[ XIII ] 



These facts have certainly a very important bearing upon the 

 question of forest culture. They prove that the S. W. wind of 

 spring and early summer is perhaps the worst enemy we have to 

 guard against, and also that its deleterious influences are neutralized 

 when it passes over a large body of water. It is comparatively rare, 

 however, that a situation can be secured affording that advantage, 

 and the question naturally arises, are there no other means of pro- 

 tection? I am happy to have it in my power again to summon 

 nature as a witness that such means are within our reach. 



I have said that the beech would not grow near Chicago, a fact 

 which I was very reluctant to admit on first going there, and was 

 only fully convinced of its truth by witnessing repeated failures, and 

 the evidence of reliable nurserymen who had tried in vain to pre- 

 serve it. Yet after I had long been satisfied that it was idle to 

 attempt its culture, I was one day amazed, while surveying in the 

 woods a few miles from the city, at coming upon a little group 

 of beech trees comprising some twenty or thirty in all, of mature 

 size and in full health and vigor. On examining the situation, to 

 discover, if possible, an explanation of the phenomenon, I observed 

 first that they stood in the bottom of a ravine so deep that their 

 tops were scarcely even with its banks, while the wood which sur- 

 rounded them extended .more than a mile to the S. W., so that they 

 were completely sheltered from the effects of the wind from that 

 quarter. I have never been able to find or to hear of another beech 

 tree anywhere in that region, and can only account for their pres- 

 ence by supposing the seed to have been brought from a distance 

 by birds, probably crows, jays or wild pigeons, and dropped acci- 

 dentally on a spot, which proved to be a "coigne of vantage," where 

 they were safe from the enemy. The evidence thus afforded of the 

 value of a screen on the S. W. side, should not be lost upon those 

 who are selecting sites for orchards, or vineyards, and shows the 

 importance when thinning a wood, of leaving whatever shubbery or 

 foUage there may be on that side to arrest the progress of the wind. 



The work of pruning the trees which are to be preserved for tim- 

 ber involves a careful consideration of the principles I have set 

 forth, apart from the judgment required for the skilful performance 

 of the mere manual labor. The object in view being the de- 

 velopment of the bole, it is important to remove any limbs 

 which threaten to become its rivals in size, if any such have be- 

 come established before the work of improvement began. But 

 after the trunk has' attained the desired height, it is on all accounts 

 desirable to develope the largest possible mass of foliage, because 

 the making of wood can only be effected by the elaboration of the 

 sap, which is the work of the leaves. 



If one is rearing a new forest, in which the trees have been under 

 his control from the time of planting, it must be the result of his own 

 ignorance or negligence it he has failed to secure such forms as he 

 desired, since it is easy to direct the growth of young trees, and 

 prevent them from running into extravagances, which wiU unfit 

 them for service as timber. And not unfrequently we may find a 

 young wood of indigenous growth, which may be taken in hand and 

 wrought into such shape that its future progress can be easUy di- 

 rected. But, for the most part, in woods that have been suffered to 



