124 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
summit whereby the trees are so enfeebled that gales break 
them, — even after the wound has healed. Young larch planta- 
tions and fir trees suffer much in early spring when the winter’s 
store of nuts has been exhausted.” 
At this point may be mentioned the habit of many animals, 
such as mice, rabbits, beavers, and porecupines, of feeding upon 
the bark of trees in preference to the wood.* 
As was said previously, some writers have made special men- 
tion of the bark of the birch, as well as of the elm and poplar. 
Thus Clarke says: ‘‘ The bark of the birch is serviceable to 
the natives in various ways; mingled with barley meal, it consti- 
tutes a part of their food.t ... The bread of this family was full 
of chaff and of the bark of the birch tree; it was only when stewed 
in butter that we were able to swallow it, and even then with 
difficulty.” t 
Again he says: ** Upon our return we found our boatmen at 
their scanty meal which always consisted of the same diet; nor did 
they seem desirous either to add to their food or to alter it. This - 
consisted only of biscuit made of the inner bark of the birch tree, 
chopped straw, and a little rye; which they washed down with a 
beverage, swallowed greedily by quarts at a time, of coagulated 
sour milk.”§ In a note Clarke adds, ‘‘ Sometimes we heard that 
the biscuit was made with birch and sometimes with jir bark.” 
Bishop Pontoppidan|| says that elm bark dried, ground, and 
mixed with meal is used as food by the peasants for themselves 
and their animals. | 
In referring to the ‘‘ cottonwood” (Populus monolifera) here 
in America, Maud Going] says : — 
‘¢ Between the bark and the wood there is, in the spring, a 
sweet, milky juice of which the Indians are very fond. As one 
who had been educated in the East said, — it is their ice cream, 
and they frequently strip the bark and scrape the trunk in order 
to procure it. Horses also are fond of this sweet juice, and in 
* Bulletin of the Bussey Institution, 1897, 2. 390. 
+ E. D. Clarke, Travels in Various Countries, 1824, 9. 540, 
t Ibid., 9. 550. 
§ Ibid., 9. 400. 
|| K. E. Tyler, The Story of a Scandinavian Summer, New York, 1881, 
p. 229. 
4 Maud Going. With the Trees, 1903, p. 171. 
