X. THE FARM WOOD-LOT 



Much can they praise the trees so straight and high, 



The sailing pine; the cedar proud and tall; 



The vine-prop elm; the poplar never dry; 



The builder oak, sole king of forests all; 



The aspen good for staves; the cypress funeral; 



The laurel, meed of mighty conquerors 



And poets sage; the fir that weepeth still; 



The willow, worn of forlorn paramours; 



The yew, obedient to the bender's will; 



The birch for shafts; the sallow for the mill; 



The myrrh sweet-bleeding in the bitter wound;- 



The warlike beech; the ash for nothing ill; 



The fruitful olive; and the platane round; 



The carver holme; the maple, seldom inward sound. 



— Spenser {Faery Queen) . 



When we know the trees by sight, then we may profit by 

 an inquiry as to what kind of associations they form with one 

 another. The farm wood-lot will be a good place for this, 

 especially if it be, as it usually is, a remnant of the original 

 forest cover. We will assume a small piece of wildwood not 

 too closely or too recently cut over, with small areas, at least, 

 of forest cover, and with a goodly remnant of brushwood. 

 There are openings even in primeval forest, where giant trees 

 have fallen, letting in a flood of light. In such places the 

 trees of the undergrowth lift their heads and bushes nourish 

 for a few years, rearing a generation and sending forth their 

 seeds before a new growth of trees of the forest cover over- 

 takes and overtops them. All about the borders of the 

 wood-lot will be found such a growth of lesser trees and 

 shrubs, massed against the light, and backed up against the 

 wall of the forest. 



Within the wood, where the larger trees are growing closely, 

 their crowns touching each other, there will be found but a 

 scanty growth beneath them of spindling small trees and of 

 straggling shrubs. These will often show a fairly distinct 



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