20 THE TREE FOLK 



By noting the annular rings, at the points indicated 

 by the dotted lines, you can see that 1925 has been a 

 prosperous year for this tree. The growth was longer and 

 the leaves and buds more numerous than they were in 

 1924 or in 1923. The year 1924 was a bad one, the worst 

 in the history of this spray. That year it produced a 

 short twig with but six leaves, whereas in 1925 it grew 

 a shoot more than twice as long, with eight leaves (only 

 the foot of the leaf stalk is indicated in six of them, and 

 one is hidden behind the stem), and two twig buds, 

 besides the promising terminal bud. To find the equal 

 of that you must go back to 1922. A part of that year's 

 growth a boy, with a jack-knife having a sharp blade, 

 nicked in one place, cut away, for some reason, or prob- 

 ably for no reason at all. He was just cutting. In 1924 

 it lost another twig; that one was broken off somehow. 

 The leaf scar visible at A reveals, by its five dots, that 

 the leaf had but fivQ leaflets, whereas in 1923, as shown 

 at B, the leaves were more vigorous and had seven leaf- 

 lets each, like the one I have left upon the 1925 twig. 

 But that one, alas, was attacked by an enemy, some 

 varmint of the cut-worm or saw-fly kind, and lost one of 

 its leaflets, at C. How this leaf has suffered ! The draw- 

 ing was made in early September but the leaf is already 

 moribund, ragged, eaten by insects, browned and rolled 

 with a blight, torn by the wind, and twisted with 

 drought. But what a vigorous stem it has ! There is no 

 trace of weakness in that. 



