GROWING GOLD. 



23 



CHAPTER II. 



Having laid so much stress on the effect 

 of wind upon trees, it is necessary to offer 

 some evidence as to the fact. Before the 

 existence of plantations, timber was the spon- 

 taneous production of large woods and forests, 

 where, amid an almost " boundless contiguity 

 of shade," successive generations of trees arose 

 and flourished, and at last decayed, ere the 

 hand of man had marked them out for 

 profitable uses. Each tree naturally received 

 shelter and protection from the other, but 

 there is little doubt that the removal of the old 

 and decayed ones, to make room for their 



