LXVI 
STUMPS THAT GROW 
I SN'T IT ODD that the ranger naturalists of the De¬ 
partment of the Interior, in Yellowstone Park, have 
found Douglas fir stumps that continue to grow after the 
trees are cut down! 
By this it is not meant that sprouts come from the 
stumps and grow new tops. The stumps themselves 
quite without leaves went on putting on new layers of 
bark and wood. One of them entirely covered its top in 
much the same way that a growing tree covers the wound 
when a limb is cut off. 
Four of these stumps that kept alive were found along 
the park trail that leads to Vernal Falls. It was found 
that it had been thirty-four years since the tree that one 
of them had supported had been cut down. One of these 
living stumps was split open that the manner of its 
growth might be examined. It was found that it had, 
since the tree was cut down, put on layers of wood that 
are three inches thick. 
This seemed a very peculiar situation to the park natu¬ 
ralists. Many kinds of trees are strongly inclined to 
throw out new sprouts from their stumps when they are 
cut down. The Douglas fir, however, does not sprout 
from the stump. This made it even more surprising that 
these particular stumps should go on growing. 
Plant growth is, of course, made possible by plant food 
procured from some source. The leaves of the tree manu- 
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