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| NATURE There are just enough evergreens interspersed among the other trees of this valley to lend charm to its scenery. The white Pine, Jersey or Scrub Pine, and the Hemlock once abounded here though most of them have vanished. Of these the White Pine was the most conspicuous tree. The Furnace Point was once clad wlith a fine grove of these trees some of them of large dimensions. The axe of the Woodman laid most of them low; but a disease more fatal than the woodsman's axe laid most of them low, in that it destroyed the young growth, has almost if not entirely destroyed and obliterated it. As one visits this region and views the few remnants that remain, and also the stumps of those that were cut down, his attention is arrested by the scars or the cup-shaped depressions to collect pitch made with an axe, that yet remain. Years ago the resinous sap exuded by these trees was thought to be a remedy for many ailments, such as sores, boils, etc., Hence the folks for miles around came to this location to procure their supply of this healing balm. Pine trees thrive on a light sandy soil where most other trees make but a stunted growth. In a broken region like this they are frequently found perched on some jutting cliff with their roots interlocked among the out-cropping rocks; reminding one of the lines of Emerson when he causes the pine tree to say: "My garden is the cloven rock, And my manure is the snow; And drifting sand heaps feed at my stock, In summer's scorching glow." The Hemlock is especially adept in clinging to overhanging ledges of rock. Perched on some craig it seems they might fall at any moment, but here they have stood for years defying the storms and apparently also the law of gravitation. Pines are upright growers always pushing their tops to the sky. It is always a sad affair to a pine to have its top removed. Pines have no power to form new tops; hence when the top is removed nature tries to overcome this loss by causing one of the lateral branches near the top to gradually assume an upright position and thus remedy the loss caused by its removal. This is only partial success and the tree always suffers from the loss of its leader. |
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