276 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



with bricks and mortar. The sycamore 

 has completely healed over the wound and 

 now shows no trace of the disease, although 

 the tree is probably more than a century old. 



THE WINTER SHAPE OF TREES 



It takes winter to bring out the character 

 of trees. Almost any tree can look well in 

 summer. Its leaves will pad out its de- 

 fects, round its angles, and cover its de- 

 formities. But in winter the tree itself 

 stands out in all its nakedness. Then the 

 oak shows its rugged grandeur, the elm its 

 courtly grace, the birch its gentle delicacy. 

 It is then the Carolina poplar, planted by an 

 evanescent land improvement company and 

 decapitated to make it "shapely," shows out 

 all its hideous deformity. When will men 

 who want "bushy" trees learn to plant such 

 as have of themselves the bushy habit, in- 

 stead of taking such as the Creator has 

 taught to grow spindly, and cutting the heads 

 from them? In summer the deception is 

 fairly good, but in winter the poor things look 

 like dilapidated feather dusters. Carolina 



