184 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



One observes in the woods that different kinds of logs have 

 very different behavior in decay. Certain kinds, like poplar 

 and willow, decay rapidly and soon disappear. Others, like 

 chestnut and cypress, long persist. Some, like the oaks, lose 

 the bark and sapwood quickly while the heartwood is still 

 sound: others, like the yellow birch, preserve the hollow 

 cylinders of bark intact, long after the wood has decayed and 

 fallen from them. One finds the segments of the bark of 

 birch kicked about over the forest floor, long after the 

 trunks have vanished. The resinous knots of the pines 

 persist far beyond all other parts of the tree. And with the 

 differences in the character and content of the trunks, go 

 differences in the population. The insects and fungi that 

 work in pine logs are not the same species that work on logs 

 of oak or willow. 



In the forest, where every inch of ground is densely filled 

 with roots, the crumbling logs, as they settle into the earth, 

 furnish a new place in which seedlings may get a foothold. 

 Certain shrubs, like wild currant and raspberry, habitually 

 spring up from seeds dropped upon fallen logs by birds; 

 many trees, also, start in the same place from wind-sown 

 seeds, and gradually settle with the disintegrating heap to 

 the level of the ground. How often one finds in the woods 

 a young birch tree or hemlock, standing astride a stump 

 or fallen log with long leg-like roots reaching down either 

 side into the soil. 



Gradually the moldering heap is dispersed by winds and the 

 patter of raindrops and the stir of passing feet. The great tree 

 has silently passed and left no sign; but the organic products 

 it gathered in its lifetime have gone to the permanent enrich- 

 ment of the soil. 



