trees give way in three or four years; the hem- 

 locks follow ; but the pines must be grubbed out. 



In the Western forests, the case is different : the roots strike deep into the 

 soil, and are not seen along the surface : each tree stands like a post, and 

 the plough can run close to it. Wherever you can drive a team between 

 the trees, the plough can follow, as in an old field. On the timbered por- 

 tions of this State, the forest is usually cleared off in winter ; the trunks of 

 the trees cut into cord-wood, rails, posts, hewed timber, or railroad ties ; 

 the brush piled into large heaps, and burned. The ground is then ready 

 for the plough ; and, whatever crop is planted or sown, the plough is used 

 to prepare the soil. The extensive orchards, vineyards, and plantations of 

 small fruits in the south part of this State, and along the Upper Missis- 

 sippi and Missouri Rivers, occupy lands that have been thus carved out of 

 the primeval forest. 



But there are skirts of the forest, or rather copses of brushwood, among 

 which arc mingled oak, hickory, and aspen, through which the prairie-fires 

 annually sweep, often destroying the trunks and branches, and leaving the 

 roots uninjured : these have surface-roots, or points of sprouting, and are 

 called grubs, or grub-land, and must be treated like the Eastern forests ; 

 that is, the brush cut in midsummer, and Burned, so as to kill the roots, 

 and then await the slow process of decay. When the fire is kept out of 

 this grub-land, it soon assumes all the appearance and characteristics of the 

 old forests. We have thousands of acres of this new forest-growth, thirty 

 to forty years old, in the north part of the State. 



