SOME ENEMIES OF THE TREES 119 



cal condition. Sometimes an immigrant has 

 lost its card of introduction, and the plant 

 propagator is forced to depend entirely upon 

 his own ingenuity to discover its needs and 

 value. Imagine the complications that must 

 arise ! But the plant or tree must be saved at 

 all hazards. It may be the beginning of a valu- 

 able species. 



A Bird Foe. As the leaves drift away in the 

 autumn, laying bare the trunk and branches, we 

 frequently observe dozens, and in some in- 

 stances hundreds, of little pits bored ia the 

 bark of the sugar maple, the birch, the linden, 

 and other sweet-sapped trees. They are the 

 honey pots of the sapsucker, or yellow-bellied 

 woodpecker. He kills many fruit and shade 

 trees every year for he loves the sap so well 

 as to be almost intemperate in his thirst. 

 Moreover, he knows that insects are fond of it, 

 too, and many an unwary creature is caught sip- 

 piag at his sticky little "cups." 



Fire. " Of all the foes which attack the wood- 

 lands of North America," says Pinchot, "no 

 other is so terrible as fire." Forest fires rise 

 from many different causes, chief of which is 

 carelessness. Often a smoldering camp-fire is 

 left to be scattered by the wind; again some one 

 thoughtlessly drops a half-burned match or 



