Exploring the Woodpile 167 



Some of the logs in the woodpile show no cut 

 or break in their bark, yet all their interior has 

 been eaten by some destructive fungus. Now 

 there is only a mass of diseased substance in the 

 heart of the log — or perhaps the log is hollow, 

 because its good timber has been turned into 

 worthless powder, which has fallen out. The 

 enemy that did this was a tree-killing fungus. 



The minute spore from which this destroyer 

 grew found its way into the wood, perhaps, 

 through some very small wound. This wound 

 may have been near the base of the trunk, or high 

 above ground. Bark or moss may have grown 

 over it and hidden it. The log may show no ex- 

 ternal break, and yet be a mass of disease within. 



Most of the insects which make holes in timber 

 come from eggs which have been laid in the bark. 

 Little worms with big appetites hatch from these, 

 and begin at once to eat long tunnels in the wood. 

 Many logs in the woodpile are nurseries for grubs, 

 which some day will become beetles like their 

 mother who left her eggs in the bark. When 

 bark is stripped away, these eggs are removed 

 with it, and so — as every lumberman knows — 

 barked logs are the more durable. 



On the end of every log in the woodpile we see 

 rings, and generally each ring means one year's 

 growth of the branch from which the log was cut. 

 The age of the tree is shown by the number of 

 rings in its trunk, at the ground. 



