How Trees are Multiplied 



lawn or in a fence row. However, they illustrate one more of 

 the methods that trees resort to to insure the perpetuation of 

 their kind. In the race for life the trees with these secondary 

 means of propagation, reinforcing the seed, are winners. Con- 

 sider, for instance, the pines. The one species in the East which 

 comes up from the stump is the pitch pine. It rises like the 

 Phoenix, from devastating fires, and after the sawmill has de- 

 parted, when other species must rely on seeds alone. The result 

 is marked. Though not the most valuable Eastern pine, it is 

 the one best able to hold it? own in the race for life. 



By seeds, by sprouts and by cast-off twigs the forest has 

 ever renewed its youth and extended its boundaries. By these 

 means it has resisted the forces which work toward its extermina- 

 tion. 



II. THE ARTIFICIAL WAY 



From Nature man learned the three ways of propagating 

 plants: by seeds, by sprouts and by cuttings; and he invented 

 grafting, for which there is little suggestion in Nature. In all 

 these he improved upon Nature, for he threw his energies into 

 one single: enterprise, sacrificing everything to its success. Look 

 at the wild fruit trees in the woods; then look at the orchards, 

 their lineal descendants. Look at the wild grasses scattered over 

 the earth; the fields of grain have come from them. Look at 

 the scattered cedars in an old pasture; then consider the serried 

 ranks of them in the forests of Germany, standing close like 

 rye in a field, waiting for the harvest that converts their wood 

 into cedar pencils. The forester replants the ground, cultivates, 

 weeds, thins and prunes the young trees for another harvest a 

 century hence. 



The growing of young trees from seed makes a large nursery 

 business in all civilised countries. The seed is selected to discard 

 the inferior qualities. The growing is in rows that are cultivated. 

 Again the poorest are discarded, and only the thrifty seedlings 

 transplanted. When set in their permanent places they are 

 tended and defended against anything that encroaches upon 

 their rights. So they thrive, and yield vastly better returns than 

 their wild relatives, whose life is a long fight for mere existence. 



A fallen willow twig strikes root. Why not strip the tree 

 to its trunk and. plant every bit? It is done. The old stump 



495 



