SPRING ACTION 



leaves, though it begins and ends sooner, are 

 formed to a considerable extent before the tree itself 

 shows any signs of reviving. The rootlets of the 

 former year are not cast off like the leaves, but 

 are converted into " root wood," which, from the 

 circumstance of its being covered from the light, 

 does not contain so much charcoal as the stem and 

 branches. The sap ascends through the vessels of 

 the wood, and in all probability dissolves the 

 peculiar matter which is in the cells and takes it 

 into the currrent : for that matter is soluble in 

 water, and as there is less and less of it in the 

 wood as that gets older, it is probable that it is a 

 sort of store prepared toward the end of each 

 season, to assist in the action at the beginning of 

 the next. 



As the spring action begins in the lower part 

 of the tree, if any part of the trunk offers more 

 resistance than another, from the bark being 

 tightened or what is called hide-bound, or any 

 other cause, the tree, if it be of a species which 

 puts out lateral buds, is apt to throw out suckers 

 at the roots, or new shoots on the stem and large 

 branches, and there very much injure both the 

 growth and appearance of the trees. These are 

 very apt to appear on fruit trees, and indeed on 

 all trees that are cultivated out of their natural 

 habits. But when the tree is uninjured, as it has 

 every chance of being in a seedling oak of the 

 first year, the whole tree soon comes into action ; 

 the buds are expanded into leaves, and lengthened 

 into twigs. After the tree has begun to act, and 

 thence till the leaves have attained their full size, 

 the juice or sap of the tree is in the wood, and 

 the bark is comparatively dry. But after the leaves 



