Some Troubles of the Trees 13 



more trees in that place large enough to furnish 

 another cutting of lumber. It Is, of course, trou- 

 blesome to take a cut tree through the wood with- 

 out breaking the slender saplings, which should 

 be, and generally are, coming up everywhere under 

 the tall timber. It requires much more time and 

 care than is expended by the lumberman who 

 simply drags the felled tree along, crushing and 

 tearing everything that grows in the way. But 

 the whole country loses many valuable trees each 

 year because the selfish lumberman is allowed to 

 destroy little trees in hewing down big ones. 



We noticed in the wood another way of the 

 wasteful lumberman. It is, of course, easier to 

 chop and saw through a tree trunk if the men work 

 the tools at about the level of their elbows. But 

 when they do this they leave a stump three or 

 four feet high. This stump is the broadest part 

 of the trunk and contains several, perhaps many, 

 cubic feet of excellent timber. All this is wasted, 

 and worse than wasted; it soon becomes a source 

 of mischief to the surrounding forest. 



Trees, like other living creatures, have their 

 diseases. Foresters could give us a long list of 

 tree diseases, and most of these are caused by 

 plant-enemies. Growing trunks and branches, and 

 felled timber also, may be spoiled for every use- 

 ful purpose by what lumbermen call " dry-rot." 

 Many large old trees prove, when felled, to have 

 dry-rot in their hearts. One place in the trunk, 



