A TREE PLANTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20320, 31 January 1928, Page 11

A TREE PLANTER.

■ 0* THE GREY SQUIRREL BURIED NUTS THAT GROW. The grey squirrel is a tree planter He buries nuts' that he may later dig them up for food, writes William .Atherton du Pry in the New York Times. But - the greatest result is that now generations of nut trees will everywhere germinate in many of these buried stores and bear fruit for future, generations. In that shrewd scheme of things in which Nature has allotted a given purpose to each of her creatures, it is a good piece of work that the grey squirrel-does. But for the grey squirrel there would be fewer hickory trees in the woods. The oaks would have a harder task getting their acorns planted. The butter nuts and walnuts would be- similarly handicapped. For the grey squirrel is the chief’ of the reforestation agents ’assigned to the task of keeping up the supply of nut-bearing trees. • HICKORY NUT SPECIALIST. The red squirrel, though not an agent of reforestation, is the hickory nut specialist. Ha harvests the crop quite methodically. He climbs the tree before the nuts begin to fall of themselves, strips the limbs systematically, cutting the nuts loose,’and letting them fall to earth, lii an hour he has cut down enough nuts to • keep him busy on the ground for a day. Over in the leaves beneatn a decaying log he establishes a temporary warehouse. Here he pilai his hickory nuts and covers them damply. They are allowed to sweat for 10 days, when, if they are examined; it will be found that their husks have split open and the clean nut may be taken out. The red squirrel examines each morsel before putting it away for winter. If a worm has eaten the meat or if the kernel has dried up the fact is instantly detected. The red squirrel learns by " hefting ” the nut. If the nut is too light it is thrown away. Even if a trifle lighter than it should be, the nut is regarded with suspicion. A deadened sound, when the nut is scraped by the teeth, carries its message: a worm within. Worms, however, are delicacies, and, ifthere is time, the squirrel will pause to extract and devour them. The good nuts are then borne away from the red squirrels temporary storehouse for more permanent hiding., ‘ They are not buried in the earth but go instead into the hollow of the old oak tree, into' the hiding place, beneath' the barn, into • the crow’s nest aloft. The red squirrel will not put all its nuts in one basket. If one »storo is found by the farmer’s b<Jy and t-aacn lor bis own use, the red squirrel must have a reserve. So a number of da- ; posits are established. ■ 1 . Most-of the squirrels arrange their hoardg in this way, but not the squirrels of the grey coat. The grey quirrel’s method i s his own. Because it is different, because the little grey brother scorns the ways of other squirrels, he becomes the good friend of the fore s t, the replenisher of growth, the landscape gardener of a whole countryside, . the preserver of the oak and hickory and chesnut groves of a nation. The grey squirrel and his first and second • family of the season gather nut s most jndustr’ously through the autumn. Intend of taking them to some central store, however, each squirrel hides the fruit .of. his labour there in the good black dirt of the woods, digging a hole—much as a dog might to bury a bone. The hole .i s 3in or 4in deep; the nut is carefully deposited at the bottom, and the dirt is stamped, in around it. Then he smooths it to the level of the ground round about and strews the leaves back as they were before he be-an his careful planting. Each grey squirrel hides many hundreds of ruts there : n the autumn. They are widely scattered. • Having hidden them ha seems lo have forgotten them and goes on lasting cn the rbunden-'e of he wood a s long as the weather will permit. FINDING BURIED STORES. Finally, however, comes the first severe winter storm. Snow-laden wind dnvqs through the trees. For days, perhaps raves and then comes the sun again, lee stillness has settled far and wide upon the white midwinter woods The grey squirrel has rested snug, curled in a hollow tree; rolled i~. a ball nestled with bushy tail spread as a blanket. He has been quite comfortable with the heavy winter fur that he grew for fust such occasions. He is not one of those lazy fellows, however, who Jeep - thron'd! a whole winter, living on the fat of their ribs, tat an enterprise* winter sprite—as anybody may prove by going into the woods after a fresh snow and counting the squirrel tracks. Davs of confinement have developed a condition of acute hunger in the prey squirrel. Now that the weather is good outside, he pushes the snow from hw doorway and ventures forth into a white and inhospitable world. Yet he seems not to be discouraged. In fact, he has not gone far before he selects a ipot in me white waste and begins digging. The snow may be 2ft deep here, but the busy paws sprav forth the crystals until soon only: the tip of a grey tail is to be seen above the surface. A little later even this disappears. Then a stream cf black, damp earth begins to shoot forth. A little while longer, ant l grey squirrel himself comes forth, flicks the soil fromhis: coat, and assumes his customary dinner time position, sitting up with his tail fluffed over bis back. . He has something in his paws. _ Jt is one of tho=e hickory nuts he buried m October. He rips open its tough-she 1. and in a moment is regaling himself with the meat inside. He will, on tu s bright winter day. reneat this performance until his hunger is quite satisfied. Even those who have watched squirrels , very carefullv are unable to figure out bow it is that they locate theea nuts thus hidden beneath a landscape whose appearance has so changed since the nuts were buried. Some bold that it is a, highly-developed sense of smell that guides the souirrel to its dinner. Others maintain that an excellent memory and a sense of location make it possible for this little ani.aal to know where, unuer the snow, he will find his nuts. Yet with all his instinct for location, the grey squirrel appears to missimany. pf the nuts he has put away. Peihans he does not need them all. The result is that when spring comes many of these nuts find themselves buried there- in rich forest loam, ready to crow into trees. So does the grey squirrel: prove himself the best friend of the nut-bearing, moo* archs of the woods, . - . ••