State

This is the Week From now until about the 25th the “leaf season” will be at its height in our great hardwood forests. By HILL SlIARPE Teacher used lo give Jack Frost a little forgiving pat on the head. It was true, she said, that he nipped our cars, but he also was responsible for the pretty leaves which teacher pinned upon the blackboard. Teacher will have to find another alibi for the little rascal. Jack Frost has no more to do with our brilliant leaf season than you do. Be that as it may, if you want to visit the hardwoods at the peak of the color season this year, you can start out tomorrow, or most any day up until around the 25th. Something may upset the time-table, but that's the guess of qualified observers in the mountains, and it is good enough for us. Already, there is a lot of color, and, with new hues coming in as the first fade, the overlapping coloration should be pretty for about three weeks. Anywhere is Good Best place to sec it? Well, any¬ where in western North Carolina will do. The usual favorite lookouts along the Parkway and from the mountain tops will just show you more — not bet¬ ter — color. This should be a good leaf year. While frost has notlung lo do with coloring, it is controlled some¬ what by temperature and the dry weather should be helpful. The reason leaves change color is because of chemical processes which are part of the tree's life cycle and which prepare it for winter. Even some evergreens, conifers and tropical plants undergo annual color changes. Food Factories During spring and summer the leaves make food for the tree by com¬ bining carbon from the air with hydro¬ gen, oxygen and various chemicals supplied in the water which comes up from the roots. As cool weather ap¬ proaches, the food-making process slows and comes to an end. Whatever food is in the leaves is absorbed by the body of the tree and stored for future use. What happens then is too technical for such an article, but coloring matter in the cell sap appears, and the chloro- COLOK FLASH From Draughan Miller of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce we received this bulletin by Ranger Robert E. Howe on the color situation. Miller says the period Oct. 13-16 should see color at its best. Mountain slopes north of Asheville along the Parkway are still predomi¬ nantly green with increasing splashes of color observed as one progresses northward and upward. Very little frost has occurred, and only in isolated areas. Sourwood is at its peak, and will be waning toward the weekend. Dogwood is turning and should be at its height by the weekend. Yellow Poplar, Lo¬ cust, Sassafras, Red Oak, and Maple are beginning to show considerable color and should be about halfway toward their peak by the weekend. Cherry will be at its peak for this weekend. At the higher elevations, Yellow Birch, Beech, and the Buck- Eye are quite color! ul with the Buck- Eye generally reaching its peak during the week. Mountain ash is just begin¬ ning to show color, and should be well turned, in about ten days. The Hobble- Bush is still variegated with green, red-green and red. DraUCIIN MlLLfcR, Director Asheville Chamber of Commerce News Bureau. plasls decompose. It often happens that there is more sugar in the leaf than can be readily transferred to the tree, and this condition produces shades varying from the brilliant dog¬ wood to the red-browns of the oak. Cuts Leaf Free When the leaf's feeding job is done, nature sets up another process. A spe¬ cial layer of cells develops at the point where the stem is attached to the limb, and these cells sever the tissue con¬ necting leaf and limb. Nature is wise in all of this. Broad leaf trees would be hard put to bear the burden of snow and ice, and in some locations where the weather is mild many trees are evergreen. How¬ ever, change in color is not necessari¬ ly connected with the falling of the leaf. Don't Burn Food The burning of the fall leaves makes a pleasant smell, but it is really mur¬ der. Nature intended that lire lallen leaves should form a perpetual carpel of nutrition under the tree. Eventually, the decaying leaves return valuable minerals to the parent, via the roots. In North Carolina's great hardwood forests reds are provided by sumac, gum, maple, sourwood, and other trees. Yellows and gold are lurnished by tulip, hickory, beech, witch-hazel; orange by sassalras and sugar maple. The late tans, browns and mahog¬ any reds arc contributed by oaks. Lowlanders accustomed only to the spotty patches of color among their evergreens have no idea what Na¬ ture — not the Jack Frost variety — can do with several thousand acres of hardwoods. THE STATE. VoL XIX; No. 20. Enier»d as second-class mailer, June 1. 193J, at the Postofflce at Ralel*h. North Carolina, under the aet of March J. 1179. Published by Sharpe Publishing Co.. Inc., Lawyers Bld«.. Ralel,h. N. С.