76 TWENTY-SEVENTH REPORT ON THE STATE MUSEUM. 



Long continued dry weather may be mentioned as one of 

 the most probable causes. The terrible destruction of conif- 

 erous trees, that happened in the winter of 1871 and 1872, is 

 thought by many to be attributable to a lack of the necessary 

 amount of moisture ; nor so far as I am informed, did the 

 malady of the spruces in the " North Woods" attract special 

 attention previous to that unfortunate winter. The propor- 

 tion of deaths is said to be greatest among the trees of low 

 lands ; and this is what might be expected, for such trees are 

 generally less vigorous, and therefore less likely to withstand 

 any unfavorable change in their circumstances, and especially 

 a change from their usual abundance of moisture to a scarcity 

 of it. As the miser becomes more miserly by the increase of 

 his hoarded treasures, so the rapid destruction of our forests 

 may be accelerated by nature herself when man becomes too 

 avaricious and too improvident to manifest a just apprecia- 

 tion of the wild woodland, one of nature' s choicest gifts. 



An interesting instance of the special liability of weak, 

 unthrifty plants to the attacks of parasitic fungi was observed 

 in Essex county. Small sphagnous marshes abound among 

 the Adirondack Mts., and about the shores of many of the 

 small lakes of that region. Upon and about these marshes 

 the spruces are almost always small and starved, or sickly in 

 appearance. The branches are abundant, the lowest, in most 

 cases, springing from the very base of the trunk ; but the 

 internodes are short and small, indicating very slow growth 

 and the leaves seldom attain the usual size, or have the dark, 

 green hue of those on more vigorous, healthy plants. The 

 closeness of the "grain," or concentric layers of wood, also 

 indicates extreme slowness of growth, thirty rings in one 

 instance forming a trunk scarcely more than an inch in 

 diameter. 



Also on the high summits of the mountains, a similar 

 starved and feeble growth is apparent. The trees become 

 dwarfed, bushy and half prostrate. They cling close to the 

 ground as if seeking shelter from the fierce winds, while their 

 trunks and branches are generally clad with a shaggy coat of 

 lichens, as if some such external protection against the bitter 

 cold of those elevated places were needed. So unlike the 

 ordinary spruce trees do these appear, that any but a close 

 observer might readily be pardoned for doubting if they 



