Exploring the Woodpile 173 



Sometimes the younger limbs, with their thinner 

 bark, can quite outgrow the trunk and the older 

 branches below them. 



The remedy is to soften or split the tight, bind- 

 ing bark. The farmer tries the effect of washing 

 the bark-bound parts of the tree with lye, and if 

 the squeezing bark is not softened and stretched 

 by this treatment, he thrusts the point of a knife 

 through to the wood and then draws the blade 

 down the entire length of the bark-bound portion. 

 The slit can scarcely be seen at first, but it opens 

 with the growth of the freed tree and new bark 

 fills in the opening. 



In the woodpile we find a piece of the trunk of 

 a tree with a bare stub sticking through the bark. 

 This is the remains of a limb, and nearly as old 

 as the tree itself, because it starts from near the 

 center of the trunk. That means the limb began 

 to grow soon after the tree did. 



If the stub had i-otted quite away, a squirrel, 

 woodpecker, or tree-swallow might have set up 

 housekeeping in the hole. 



Wherever the blade has cut across a branch in 

 sawing a board, there will be a " knot " in the 

 timber. If the knot is loose it falls out, and the 

 boards are disfigured by " knotholes." This is 

 why the lumbermen prefer the trees which grow 

 straight up with few side branches. Knotholes 

 and knots in boards, let us remember, are cross- 

 sections of branches. 



