376 



NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



accompanying photographs tell the story. It is certainly 

 a brutal recompense when a tree has borne its load of 

 nuts to stone it or pound it with iron sledge hammers, 

 to throw ropes over it and tear off its branches. So 

 it has come to pass that farmers in the neighborhood 

 of towns, at least, cannot raise chestnut timber, because 

 the trees are bruised, growth is stunted, and at the 

 wounded places decay develops, which soon renders the 

 whole tree worthless. Thus nut trees must be ruled 



out from roadside planting, 

 simply on account of thought- 

 less abuse, and year by year 

 fine bearing trees are cut down 

 on account of the clubbing and 

 stoning and nuisance that rages 

 around them while the nuts 

 are ripening. If this senseless 

 process goes on, many districts 

 will be wholly reduced to deserts 

 as far as their nut trees are 

 concerned, as some already have 

 been. Our only hope is again 

 on the positive side. Set the 

 children to planting nuts. Can- 

 not they do what the squirrels 

 have done so well ? It is a 

 little thing to plant a nut in a sheltered place by the 

 edge of a flat stone along a roadside wall, but there is 

 altruism and ideality in the act, and the child who has 

 done it will begin to love and appreciate the trees as 

 never before. 



Fig. 150. Marks of Ancient 



Abuse 

 This chestnut tree will soon have 

 to be cut to avoid danger to 

 near-by houses 



