WILLOWS AND POPLARS 



This white poplar is at its best on the bank 

 of a stream, where its small forest of "suck- 

 ers" most efficiently protects the slope against 

 the destructive action of floods. One such tree 

 with its family and friends I saw in full bloom 

 along the Susquehanna, and it gave an impres- 

 sion of solidity and size, as well as of lusty 

 vigor, and I have always liked it since. The 

 cheerful bark is not the least of its attractions 

 but it is a tree for its own place, and not for 

 every place, by reason of the tremendous 

 colonizing power of its root -sprouts. 



I wonder, by the way, if many realize the 

 persistence and vigor of the roots of a tree of 

 the "suckering" habit? Some years ago an 

 ailanthus, a tree of vigor and beauty of foliage 

 but nastiness of flower odor, was cut away 

 from its home when excavation was being 

 made for a building, which gave me oppor- 

 tunity to follow a few of its roots. One of 

 them traveled in search of food, and toward 

 the opportunity of sending up a shoot, over a 

 hundred feet ! 



The impending scarcity of spruce logs to 

 feed the hungry maws of the machines that 



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