Forestry for Farmers

by B. E. Fernow

During the season, through the activity of the cambial part of the bundles, the same changes take place in the new shoot as did the previous year in the young seedling, while at the same time the cambium in the yearling part also actively subdivides, forming new wood and bast cells, and thus a second ring, or rather cylinder, is formed. The cambium of the young shoot is always a continuation of that of the ring or cylinder formed the year before, and this cambium cylinder always keeps moving outward, so that at the end of the season, when activity ceases, it is always the last minute layer of cells on the outside of the wood, between wood proper and bark. It is here, therefore, that the life of the tree lies, and any injury to the cambium must interfere with the growth and life of the tree.

Fig. 9.—Sections of logs showing the relative development of knots. E, from tree grown in the open; E´, from tree grown in a dense forest; a and c, whorls of knots; b, dead limb; sk, "sound knot;" dk, "dead knot."

The first wood cells which the cambium forms in the spring are usually or always of a more open structure, thin-walled, and with a large opening or "lumen," comparable to a blown-up paper bag; so large, in fact, sometimes, is the "lumen" that the width of the cells can be seen on a cross-section with the naked eye, as, for instance, in oak, ash, elm, the so-called "pores" are this open wood formed in spring. The cells, which are formed later in summer, have mostly thick walls, are closely crowded and compressed, and show a very small opening or "lumen," being comparable, perhaps, to a very thick wooden box. They appear in the cross-section not only denser but of a deeper color, on account of their crowded, compressed condition and thicker walls. Since at the beginning of the next season again thin-walled cells with wide openings or lumina are formed, this difference in the appearance of "spring wood" and "summer wood" enables us to distinguish the layer of wood formed each year. This "annual ring" is more conspicuous in Some kinds than in others. In the so-called "ring porous" woods, like oak, ash, elm, the rings are easily distinguished by the open spring wood; in the conifers, especially pines, by the dark-colored summer wood; while in maple, birch, tulip, etc., only a thin line of flattened, hence darker and regularly aligned, summer cells, often hardly recognizable, distinguishes The rings from each other. Cutting through a tree, therefore, we can not only ascertain its age by counting its annual layers in the cross-section, but also determine how much wood is formed each year ([fig. 10]). We can, in fact, retrace the history of its growth, the vicissitudes through which it has passed, by the record preserved in its ring growth.

To ascertain the age of a tree correctly, however, we must cut so near to the ground as to include the growth of the first year's little plantlet; any section higher up shows as many years too few as it took the tree to reach that height.

This annual-ring formation is the rule in all countries which have distinct seasons of summer and winter and temporary cessation of growth. Only exceptionally a tree may fail to make its growth throughout its whole length on account of loss of foliage or other causes; and occasionally, when its growth has been disturbed during the season, a "secondary" ring, resembling the annual ring, and distinguishable only by the expert, may appear and mar the record.

To the forest planter this chapter on ring growth is of great importance, because not only does this feature of tree life afford the means of watching the progress of his crop, calculating the amount of wood formed, and therefrom determining when it is most profitable for him to harvest (namely, when the annual or periodic wood growth falls below a certain amount), but since the proportion of summer wood and spring wood determines largely the quality of the timber, and since he has it in his power to influence the preponderance of the one or other by adaptation of species to soils and by their management, ring growth furnishes an index for regulating the quality of his crop.

FORM DEVELOPMENT.

If a tree is allowed to grow in the open, it has a tendency to branch, and makes a low and spreading crown. In order to lengthen its shaft and to reduce the number of branches it is necessary to narrow its growing space, to shade its sides so that the lower branches and their foliage do not receive light enough to perform their functions. When the side shade is dense enough, these branches die and finally break off under the influence of winds and fungous growth; wood then forms over the scars and we get a clean shaft which carries a crown high up beyond the reach of shade from neighbors.