12 Characteristics, Structure, Life of Trees 
violent death and diminution in numbers, more or less pro- 
portionate to food supply and new births, in order to keep 
an equilibrium, so in the forest a constant diminution of 
individuals takes place as the stand grows up and the indi- 
vidual trees expand, competing for the limited air space and 
root space. 
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Fic 4a —Theoretical (B) and actual (4) development of buds (From 
Department of Agriculture, Forestry for Farmers, after Muller ) 
So also in the individual tree there exists a competition 
for light and water between the many buds, twigs, and 
branches, and sooner or later some must succumb as their 
number increases and the supplies become relatively less. 
As a result, in the full grown tree rarely more than eight 
or ten generations of branches can be counted, — the sur- 
vivals of this competition; the rest having been killed out, 
and being annually killed out, by the necessity of household 
