Preservation of the undergrowth. Trees in the life of the ancient Slavs Dependence of the dynamics of the state of spruce undergrowth on the age of felling
Assessment of the state and prospects of cultivation spruce undergrowth V different types forests The work was carried out by: Alina Shilova, 10th grade student of gymnasium 363 and Anastasia Eremina, 8th grade student of school 310 Supervisor: Natalia Nikolaevna Alexandrova, teacher of additional education St.
Purpose and objectives Purpose: To find the most favorable places for the growth of spruce undergrowth. Tasks: 1. Determine the growth rate of spruce undergrowth in different biotopes. 2. Select the most favorable biotope for the development of spruce undergrowth. 3. Find places where you can massively grow spruce seedlings to restore spruce plantations.
Window dynamics is associated with the death of individual old trees and the formation of gaps in their place in the tree layer (“windows”), which provide light access under the canopy of the forest stand and enable young trees to develop and take their place in the upper layer of the forest stand.
Conclusions The growth rate of spruce undergrowth in different biotopes is determined primarily by the light regime, as well as climatic conditions. The most favorable conditions for spruce turned out to be clay soils, with elements of waterlogging and with a cover of mosses and blueberries. As well as a more open space in the place of a fallen spruce forest, where there is little tall trees and better sunlight.
List of used literature and Internet resources 1. Korobkin VI, Ecology. Textbook for universities / V.I. Korobkin, L.V. Predelsky, 2006 2. Potapov A.D., Ecology / A.D. Potapov, 2000 3. Shamileva I.A., Ecology: Tutorial for students of pedagogical universities / I.A. Shamileva, 2004 4. Renewable resources [Electronic resource] - 5. spruce forest and its undergrowth [Electronic resource] - aspx 6. European or common spruce [Electronic resource] -
7. Norway spruce [Electronic resource] - %EE%E2%E5%ED%ED%E0%FF 8. Forests of Russia [Electronic resource] - html 9. Window dynamics of taiga forests [Electronic resource] - Assessment of the vital state of pine undergrowth [ Electronic resource] - ref.ru/04bot/podrost.htm 11. Recommendations for reforestation and care of young forests in the North-West of Russia [Electronic resource] - _id= Coniferous forests [Electronic resource] -
Text by Boris Kolesov:
(1) Clear frosty winter morning. (2) I walk along a narrow village path with a bucket to a spring. (Z) I’m not so old yet to bring two buckets of water at a time. (4) This will later be two voluminous galvanized vessels, and even a rocker. (5) Following the example of my grandmother, I will go to the source with a well-armed village auxiliary device, but I will not be able to balance with buckets - I will continue to walk.
(6) Here, then, as a small peasant I go to a ravine, deep and snowy, where a clear, never freezing stream flows. (7) I see above, behind a white failure, behind sky-blue snowdrifts, green Christmas trees. (8) And for some reason, it becomes joyful in the soul and I want to skip into the ravine, so that later, already at the exit from it, turn around and again notice the green living trees. (9) Together with them, I am also pleased with the transparency of the sky, the whiteness of the snows and the cheerful, not very strong frost.
(10) Then, already in the summer, more than once I walked past those Christmas trees for three kilometers to a neighboring village.
(11) And I always met them on the road - on the side of the path - with such enthusiastic joy, as if I had not seen anything more beautiful on earth! (12) Or maybe he really didn’t see something that was on a par with their thick emerald charm: in our village, lost in February in the snow, and in July in the bird-cherry ravine wilds, there were no art galleries, not even a club.
(13) Now I’m already under seventy, but I always remember those Christmas trees with bated breath.
(14) I can’t explain what is happening to me - sometimes even a tear breaks through: you are my dear, beloved!
(15) The days meanwhile continued in succession of years; many events, meetings became habitual, memories were slowly erased. (16) But those days have not gone anywhere when the feet of an idle spectator were led along the reserved virgin lands of the Prioksko-Terrasny spruce forests, along the marvelous local reserve. (17) The ate here were special. (18) The reserve itself, with all its plants and animals, is extremely interesting. (19) Some bison are worth something! (20) Where else can you see the mighty giants that existed at the time of the ancient Slavic peoples? (21) But as for the reserved spruce undergrowth ... (22) Here you keep your eyes open!
(23) On the other side of the Oka, in the forest-steppe or steppe south, it is already difficult to meet a Christmas tree that grows quite naturally. (24) In Central Russia, for such trees, nature has set a limit, an invisible line has been drawn, explained by the peculiarities of the Russian climate. (25) To take at least moisture, to which they ate very eagerly, is not enough of it in the steppes * is not it? (26) In a drier and hotter climate, it is not so easy to withstand a small Christmas tree, grow up quickly to take root deeper into the ground and gain strength. (27) Even artificial forest plantations, where undergrowth is provided with careful care, turn out, in the language of foresters, unprofitable, and pines are preferred among conifers. (28) I met neat green lines of young pines even on the steppe Don. (29) But I didn’t see spruce plantings.
(30) Spruce is highly valued in woodworking, in paper production, in the manufacture of melodious musical instruments ... (31) But how to appreciate the beauty of its wonderful green decoration in the middle of Russian snows?
(32) Our nature is so amazing that there is a desire to be at one with it in the desire to live, overcome difficulties and be useful people. (ZZ) I have had joyful, happy days. (34) There were also those when the business mood made you understand what is important in the everyday life of people, full of all sorts of troubles. (35) To whom give a book, to whom a violin, to whom firewood for the stove, to whom some blockhouses for building a house .. (Zb) Someone, but foresters know why artificial plantings are nurtured.
(37) But the heart hurts and hurts for the spruce forest ... (38) 3and those spruce trees, as they called in the old days wet forest places with a predominance of this breed of conifers, for those plantings in reserves where young Christmas trees are subjected to a merciless attack. (39) Who is stepping on them, the poor, in our times? (40) 3 Often wild harvesters seek to cut down a large and strong tree in order to take a magnificent top from it. (41) In addition, in large plantings, where you cannot put up a capable guard, the preparation of firewood is in full swing. (42) Maybe there will be those who will object to me, but why then are there so many ugly stumps in young forests, huh?
(43) Take care of the miracle of nature, take care of the beauties, especially on New Year's Eve.
(44) Young Christmas trees - after all, they are for everything and for everyone. (45) Youth for the country is a golden fund. (46) 3 green beauties of reserves are a boon for the Russian forest. (47) These tender Christmas trees are quite worthy youth.
(According to B. Kolesov)
Boris Kolesov is a Russian writer, journalist and screenwriter.
Text essay:
What is the true beauty of nature? The Russian writer and journalist Boris Kolesov discusses this issue in the text.
The author recalls his childhood, how he, heading to the source for water, met green Christmas trees on his way. It would seem that ordinary spruces, of which there are many everywhere, but B. Kolesov remembered them for his whole life. Many years later, the author cannot forget the emotions that the "green beauties" brought him.
The position of the author is clear: nature is beautiful. We must be able to see this beauty and cherish it.
I share the opinion of Boris Kolesov. Indeed, one must be able to see and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. After all, nature does not hide it from us.
Let us turn to the poem by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin "Winter Morning". Lyrical hero admiring the beauty of a winter morning. The author in every way enlivens the picture, forcing the reader to penetrate the landscape of a beautiful winter morning and feel everything for himself. To show all the beauty, the author refers to such a means of artistic expression as personification: "the blizzard was angry", "the haze was rushing".
In Vasily Shukshin's story "The Old Man, the Sun and the Girl", an eighty-year-old man, being blind, admired nature every day in the same place. The story makes you think about the fact that a person not only sees the beauty of nature, but also feels it.
Boris Kolesov is sure that it is much better to live in unity with nature than apart. Such emotions that nature and its beauty delivers to a person are nowhere to be found.
Since ancient times, people have been using the wonderful property of plants - to give food and warmth. But in addition to these properties, people noticed that plants can influence the fate of a person, as well as heal him from illnesses, both physical and spiritual. Since ancient times, people have revered trees and sacred groves. They came to be treated, pray, ask for protection or love. From time immemorial, magical powers have been attributed to trees. It was believed that the guardian spirits of man live in them. Many signs, beliefs and rituals are associated with trees.
A tree in the folk culture of the Slavs is an object of worship. In ancient Russian monuments of the 11th-17th centuries. it is reported about the worship of the pagans "growths" and "trees", about prayers under them ("growth ... zhpyakhy"). Judging by everyone, these were, as a rule, fenced-in areas of the forest. The groves were considered reserved, they did not cut down trees, did not collect firewood. Among the Slavs, many groves and custom-made forests have “sacred” names: “god”, “gay-bog”, “god”, “holy forest”, “svyatibor”.
The category of revered and sacred trees also included individual trees, especially old ones, growing alone in a field or near healing springs. People came to these trees to get rid of diseases, the evil eye, infertility and other misfortunes. They brought gifts and sacrifices (hung towels, clothes, rags on trees), prayed, touched the trees. Through the hollows and crevices of such trees, the sick climbed, as if leaving their illnesses outside this hole. When Christianity appeared in Rus', in order to attract people to temples, churches were built right in the sacred groves. Numerous traditions, legends and apocryphal tales testify to this, about the construction of churches near revered trees. Various rituals were performed near the sacred trees.
The Southern Slavs practiced the custom of "marrying" the young around a tree (or precede this action with a wedding ceremony). Among the Serbs, Bulgarians and Macedonians, many ceremonies and celebrations took place on the "record" - a sacred tree (usually an oak or a fruit tree). Festive meals were also arranged here, sacrificial animals were slaughtered, bonfires were lit at Shrovetide; oaths were taken near the "zapische", courts were held, etc. the arrival of Christianity, trees were a link between God and people (the world of people and the world of gods). Oaks, elms and other large trees were reserved. It was forbidden to kill them and cause any harm at all. Violation of these prohibitions led to the death of a person, the death of livestock, and failure to harvest. Such trees were considered patrons of the surroundings - villages, houses, wells, lakes, protected from hail, fires, natural disasters.
A tree as a metaphor for a road, as a path by which one can reach the afterlife - a common motif of Slavic beliefs and rituals associated with death.
Characteristic ideas about the posthumous transition of the human soul into a tree. So, the Belarusians believed that in every creaky tree the soul of the deceased languishes, which asks passers-by to pray for her; if, after such a prayer, a person falls asleep under a tree, he will dream of a soul that will tell you how long it has been and why it has been imprisoned in this tree. The Serbs believed that the soul of a person finds peace in a tree growing on his grave; therefore, one must not pluck the fruits from the cemetery trees and break the branches. Slavic ballads about people sworn into trees are connected with the circle of these beliefs. Such folklore stories usually refer to people who died an untimely death before their allotted time; their interrupted life, as it were, tends to continue in other forms. A tree, like a plant, generally correlates with a person by external signs: the trunk - the body, the roots - the legs, the branches - the arms, the juices - the blood, etc. There are "male" and "female" trees (birch - birch, oak - oak), which differ in shape: y birch branches spread out to the sides, y birch - up. When a child is born, a tree is planted for him, believing that the child will grow in the same way as this tree develops. At the same time, in some beliefs, the growth of such a tree causes exhaustion of a person and leads him to death. Therefore, they tried not to plant large trees near the house.
The tree is closely related to the field of demonology. This is the habitat of various mythological creatures. Mermaids live on birches, witches flocked to giant oaks on the Kupala night, the devil sits in the roots of elderberry, in a hollow willow, pitchforks and samodivas on sprawling large trees, whose branches they play with, often demons live in thorny bushes (hawthorn is a pitchfork tree).
S. Yesenin said: "The Russians have everything from the Tree - this is the religion of the thought of our people." And he explained why and why the tree is usually embroidered only on towels. This has deep meaning. “A tree is life,” the poet writes. Every morning, when we wake up from sleep, we wash our face with water. Water is a symbol of cleansing... Wiping their face on a canvas depicting a tree, our people say that they have not forgotten the secret of the ancient fathers to wipe themselves with leaves, that they remember themselves as the seed of an overworld tree, and, running under its cover, dipping their face in a towel, they as if he wants to imprint at least a small branch of it on his cheeks, so that like a tree he can shower cones of words and thoughts from himself and stream a shadow-virtue from the branches-hands.
tree of life.
The tree generally occupied a special place in the life of the pagan Slavs. A legend has been preserved that a long time ago, when there was still neither sky nor earth, but only the blue sea splashed everywhere, there were two oaks in the middle of it, on the branches of which two doves sat. Once the pigeons fluttered, then dived to the bottom of the sea and brought sand and pebbles from there. From this material the sky with the earth and all heavenly bodies were built.
From those ancient times came the myth and the tree of life. The Slavs believed that it served as the axis, the center of the whole world and, as it were, embodied the entire universe. The roots of this amazing tree, which was called the world, hugged the whole earth, reached the depths of the underworld. Its crown rested on the vault of heaven. In it for ancient man ideas about space and time were embodied. It was no coincidence that a riddle arose: “There is an oak tree, there are 12 branches on the oak tree, each branch has four nests, each nest has seven chicks.” This was the mythical image of the year: twelve months, each of them contains four weeks, and a week has seven days. (Then the account was kept by lunar months).
In the folklore of the Slavic peoples - fairy tales, riddles, conspiracies - the image of the tree of life often appears. Most often it is a mighty oak that has lived on earth for several centuries. In one of the famous tales, an old man climbed such an oak tree and reached the very sky. There he saw wonderful millstones - the emblem of a spring thunderstorm that gives people rain and fertility. Yes, and conspiracies from diseases begin most often with a joke that on the sea-okian, on the island of Buyan, where the alatyr stone lies, there is a “damask oak”.
Images of the external and internal world of an ancient person were strung on a tree-axis. It systematized this world, gave it harmony, where each object or phenomenon, each living being had its place.
At the top of the crown sat a deity - formidable, inaccessible. Birds found shelter in the branches. Bees swarmed around the trunk, moose, deer, horses, cows, and sometimes people crowded. The roots gathered snakes, frogs and even fish around them. There were also chained demons and other unclean forces. Fragrance comes from this tree, and twelve springs “flow like milk and honey” from its root. Sometimes the upper deity entered into battle with the "lower tier", stopping the encroachments of snakes and dragons on the "warm-blooded" located near the trunk. According to beliefs, the tree is the path by which the snakes go to the mythical country of the vyrey in autumn.
The tree that connects the earthly and underground worlds also figures in West Slavic mythological stories about children replaced by demons. In order to get her son back, the woman takes the changeling under some tree, and later takes her child from there. Things that needed to be disposed of - sent to the other world (items that were in contact with the deceased, old wedding paraphernalia, etc.) were thrown onto the tree (or attributed to it) things that needed to be disposed of - sent to the next world. water these items.
Cult trees, symbolizing the world tree, have accompanied many important events in human life for centuries.
An indispensable participant in the traditional Slavic wedding was the world tree, its image. Bridesmaids sing about him, promising young people happiness and wealth. And when they built new house, in the center of the building it was customary to put a ritual tree. Well, on folk holidays, such as on the Trinity, you can’t do without a birch, all courtyards, houses and temples are decorated with green branches.
“A Christmas tree was born in the forest” ... Everyone knows this song, from young to old. Leading a round dance around the discharged forest beauty, the children do not even suspect that they are performing ritual actions, part of the myth-making of our distant ancestors. Also, many centuries ago, people gathered near a tree, made sacrifices to its roots, sang, performed ritual dances, in which each movement had a symbolic meaning.
Until now, in some places the following custom has been preserved. If a guy brings a tree dug out in the forest and plants it under the girl's window, this is clearly perceived as a declaration of love, a marriage proposal.
The tree of life was usually depicted with eight branches, four on each side. When depicting it, four colors were most often used: black, red, blue and white. The branches, trunk and roots of the world tree connect, respectively, the upper, middle and lower worlds, and the branches connect the cardinal points.
Oak
from ancient times it was among the Slavs a sacred tree - the king of forests. Oak rightfully occupies the first place in the Slavic arboretum. The Russians called it Tsar Oak, and, according to popular beliefs, the king of birds, the eagle, lived on it. God the Father acted under the name or in the form of an oak tree. In folk beliefs, oak acts as a symbol of masculinity, supremacy, strength, power, firmness. It is no coincidence that in conspiracies his constant epithets are “iron” or “damask”, and the proverb says about him: “You can’t knock down an oak at one time.” They say about strong strong men: strong as an oak (oak).
The Slavs, among other trees, especially singled out and revered the oak. Perhaps, at first, in general, they called all the trees with the word "oak". It is no coincidence that the words “club”, “club” originating from him refer not only to the oak club.
Oak was revered as a deity. Sacrifices were made at its foot. Idols were hewn from oak wood. And the fire at the temple could only be “fed” with oak firewood. Among the people, the oak was considered connected by invisible threads with the supreme deity Perun. After all, this tree seemed to attract lightning to itself. And today, in a thunderstorm, you should not hide under an oak tree - it is dangerous. These are echoes of the main myth of the Eastern Slavs about the duel of Perun with the enemy, who is hiding under an oak tree. The Slavs had a ban on growing oak near the house, since, according to legend, thunder strikes the oak first.
Mostly our ancestors attributed to the oak and the legend about the world tree. This is exactly what the oak looks like in the Russian conspiracy: “... There is a holy Akiyan sea, an island on that sea, on that island there is an oak tree, from earth to heaven, from east to west, from the young of the month to the decrepit ...”
Faith and worship of the oak continued for so long that even after the adoption of Christianity by Russia, under pain of a church court, it was forbidden "to Petya's prayer service in front of the oak." After all, just as the gods decided the fate of the whole world and people in particular, sitting under the world tree, so they performed judgment under mighty oaks, believing that the sentences pronounced here were consecrated by a deity. There were entire reserved sacred oak groves. To go into such a walk, and even more so to pick a branch from a tree, was considered blasphemy. For this, the sorcerers-priests could condemn the "blasphemer" even to death.
It was forbidden to cut sacred oaks everywhere. It was believed that any attempt to damage them (cut down, break a branch, peel off the bark, and even use its dry wood for firewood) would result in misfortune for a person or for everyone living nearby. Belarusians believed that if you start cutting down an old oak, then blood will appear from under the ax - the tree will cry with bloody tears.
Archaeological finds also point to the cult role of the oak: in 1975, an ancient oak was raised from the bottom of the Dnieper, in the trunk of which 9 boar jaws were inserted. In 1910, a similar oak was removed from the bottom of the Desna. Apparently, these trees were used in making sacrifices.
Oak groves were open-air sanctuaries.
In Christianity, the veneration of the oak, like many other pagan beliefs, entered as a symbol of the veneration of Christ and the Virgin Mary. The oak, along with the aspen, was one of several types of trees from which, it was believed, the cross of the Lord could be made. Because of its hardness and endurance, the oak has become a symbol of the strength of faith and virtue, as well as the resilience of Christians in the face of adversity.
The Russian apocrypha told how Judas wanted to hang himself on an oak tree, but "By God's command, the oak bowed and was preserved."
The Bulgarian legend told how an oak grove hid God, who was running away from the Plague; in gratitude for this, God made sure that the leaves from the oak fell only in late autumn.
In beliefs, practical magic and folklore, the oak consistently appears as a male symbol. In signs and prohibitions, the oak is compared with the owner of the house, the head of the family. So, for example, the Nizhny Novgorod expression “From oak - bark!” - meaning the order of the husband, so that the wife undresses him, takes off his boots. Water after bathing a newborn boy is poured under an oak tree; when the bride is brought into her husband's house, she first enters there and says to herself: “There are oak trees near the yard, and sons in the house,” if she wants boys to be born to her. In the Vitebsk region, a midwife cut the boy's umbilical cord on an oak chopping block so that he would grow up strong.
In the province of Tver, until the beginning of the 20th century, there was such a custom: as soon as a boy was born, his father went into the forest and cut down several oaks, the logs of which were then taken to the river and immersed in water. There they remained until the son grew up. When he intended to marry, the oak logs, which had already turned into stained wood, so strong that it was impossible to cut it with an ax, were taken out of the water and used as the foundation of a house for a new family.
The inhabitants of Polissya considered it unacceptable for an oak tree to grow near the dwelling: they believed here that if there was this tree next to the house, then there would be no owner in the hut. The Poleshchuks were convinced that if this happened, then as soon as the oak reached a size that would make it possible to make a grave cross out of it, the owner of the house would immediately die. According to local beliefs, the oak, located near the dwelling, generally “survives” men from it.
The oak (like a tree in general) modeled the birth and growth of a child (the custom is to plant a tree at the birth of a baby). Sometimes the child himself planted the oak, then the child’s health was judged by his growth and development: the oak of the lad - the lad will be healthy, the oak does not grow - the lad will get sick.
The Eastern Slavs know a ban on growing oaks from acorns: it was believed that the person who planted the acorn would die as soon as the tree was equal to its height. The role of oak in wedding ceremonies is also known. In the Voronezh province, an ancient custom was respected; leaving the church after the wedding, the young people went to the oak tree and circled around three times.
The strength of the oak led to its widespread use in funeral rites: from ancient times, coffins were made from it, which in former times were a hollowed out block, and grave crosses. This can be seen in the words common in the modern language and stable combinations of words denoting the transition to another world: “look at the oak” - die, “give oak”, “cloud” - die. In Russian riddles, death is most often guessed through the image of an oak:
At the turn of the Tatar
There is an oak tree,
No one will get around, no one will go around:
Neither the king, nor the queen, nor the red maiden.
The properties of oak were taken into account in folk medical practice. In conspiracies from the most terrible diseases, the image of an oak is one of the most common. He was not only addressed in conspiracies, but oak trees were also used in the treatment itself.
If a person has a backache, it is good to lean against an oak trunk at the first spring thunder. There is a well-known East Slavic custom to plug an oak branch into the belt on the back so that the back does not hurt during the harvest, etc. The Poles hung oak wreaths on the horns of cows so that the cows were strong and so that the horns would not break when butting.
In the folk medicine of the southern Slavs, a popular way to treat childhood illnesses, as well as a way to stop child mortality in the family, was the custom to put the cut off hair and nails of a sick child or a thread into the trunk of an oak tree, with which the child was previously measured, and then hammer this hole with a peg: when the child outgrows it hole, disease will leave him.
The oak served as an object to which diseases were symbolically transferred. Belarusians poured water under a young oak, in which they washed a consumptive patient; the Poles, with boils in their mouths, spat into a hole dug under an oak tree; Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Moravans left the patient's clothes on the oak; Bulgarians, Serbs and Macedonians visited revered oaks and tied ribbons and threads from clothes to their branches. Ukrainians hung towels and skeins of thread on oak trees as a vow.
To relieve a toothache, you need to bite an oak chip with a sick tooth.
Better yet, find an old oak tree in the forest, next to which springs break out of the ground, tear off the bark from the branch and soak it in spring water. If you wear such a charm in an amulet, your teeth will never be disturbed at all.
A sick child can be cured if you split the trunk of a young oak tree in the forest and drag the baby three times between the splits. And then tie the trunk with a rope or a sash.
You can go around the tree with the baby three more times nine times, and then hang a piece of baby clothes on its branches. As the left tissue decays, so the ailment will leave. From this rite, the tradition subsequently arose to decorate trees with rags and ribbons, which began to be perceived as sacrifices to forest spirits.
Oaks were considered the habitat of mythological characters. For example, according to the beliefs of the Eastern Slavs, witches flocked to giant oaks on the Kupala night. Among the southern Slavs, large oaks, elms and beeches were called "Samovil" or "Samodiv" (they gathered samodivs, pitchforks, devils).
Green oak near Lukomorye
Golden chain on an oak tree
And day and night the cat is a scientist
Everything goes round and round
Goes to the right - the song starts.
Left - tells a fairy tale.
There are miracles, there the goblin roams,
The mermaid sits on the branches.
Tells A.S. Pushkin.
The presence of fruits in oak brings its magical properties closer to the magical properties of fruit trees. So, rituals against infertility are usually performed under fruit trees, but sometimes under an oak.
Oak branches were used as a talisman, sticking them into the windows and doors of houses before the Kupala night.
The Slavs made amulets from oak bark.
The ancient sages predicted fate by listening to the rustle of oak branches.
In love magic, in order to bring the guy and the girl together, they used a decoction infused with oak and birch chips, chipped off in the place where these trees grew together.
A love spell on oak was also used. Tied together oak and birch. Having tied the string, they said: “As I tied you together, so I am tied forever with the servant of God (name). Amen". Then they left without looking back, and did not come to this place again.
Birch.
Since ancient times, a slender white-trunked birch has become a symbol of Russia. And although birches grow all over the world, they are not loved anywhere and are honored as they are in our homeland.
It has been so in all ages. After all, the birch Slavic mythology also considered a sacred tree. Sometimes not only oak, but birch was revered by our ancestors as a world tree. This idea remained in the ancient conspiracy: “On the sea-ocean, on the island of Buyan, there is a white birch with its branches down, its roots up”
Linguists associate the Russian name of birch with the verb to save. This is due to the fact that the Slavs considered birch a gift from the gods, protecting a person.
The Slavic rune is associated with the birch - Bereginya - Birch, Fate, Mother, Earth.
Bereginya in the Slavic tradition is a female image associated with protection and maternal protective principles. In archaic antiquity, under the name of Beregini, Makosh, the Mother Goddess, was in charge of earthly fertility and the fate of all living things. This rune is the rune of fate.
Legends and beliefs, often associated with biblical characters, tell about the origin and natural properties of birch. In folk legends, the birch acts as a blessed tree, as it sheltered the trait of St. Friday, and she also sheltered the Mother of God and Jesus from the weather: therefore, she enjoys the patronage of all three. Or, on the contrary, the birch was considered a God-cursed tree, the branches of which were whipped by Christ. In eastern Polissia there is a legend about the human origin of this tree: birches are the daughters of the first man - Adam - who have grown into the ground with their braids, and birch sap is their tears. The white color of the tree trunk is explained in legends by the fact that the birch, when Judas wanted to hang himself on it, turned white with fright, but did not accept the traitor.
In Slavic ballads, legends, fairy tales, it is told that the ruined girl turns into a birch. The Belarusian song sings about a birch that grew on the bride's grave, which was poisoned by the groom's mother.
In traditional culture, birch symbolizes the feminine. In many beliefs, rituals, and ritual songs, in folklore texts, she is opposed to oak as a male symbol.
The tender birch was revered as a female symbol, was considered the patroness of young girls. Brides came to her both in days of joy and in hours of despair. Clinging to a thin white trunk, they dried their tears, as if they were absorbing faith, hope, love.
Any spring holiday in Rus' in honor of the awakening nature could not do without a birch. On Trinity Day, churches and houses were decorated with young birch branches. It was believed that the tree would not be "offended" if it was cut down with love in the name of such a big holiday.
In many Russian provinces, they went to the forest on Semnik, chose a young birch, decorated it, curled wreaths on its branches, arranged a joint feast under it, led round dances, guessed. Then, with a cut birch (which was sometimes called "semik"), they walked around the village and, at the end of the ceremony, threw the birches into the water, into the fire, into the ravine (that is, they "escorted the birch", "buried" it). The girls "smoked" with a birch, asked her for a share, washed themselves with birch sap for beauty and health. This rite survived until the beginning of the 20th century. and maybe somewhere it is being revived today.
Trinity morning, morning canon,
In the grove along the birch trees there is a white chime.
Written by Sergei Yesenin.
There was such a sign: the girl who was the first to sit on the Trinity in the shade of the cherished birch, the first among her friends and get married. It was also believed that if you sit in the shade of the Trinity Birch and make a wish, it will surely come true.
In the mythological ideas of the Slavs, the period of the Trinity and Semik referred to those calendar intervals when the ancestors temporarily left the "other world" and appeared in the world of the living. The place of their stay on earth was the fresh green of birches. Therefore, birch trees were brought from the forest for the souls of the "parents" and installed near the houses. These days they went to the cemetery, brought here birch branches, wreaths, brooms. The main ritual action was the “plowing up” of the graves. They were swept over with birch branches, after which the branches were stuck into the grave ground.
Trinity week was also called "Mermaid": according to legend, only this week mermaids appeared on earth. Birch was considered a favorite habitat of mermaids. In mermaid songs, they appear to be sitting on a green or crooked birch. So, in the Smolensk region they sang:
At the birch gate
Zilina got cold
Vettiky waved;
On that birch bark
The mermaid sat down...
They imagined that mermaids live on weeping birches, swing on their branches or sit under a tree. Especially for the swinging of mermaids, branches were woven on birch trees.
Thus, the use of birch in the Trinity rites was determined by the idea of the image of this tree as the embodiment of fertility, as an object that connects the world of the living and the world of the dead and mythological creatures.
On the Trinity week, the girls performed fortune-telling, most of which was associated with a birch. So, for example, at night they wove birch branches with grass into a braid, and in the morning they looked: if the braid is untwisted, then be married this year, if not, stay in the girls. They also threw woven wreaths on a birch: depending on whether the wreath caught on a tree or fell to the ground, they judged whether the girl would marry in the next wedding season or not. Wreaths of birch branches, which were worn on the head all week, were thrown into the river: if a wreath sinks - to death, if it sinks to its shore - it awaits the continuation of girlhood, if it floats to a foreign shore - it will certainly be married.
Birch in folk beliefs was endowed with protective properties. Birch branches, especially used in Trinity and other calendar rites, were considered a reliable amulet by the Slavs. Shut up under the roof of the house, they reliably protected from lightning, thunder and hail; stuck in the middle of crops in the field protect from rodents and birds; abandoned on garden beds - protect capes from caterpillars. With the help of birch branches, they tried to protect themselves from evil spirits, especially the "walking dead". On the eve of Ivan Kypaly, birch branches stuck in the walls of the barn prevented the witches from milking milk from other people's cows, and harming them in general. On the eve of Ivan Kupala, wreaths of birch branches were put on the horns of cows so that the cattle were healthy and brought healthy offspring.
Among the Western Slavs, a birch broom, leaning against the bed of a woman in labor or the cradle of a newborn, was considered a reliable amulet.
At the same time, birch is often mentioned as an attribute of evil spirits in demonological beliefs and epics. The witch could milk milk from birch branches, she could also fly not only on a broomstick or a bread shovel, but also on a birch stick. White horses, given to the devil as a gift, turned into crooked birch trees, and bread given to the devil into birch bark; a woman in whom a demon "moved" during an attack was "thrown" on a birch.. Recently, during excavations near Novgorod, archaeologists found letters written on birch bark by our ancestors almost ten centuries ago. But birch bark is birch bark. Similar messages, “petitions” to the goblin, the water one, were written by the ancient Slavs on birch bark and pinned to a tree. They prayed not to deprive the hunter of game, to return lost cattle, to guard in the forest or on the river.
The contradictory attitude towards birch is also reflected in popular beliefs.
In some places, it was believed that a birch, planted next to the house, scares away evil and protects from lightning, and it was specially planted with the birth of a child.
In others, on the contrary, they were afraid to plant a birch next to the house, citing the fact that the birch “weeps” a lot and that lightning again strikes it. In Polissya, it was believed that a birch planted close to home causes female diseases y its inhabitants; that growths form on a birch from "women's curses."
In the Russian North, the place where birch trees once grew was considered unlucky; a new house was not built on it. At the same time, sometimes and in many places, birch trees were specially planted near the house for the well-being of the family. A birch branch installed with a front angle during the construction of the house was a symbol of the health of the owner and family. Birch branches were stuck in the field to get a good harvest of flax and cereals. A birch log was buried under the threshold of a new stable, "so that the horses were led." In ancient times, cradles were woven from branches to protect the child from illness. If a red ribbon is tied on a birch trunk, it will protect from the evil eye.
And yet more often the birch was used as a talisman against evil forces.
They turned to birch for help in case of illness. Beat the sick with a birch rod - a better healer will help. And if you pour water under a tree after bathing a sick child and say the right conspiracy, the disease will go to the birch. You just have to remember to say a conspiracy against a disease, like this, from angina pectoris: “I’ll throw a toad under the birch bush so that it doesn’t hurt, so that it doesn’t hurt”
They turned to the birch with a request for healing, they also twisted the branches of the tree over the sick, threatening not to let go until the disease recedes from the person.
In Mazovia, a malaria sufferer had to shake a birch with the sentence "Shake me as I shake you, and then stop."
Birch branches were used to give fertility not only to land and livestock, but also to newlyweds. The Slavs carried children through a split birch trunk in order to save the child from illness (the birch takes it upon itself).
Birch is a “happy” tree that protects from evil. They said about her: “There is a tree: the cry calms, the light instructs, the sick heal.”
A birch growing near the house drives away nightmares.
Buds, branches, leaves, bark, birch sap, growths on the trunk were considered especially healing. Branches consecrated in the church on calendar holidays were whipped to the patient in order to inform him of the power of the plant. Decoctions for various diseases were made from buds, leaves and growths. Birch sap has long been considered a rejuvenating and cleansing agent. In the spring, especially on holidays, girls and women drank juice and washed themselves with it for beauty and health.
Birch was used in folk magic as a love potion. They cut off a birch twig growing to the east, tore off the leaves from it; a twig was placed on the threshold, through which the person they think about should step over, and the leaves, dried and crushed into powder, were placed close to the heart. When the person they thought of came, the powder was mixed into some kind of drink and given to drink. They did it in an inconspicuous way.
In Polissya, in order to bewitch a guy, a girl would take a branch of a birch fused with an oak, quietly bypass the guy with her, or give him a decoction of the bark of this birch to drink.
Birch played a significant role in the rituals life cycle. In marriage rituals, she was used as a wedding attribute - a decorated tree, which was a symbol of each particular bride, and the girl's circle as a whole. In the Russian North, birch was an obligatory attribute in preparing the bride's bath: the branches of the tree were stuck into the ceiling and walls of the bath, the road to it was “torn” with twigs, a decorated birch broom was fixed on the top of the bath. For the implementation of the pre-wedding ablution, the bride tried to choose birch firewood.
Her branches were stuck into the wedding loaf so that everyone in the house was healthy.
In the East Slavic funeral tradition, birch was used directly in the preparation of a “place” for the deceased: the coffin was most often covered with birch leaves or brooms, they also stuffed a pillow that was placed under the head of the deceased. Birch was also planted on the grave.
The intermediary role of birch in the mythological picture of the world space explains the contradictory ideas about it in popular beliefs. In any case, numerous descriptions of rituals and actions with a birch testify to the deep reverence for this tree.
Rowan.
In ancient Rus', the mountain ash was considered the personification of the feminine. She was also a symbol of modesty and elegance. Many ritual songs and rituals were dedicated to this tree.
Rowan - the tree of the newlyweds. In the old days, the beautiful mountain ash was addressed to protect the newlyweds: its leaves were spread and hidden in their shoes and pockets. It was believed that they would prevent the evil deeds of sorcerers and witches. And in general, for well-being in the house, they tried to plant a mountain ash near it. The ancient Slavs believed that a person with bad intentions would not enter a house under the windows of which a mountain ash was planted.
In the Russian folk calendar there is a day "Peter-Paul Fieldfare". It falls at the end of September - the time of ripening rowan berries. On this day, rowan branches were cut into bunches, hung under the roofs of houses, sheds, and various outbuildings. Branches were also stuck at the edge of each field. This custom is associated with the notion of mountain ash as a tree that can protect against all sorts of troubles.
Rowan was considered a talisman in magic and folk healing. The Slavs said: "Stay under the mountain ash - you will scare away the disease."
With various diseases, a person crawled through a rowan bush three times. The Life of Adrian Poshekhonsky tells that after martyrdom Saint (1550), his body was buried in the wasteland, where the mountain ash grew. Once a year, on Ilyinsky Friday, people from different cities came to this place and arranged a fair; sick people came here - adults and children, who climbed through the branches of mountain ash, looking for healing. According to Russian and Belarusian beliefs, the one who harms the mountain ash will have a toothache. With a toothache, secretly at the dawn of the morning, they knelt before the mountain ash, hugged and kissed it and uttered a conspiracy: “Rowan, mountain ash, take my illness, from now on and until the age I will not eat you,” and then returned home, without looking back and trying not to who not to meet.
If you take out the core from a mountain ash growing on an anthill and say: “Do you, mountain ash, roots or bodies hurt? So the servant of God (name) would not have a toothache forever.
In the collection of conspiracies of the second quarter of the 17th century. from the Olonets region, several texts addressed to mountain ash have been preserved. “A conspiracy from portage, exile, commotion” was pronounced in the spring near a mountain ash standing on an anthill; it was also possible to make a staff from a mountain ash, gnaw it and leave a sliver in the mouth behind the cheek, so as not to be afraid of any "kudes" (witchcraft) during the journey. A conspiracy against fever was pronounced at the root of a mountain ash, and then, having pulled it out of the ground, they laid it on a bed near a sick person. At the beginning of the plot “from a hernia to a baby”, “two mountain ash, two curly” are described, they grow on a white stone in the middle of the sea-ocean, and a golden cradle with a baby hangs between them.
Among all the Slavs, there was a ban on chopping and breaking mountain ash, using it for firewood, picking flowers and even berries. Our ancestors considered the mountain ash a vengeful tree and believed: whoever breaks or cuts it down will soon die himself or someone from his house will die. The mountain ash was not supposed to be chopped, also because the healers transferred the disease from a person to a mountain ash. And if you cut this tree down on you and the disease passed on ... That's such a respectful attitude.
In magic, rowan was used to protect the house from magical attacks and evil spirits. For this, the mountain ash was planted near the porch or at the gate. And a branch of rowan with fruits has long been attached over front door where she guarded both the house and its household members from evil spirits. Rowan is a talisman "from dashing people and bad news. If you look closely at the underside of the rowan berry, you will notice that in shape it is an equilateral five-pointed star, and this is one of the most ancient and important pagan symbols - a symbol of protection.
In the Novgorod province, returning from a cemetery, rowan rods were hung over the door so that the deceased would not return home. In the Voronezh province, the matchmaker poured rowan roots into the top of the groom's boot so that he would not be spoiled at the wedding.
There are signs associated with mountain ash: “A large harvest of mountain ash - for a long and frosty winter". "Rowan in the forest is fruitful - by a rainy autumn, if not - to a dry one."
Willow was considered among the Slavs a sacred tree, a symbol of the continuity and constancy of life. It is the willow that symbolizes the ancient Slavic pagan god Yarila. To this day, the custom has been preserved once a year on the night of Ivan Kupala in honor of the sun god, to decorate a willow with flowers, to burn bonfires near it. At the end of the holiday, willow branches were planted in the yards.
In folk beliefs, she belongs to the trees cursed by God. According to legend, the tormentors of Christ made pins from it to fasten the cross. According to another legend, the nails with which Jesus was crucified were not made of iron, but made of willow. For this, the willow, according to popular notions, is defeated by turning by worms, and devils sit in a dry willow. According to Belarusians, on the willow, especially the old one - dry and hollow, From Baptism to Palm Sunday damn sitting. In the spring, the devils warm themselves on the willow, and after they are blessed on a holiday, they fall into the water, and therefore from Palm Sunday to Easter you cannot drink water scooped up under the willow.
Willow in Rus' played the same role as the palm tree, palm branches, with which the people greeted Christ entering Jerusalem. The willow was and is sanctified in the temple with holy water.
Willow was attributed magical power to influence the irrigation of fields and meadows (willow grows in damp places, near water), which means that, the ancestors believed, it contributed to fertility and future harvest. There is a clear connection with pre-Christian rites and beliefs, with the cult of the spirits of vegetation and fertility.
It was also believed that willow had the ability to endow livestock and people with health and sexual energy, protect against diseases and purify from evil spirits. In ancient times, there was a custom: parents who returned from church whipped children with consecrated willow and said: “Willow - a whip! Beats to tears. The willow is red, it does not beat in vain. This was done in order to endow the children with health.
With consecrated willow, young women and girls, as well as newlyweds, were lashed, thereby wanting to make them fertile.
In Rus', it was customary to keep the consecrated willow at home in the front corner behind the icons all year round. And on the very holiday, they whip cattle with willow branches and say: “As the willow grows, so do you grow” - in addition to wishing health to pets, this was supposed to protect them from evil spirits. Sprigs of consecrated willow were strengthened in sheds, barns. Before the first cattle pasture in the field, these branches were fed to the animals.
Willow was also attributed the power to protect houses from fires, fields from hail, stop a storm, recognize sorcerers and witches, discover treasures, etc.
Following the belief that willow has a universal healing power, our ancestors ate nine cones (earrings) from the consecrated willow, believing that this would protect them from fever. During a thunderstorm, the consecrated willow was taken out from behind the goddess and placed on the windowsill - they believed that this would save them from lightning.
The preparation of willow branches in the cities was a special rite. On the eve of Palm Sunday, in the old days, Russians, without distinction of estates and ranks (from the king to the commoner), went to break the willow on the banks of nearby rivers. In Moscow, for example, in Kitay-gorod and on the banks of the Neglinka, overgrown with willows and willows. Foreigners who visited Moscow in the XVI - XVII centuries, left interesting memories of how on Saturday, on the eve of Palm Sunday, before mass, a large tree (willow) decorated with various artificial fruits was taken out of the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin with a large gathering of people, installed in a huge sleigh and carried, as in a procession.
The Slavs believed that willow amulets hung around the neck protected from hellish visions. Willow branches were hung over the doors of residential buildings, for they promised goodness and happiness. Women injected willow branches into their hair, which protected them from evil spirits, sharpened their eyesight and protected them from blindness.
All Eastern Slavs widely believed that a consecrated branch could protect against thunderstorms, storms, and other natural disasters, from evil spirits and diseases. In the Tambov province, it was believed that a willow thrown against the wind could drive away a storm, and thrown into a fire could pacify it.
In Rus', weeping species of white willow were a symbol of melancholy and sadness. In the old days, willow was called a sadness-tree, which not only sympathizes with pain, sickness of a person, but also takes it all away from the patient. There is a belief that willow has magical properties: it protects people from evil spirits, troubles and accidents. If you carry branches of this tree with you, you can get rid of the fear of death.
In folk medicine of the Slavic countries, willow was used as an anti-inflammatory and anti-febrile remedy for malaria. In the Kuban, willow was used in the treatment of childhood diseases. To do this, early in the morning, before sunrise, they went to the river and cut the willow three times, nine branches each. At the same time, they counted three times from nine to one. Arriving home, they dipped one bunch of nine branches into hot water and bathed the child near the window, from which the sunrise was visible. At noon, they put a second bunch of willow in hot water and bathed the child near the window, in front of which the sun stood at that moment. In the evening, when the sun was setting, the same actions were performed with the last bunch of branches in front of the window looking at the sunset. At the end, all willow branches with water belonged to the river and poured out with a prayer to float on the water. It was believed that the disease would recede.
Willow was fumigated by sick cattle, ground it into powder and covered their wounds, made a decoction from it and drank from various diseases, and also used it as a lotion from tumors and bruises. The consecrated willow was fed to cows and sheep, while they said: “I don’t give, but the willow. Just as the willow does not dry, so do you, my God-given cattle, do not dry.
Aspen- this plant, full of dignity and beauty, is considered in folk beliefs as a cursed tree; at the same time widely used as a talisman.
There is a popular belief that demons live in aspen leaves. In Christianity, it is believed that Aspen is guilty of allowing the tormentors of Jesus Christ to make a cross from his wood on which he was crucified, the nails of the knitting needle with which he was nailed to the cross. The Mother of God or Christ himself cursed the aspen and punished it with eternal fear, from which it trembles to this day. According to another legend, the aspen did not show respect: at the time of the birth of Christ and at his death, it did not calm down and did not bow, but continued to rustle its leaves and tremble. Therefore, it trembles for no reason, does not bear fruit, and cannot cover a person with its shadow. According to other stories, the aspen was punished for betraying the Mother of God, hiding under it with Christ, by the trembling of its branches, during the flight to Egypt. Finally, they say that Judas, tormented by fear and remorse, for a long time could not find a tree that would agree to “accept” him, and only Aspen took pity and allowed him to hang himself on it, for which she was immediately cursed by God.
It was forbidden to plant aspen near houses in order to avoid misfortune, including diseases; they did not use it in construction, did not heat the stove with it, avoided sitting in the shade of a tree, did not bring aspen branches into the house, etc.
In some places among the Eastern Slavs, aspen was also considered a "damn" tree, cf. the characteristic Hutsul name for the feature is "Osinavets". In places where aspen grows, according to popular belief, devils “curl”. The stay of the devil on the aspen is evidenced by the prohibition to hide under the aspen during a thunderstorm, because "the thunder is looking for the aspen." Thunder "beats" the devil in Slavic beliefs.
According to Belarusian beliefs, witches prepared a harmful potion from aspen branches on fire; in order to turn into a wolf or become invisible, the sorcerer had to roll over through five aspen pegs driven into the ground, or through an aspen stump; throwing an aspen branch in front of the traveler, the sorcerer knocked him out of the way. Wanting to make friends with the goblin, the man called him, standing in the forest on fallen aspens.
Aspen was used for magical purposes and divination. To detect a thief, the Poles put a thing into a split aspen that the thief had touched; it was believed that from this he would begin to shake the fever, and the villain would hasten to return the stolen. Aspen was used to recognize a witch: it could be seen if on the night before Ivan Kupala, hide in a barn under a harrow specially made of aspen. To find out which of the women in the village was a witch, Belarusians drove an aspen stake into the ground, cut off chips from it, set fire to them and boiled a filter (a rag through which milk is filtered) on fire: it was believed that the witch would certainly come to ask not to burn it with fire.
In folklore, beliefs and rituals, aspen is an effective tool in the fight against evil spirits, witches, sorcerers and chthonic creatures. After the death of sorcerers, sorcerers were burned on fire from aspen wood so that they would not harm people. In a Russian fairy tale, the heroes defeat Baba Yaga by crushing her with aspen roots; Dobrynya Nikitich hangs the Serpent Gorynych, defeated by him, on a “jagged aspen” (epic “Dobrynya and the Serpent”). According to Russian and Belarusian beliefs, a killed snake must be hung on an aspen, otherwise it will come to life and bite a person. Conspiracies from snake bites are usually read over aspen bark, and then they rub the bitten place with it. A fire made of aspen wood is considered the most effective means of combating evil spirits, hence the proverb: let it burn on an aspen tree!
Among the Eastern Slavs, as well as in Poland, an aspen stake was stuck into the grave of a "walking" dead person or vampire. Often this was done even at the funeral, so that the deceased would not turn into a "walking" dead man. The pointed aspen stake received in the eyes of the people the meaning of Perun's club. To protect the cows and calves from the attacks of witches, aspens are placed on the gates and in the corners of the barnyard, cut down or uprooted; during the plague cattle, driving away the Cow Death, they beat her (that is, they wave through the air) with aspen logs.
In the rituals of the Eastern Slavs, aspen was used as a talisman. On St. George's and Kupala nights, with the help of aspen branches stuck into the walls of the barn, gates, sheds, they protected cattle from witches who took milk from cows. For the same purpose, at the hotel of cows, a piece of aspen was strengthened on her horn; the first colostrum was filtered through an aspen pipe and given to the cow. If the cow's milk was sour, she was driven through the aspen branches laid along the threshold; a newly bought horse was forced to step over an aspen log placed at the gate of the yard, and so on.
Protecting the fields from witches, aspen branches were stuck into the crops; in the same way, gardens were protected from moles, caterpillars, etc. The healer, destroying the hall on the field, pulled it out of the ground with aspen sticks and burned it on aspen fire.
During the construction of the house, aspen pegs were stuck in the corner of the foundation, protecting the house from any trouble. Defending himself from the goblin, a man, caught at night in the forest, went to bed in a circle outlined on the ground with an aspen stick.
As a saving tool against demonic obsession, aspen can also serve as a healing tool for expelling evil spirits and diseases. They read a plot over aspen rods, which are then placed on the patient. When their teeth hurt, they take an aspen twig and read a conspiracy over it three times: “On the sea in Okiyana, on an island in Buyan, there are three tall trees, under those trees lies a hare; move you, toothache, to that hare! After that, the aspen knot is applied to the diseased teeth.
In folk medicine, various diseases were “transferred” to aspen: during a fever, the cut hair and nails of the patient were put into a hole drilled in an aspen tree, and the hole was clogged with an aspen peg, believing that the fever would not be able to get out of this. Sometimes the patient's belongings were buried in a pit under an aspen tree or the patient was put on a fresh aspen stump, believing that the disease would leave the person in him. “Transmitting” the disease to the tree, they asked: “Aspen, aspen, take my quagmire, give me lightness!”
In some cases, in exchange for health, a person gave a promise not to harm the aspen - not to break its branches, not to chop, not burn .. In childhood epilepsy, cut hair and nails were hammered into the door jamb with an aspen peg at the height of the child's growth: it was believed that when a child outgrow this place, he will recover. With children's insomnia, they made a font for a child from aspen or put aspen in his cradle. With the help of aspen, toothache, hernia, children's fright and other diseases were also treated. When a cholera epidemic approached, cut down aspen trees were stuck into the ground at the four ends of the village, thereby protecting the village from the penetration of the disease.
Broken paralysis, healers advised lying down to rest their feet on an aspen log. The patient recovers if you read the plot over aspen rods and put it on his chest.
Everyone knows that the best way fighting werewolves and vampires - aspen stake. Aspen absorbs, takes aside the negative energy of the other world. It was this property that was considered magical in former times. In the aspen grove, psychics and magicians lose their abilities. Here you can also find refuge from magical persecution, protect yourself from an energy vampire, and partially neutralize the effects of induced damage or the evil eye.
Hawthorn. Among the Slavs, hawthorn is a noblewoman, hawthorn and a symbol of chastity.
The ritual functions of the hawthorn are due to its thorniness, which brings this shrub closer to the blackberry, wild rose, blackthorn. In some nationalities, hawthorn is called blackthorn. The hawthorn was one of several plants used to make a wreath for Christ.
The association between its spring bloom and virginity has led to popular belief that it advocates chastity. Hawthorn flowers were used for wedding wreaths. However, the smell of hawthorn flowers could portend death.
With the help of hawthorn, you can prevent the dead from becoming a vampire. To do this, the belly or heel of the deceased was pierced with a hawthorn thorn, and for fidelity, a hawthorn bush was also planted on the grave, and for fidelity, a hawthorn bush was also planted on the grave. The branches of the plant were placed in the chimney if it was suspected that the vampire would enter the house through it. It is believed that a stick from this thorny plant can drive the devil away, and kill with a knife, the handle of which is made of hawthorn. Hawthorn was placed on the threshold of the cow pen in order to prevent witches from entering there.
There is a belief that demons live in thorny bushes, and hawthorn is a pitchfork tree.
Among the southern Slavs, an earthquake is also explained by the shaking or damage to the tree on whose branches the Earth is placed, or the pillar on which it rests. This dog constantly gnaws at the hawthorn, and when there is very little left, he begins to tear with all his might to break it. From this, the Earth shakes, but does not collapse, because it is worth cracking the trunk, like St. Peter baptizes the tree with a rod and the hawthorn becomes whole again.
From the evil eye and damage, its branches were placed under the pillow, at the same time being protected from diseases.
Elder.
In folk beliefs, elder belongs to the so-called cursed, dangerous plants, since the devil lives in it. In Ukraine, for example, they believe that the elder was “planted” by the devil and now constantly sits under it. In the apocryphal traditions of Christianity, the elder disputes the dubious honor of being the very tree on which Judas Iscariot hanged himself.
According to another legend, the devil hung himself on an elder tree, which is why its leaves and berries emit a putrid smell. The Polish legend says that. that the first demon settled in a huge pit and planted an elderberry on top so that she would guard him. The Serbs considered the elderberry bush to be the habitat of the pitchfork.
Perhaps that is why elderberry was not used in family and calendar rituals, but it was widely used in magic, amulets, and healing.
At the same time, it was believed that elderberry was the abode of household spirits, bringing good to the owners, guardians of the economy, etc. In Polish and Ukrainian incantations, elderberry is identified with Adam; they address her with the words "Byzynovy Adame", "Man of God, holy Adam", explaining to him that both elderberry and Adam have existed since the foundation of the world.
Elderberry was forbidden to burn in order to avoid toothache. Children's toys were never made from it, so that children would not have a headache. Among the Poles, Hutsuls, Lusatian Serbs it was forbidden to sleep under the elderberry, urinate under it, climb on the elderberry. Elderberry was not used as fuel, so as not to bring bedbugs and fleas into the houses.
There was a ban on uprooting elderberry (if it was necessary to uproot it, cripples or mentally ill people were specially hired for this work).
Violation of this prohibition, according to legend, could lead to misfortune, illness, for example, rheumatism (“if you chop an elderberry, it will twist your legs and arms”). It was believed that where an elder bush was dug up, nothing would ever grow.
These taboos were lifted if the elderberry was chopped or broken for any specific purpose: as a medicine, for decorating a church or making hedges, for fuel. It was possible to break the elderberry on a certain day (on Good Thursday, before noon).
Elderberry was used for the magical treatment of diseases. Water was poured under the elderberry, in which the sick child was bathed, in the hope that the disease would be taken away by the spirit living under the bush. They tied the elderberry with threads from the clothes of a patient with a fever. Conspiracies were turned to the elderberry, which were read under the plant in the treatment of toothache: “Holy elderberry, I keep you from being burned by fire, and you keep me from toothache.” To protect a child from a headache, the Slovenes buried his cut hair under elderberry, and the Slovaks bathed small children in a decoction of elderberry flowers to ensure their health.
And patients with radiculitis knelt before the elderberry and asked her to take over their illness: “Elderberry! Dazhbog sent me to you so that you could take on my illness!”
Among the southern Slavs, elderberry was widely used for snake, scorpion and wasp stings, and was also used in folk veterinary medicine.
Among Czechs and Slovenes, girls turned to elderberry during fortune-telling about marriage. At Christmas time, the girl went to the elderberry bush, shook it and said: "I'm shaking, I'm shaking the elder, answer, dog, from the side where my dear lives," and listened to where the dogs barked. It was believed that during fortune-telling you can see the betrothed in the elderberry bush.
In Ukraine, conspiracies addressed to the elder are widely known: "from misfortune", "so that the court does not sue", "to gain strength and courage", "to get rid of any misfortune".
Elder branches were used as a universal amulet. They decorated houses, outbuildings, fences to protect against witches on St. George's and Kupala nights, they simply carried them with them. In the Balkans, elderberry branches (along with other plants) were used in rain-making rites. They decorated from head to toe dodol, peperuda, Herman's doll, and at the end of the ceremony they threw the branches into the water.
In Russia, there was a belief that if you set off on a journey with an elder staff, then neither evil people nor wild animals would be afraid. The method of making a cane-amulet can be found in ancient Russian herbalists. At the sight of such a cane, evil spirits run away with all their might.
Spruce. According to legend, the fir hid the Mother of God during her flight with Christ to Egypt. According to another legend, she hid Christ, who was hiding from the plague, for which she received a blessing and was rewarded, remaining forever green.
The thorniness of spruce, as well as a strong resinous smell, determine its use as a talisman. In Ukraine, spruce branches (together with branches of wild rose and nettles) were stuck on the eve of the Kupala night in front of the gate, barn, roof eaves and other places to protect cattle from witches, pigs from diseases. At the first milking, the Poles filtered the milk through spruce branches laid crosswise so that it would not spoil. Spruce branches were widely used to protect buildings and cultural space from bad weather. In Moravia, they decorated crosses with them, which at Easter were stuck in crops from hail. However, spruce branches consecrated at Christmas, Epiphany, Candlemas, Easter or on the day of the Nativity of John the Baptist were considered more effective means. In Belarus, consecrated spruce branches, along with incense, were placed at four corners when laying the House to protect it from thunder. The branches that were stuck into the ice on the sides of the hole for Epiphany were brought home, put behind the icons and stuck into the roof - from wind and thunder; tied to apple trees in the garden to protect the trees from the storm; stuck into the wall, put under the house, in the underground - "so that the storm does not touch."
Spruce is a female tree. It is probably with the “female” symbolism of spruce that the prohibition to plant and generally have a spruce near the house, which supposedly “survives” from the house of men, is connected. According to the beliefs of the Serbs, if a spruce grows near the house, boys will not be born in it. In the Russian North, they did not plant a spruce near the house, fearing that otherwise "the men would not live, they would die, there would be only widows."
The ban on planting spruce near the house can be explained by the fact that spruce belongs to barren trees (according to Bulgarian legend, spruce is “barren”, because it was cursed by the Mother of God). In Belarus, spruce was not planted out of fear that "nothing will be done in the house", "nothing will be born either in the barn or at home." They especially avoided keeping spruce near the houses of the newlyweds, so that they would not remain childless, "so that the family would not be uprooted."
In the beliefs of the Eastern Slavs, spruce is also related to the region folk demonology. According to the Vladimir bylichka, the brownie lives in a large pine or spruce branch hanging somewhere in the yard. The children of the forest spirits lie in cradles hanging on fir and pine trees, and the children of mermaids lie under the spruce. Through the fir-trees the devils lead the cursed children dragged by them into the forest, under the fir-tree the goblin puts the children who have lost their way to sleep.
According to legend, on behalf of the sorcerers, the cursed children abandoned to them, as well as the devils who demand work from the sorcerers, are counting the needles. There is a conspiracy from childhood insomnia: “Come, dawn, into the forest, sit on the Christmas tree, count your needles. There you have a job, there you have a job. Don't touch my heart child."
According to Slavic beliefs, during a thunderstorm, the devil hides under a spruce, bringing thunder and lightning to himself. This explains the prohibition to be under the spruce during a thunderstorm.
Spruce has found wide application in funeral and memorial rituals. At the Old Believer consent of the runners, it was customary to dig up the roots of a large spruce right in the forest, twist it out of the ground a little and put the body of the deceased without a coffin into the resulting hole, and then plant the spruce in its original place, "as if nothing had happened here for a century." This agrees with the Olonets evidence of the burial of gallows between two fir trees, as well as the motif of burial under a fir tree in Serbian epic songs.
A coffin was often made from spruce (as well as from pine and birch), hoping that it would not allow the deceased to "walk" after death. This was reflected even in Russian carol curses addressed to the owner, who gave the carolers a bad gift: New Year spruce coffin for you, an aspen lid.
Everywhere there was a custom to throw spruce branches on the road to the cemetery, both before the funeral procession and after it. Thus, they “covered” or “sweeped” the way for the deceased, so that he “did not come, did not disturb.”
Among the Western Slavs, they ate branches like an evergreen plant, garlands from it and spruce wreaths are one of the most common grave decorations. Felled spruce (as well as cypress, juniper pine), often decorated with flowers or ribbons, could be installed or less often planted on the grave of a guy or girl who died before marriage.
Spruce also served as a ritual tree, mainly in the Christmas and New Year, Maslenitsa, Trinity and Kupala festivities, as well as at a wedding.
Spruce was considered a symbol eternal life, indestructibility. This is where the custom for Christmas (later - for the New Year) begins to decorate the house with this tree.
There is a sign: “You can’t cut a century-old spruce - to trouble.” - The people believe that the old, centuries-old spruce is the dwelling of the goblin. If it is cut down, then the goblin will begin to take revenge by all means available to him, up to and including arson. And he will certainly start knocking him off the road in the forest, where he is the owner.
viburnum among the Slavic peoples since ancient times it has been a symbol of youth, girlhood, fun and revelry. In folk legends, this is a woman, her fate, her share. It blooms with a delicate white color, shining with the purity of innocence. But then comes marriage. Joy comes in half with grief. A flower quickly fades - feelings quickly fade. A berry is born - not that bitter, not that sweet. Fragile viburnum branches break under rain and wind.
Kalinovye gai have long been called sacred. Near them it was forbidden to graze cows, cut down bushes. According to legend, if you rock a child in a viburnum cradle, he will grow up melodious. The red color of the viburnum has great amulet power, which is why the bride's outfit has always been red in the past.
In the old days, viburnum was always present in the wedding ceremony. It is the main decoration of the bride's wreath, wedding tree, wedding loaf and other wedding attributes. The bride's wreaths were woven from viburnum, periwinkle and other fragrant herbs - this ensured the love of the young for many years.
Kalina is also a symbol of procreation, there is even an expression: "Kalina gave birth to the family."
In Ukraine, when a girl was born in the family, berries and viburnum leaves were placed in the first font so that she would be beautiful, ruddy, happy and healthy. Kalina was hung next to the woman in labor so that she and her child were healthy and happy.
At the same time, viburnum is a tree and funerary, memorable - "you, my sisters, plant viburnum in my head."
In songs, killed, cursed people, lovers who died of love turn into viburnum.
Kalina with drooping branches symbolizes the girl's sadness. Breaking viburnum branches - Symbolized to marry a girl. Collect viburnum, walk on viburnum - look for love or love. In Ukraine, viburnum is attributed a special power: the viburnum flower, plucked and applied fresh to a loving heart, comforts languor.
Of the entire chain of images associated with viburnum, only the “viburnum bridge” correlated with daring and youth. Walking along the viburnum bridge meant indulging in selfless fun, revelry. In one song, a yearning girl asks the fellows to “build her a viburnum bridge,” that is, to cheer her up, and a woman striving to regain her youth catches up with them on the viburnum bridge with the words: “Oh, I caught up with my summers on the viburnum bridge; oh, come back, come back at least for an hour to visit!
Kalina is planted on the grave of a son, brother, young Cossack, and generally unmarried.
Maple .
In the legends of the Western and Eastern Slavs, maple is a tree into which a person is turned ("sworn"). It is for this reason that maple wood could not be used for firewood ("maple went from man"). It was impossible to make a coffin out of its trunk (“it is a sin to rot a living person in the earth”). It was forbidden to put maple leaves under bread in the oven (a palm with five fingers was seen in a maple leaf).
The transformation of a man into a maple tree is one of the popular motifs of Slavic legends: the mother “cursed” the disobedient son (daughter), and the musicians walking through the grove where this tree grew made a violin out of it, which tells about the mother’s wine in the voice of the son (daughter).
In songs about a mother or poisoner's wife, sycamore (white maple) grows on the grave of a murdered son (husband).
And in the South Slavic tradition, where such songs are unknown, maple, nevertheless, is also thought to be involved in human destiny. According to Serbian beliefs, if an unjustly condemned person hugs a dry maple, the maple will turn green, but if an unhappy or offended person touches a maple green in spring, the tree will dry up.
According to an old tradition, when a house was built, a couple of maples were planted on its south side. Since the house was usually built when it was created new family, these trees received the names "Groom" and "Bride". But probably in the old days these two maples, under whose protection the house was all year round, were called the trees of the god and goddess.
Maple symbolized the ability to magical protection, love and material well-being.
Maple was used in the construction of bridges over running water. Running water is an obstacle for the dark forces, and the maple did not allow these forces to use the bridge.
Maple branches covering the barn, or stuck into the walls, protect livestock from the evil eye and spoilage.
Maple was called a good tree, believing that it is the seat of deities or demons.
It was believed that maple brings happiness, protects from lightning, so it was planted near the house.
In Rus', in order to prevent the witch from entering the courtyard and the house, maple branches were plugged into the doors. To scare away evil forces, maple fruits were buried under the threshold of the house, a green branch was hung over the bed.
Maple leaves were often depicted on Easter eggs.
The maple arrow is believed to kill the undead.
In agricultural magic, maple branches were used to grow flax. They were stuck into the arable land, saying: "Lord, give us flax, like a maple tree."
There is a belief that there is a very strong connection between a person and a maple that grows near his house. And as long as a person is alive and well, then the maple grows and turns green.
Maple is a melodious tree. “Pull a ringing string on a dry branch of a wedge-tree, sing your daring song to me ...” is a frequent motif of ancient legends. It was from maple that Sadko's harp was made.
Maple branches were used in the rites of the Trinity, Green Christmas time, Ivan's day. In Polissya, Saturday before the Trinity was called “maple”, “maple Saturday”. On a holiday, one or three trees were placed at the doors and windows, decorating the house with branches. It was believed that at this time the souls of deceased relatives come to the house and hide in the maple branches.
After the holidays, trees and branches were not thrown away, they were burned or chopped for firewood.
There are signs associated with maple: “If maple leaves curl up and expose their lower surface to the wind, it will rain.” "Maple sap has gone - the spring frosts are over."
For women, it symbolizes a young man, slender and strong, kind and beloved.
In Ukraine, maple and linden were presented as a married couple, and the fall of maple leaves promised separation from the family.
Linden The name of this tree in all Slavic languages comes from the word "stick" (due to the viscous juice). Softness was attributed to linden, which made it a symbol of femininity, tenderness, the opposite of the "male" tree - oak. Among the Slavs, linden was read not just as a symbol of a woman, but as a “mother of trees”, a giver of life (such an attitude is associated with the role of linden in the material well-being of a person). As the oak was dedicated to Perun, so the linden was the tree of the goddess Lada.
In Russian folk art the beautiful linden is linked by love to both oak and maple.
Lipa was closely associated with the Orthodox cult and Christian legends. It was she who was considered the tree of the Virgin; they said that the Mother of God rests on it, descending from heaven to earth. Icons and icons were hung on the linden; on the linden, according to legend, more often than other trees appeared ("were") miraculous icons. According to the legends, the linden covered with its branches the Mother of God with the little Christ during their flight to Egypt. Linden - a tree, in all Slavic traditions revered as sacred. Among the southern Slavs, old large lindens traditionally grew near churches and temples, especially ancient ones; courts were held under these lindens, holidays and meetings of residents were held. Processions of the cross stopped under the lindens during religious processions through the fields, meals were arranged here, etc.
Linden was also considered a happy tree, which was not afraid to keep near houses and plant on graves. It was also said that it was good to fall asleep under a lime tree. The sacred nature of the tree led to the use of linden wood for carving a “live” fire, with the help of which the fire was renewed annually in the hearths.
In this regard, it was natural to prohibit touching the revered lindens, damaging them, chopping them, breaking branches, administering natural needs under them, etc. It was known that a horse who plucked a linden branch would certainly fall, but if a person returns the branch to its place, the horse will recover. The Poles were also wary of cutting down lindens, believing that otherwise either the person who cut down the tree, or someone from his family, would die.
Ukrainians say about linden that God gave her a special power - to save husbands from the curses that their wives "reward" them with. Linden takes over everything, that's why her trunk is covered with growths. And one more thing: cattle cannot be beaten with linden - they will die.
Linden is used as a universal amulet. It was widely believed that lightning did not strike the linden, so they planted it near houses and were not afraid to hide under it during a thunderstorm. The Russians hung linden crosses around the neck of a person tormented by obsessions. They also stuck a linden branch in the middle of the pasture during grazing so that the cows would not wander far and could not be touched by animals in the forest. Everywhere in Russia it was believed that a witch could be discouraged from becoming a werewolf if she was hit backhand with a bare lime stick. In the same way, brave people drove away the devil that had become attached to them. During the wedding, the inhabitants of Herzegovina held a linden branch over the heads of the newlyweds as a talisman. She decorated houses and pens with cattle on St. George's Day and on Trinity.
Like many other trees, linden played an important role in folk medicine: various diseases were transferred to it everywhere, by hammering pieces of the patient’s clothes, his nails and hair into the tree trunk; fumigated sick people and cattle with smoke from burnt linden wood, etc.
Alder- a tree mentioned in the legends of the Western and Eastern Slavs. They tell how the devil, competing with God at the creation of the world, tried to create a wolf, but could not revive him; by the will of God, the wolf came to life and rushed at the devil, who hid from him on an alder tree. Then the blood from the heel of the devil bitten by the wolf fell on the alder, which made its bark red. According to another legend, God created a sheep, in response to which the devil created a goat and, wanting to brag to God, dragged her to God by the tail. On the way, the goat escaped from the devil and hid on an alder. Since then, the goats have no tail, and the bark of the alder has become red from the goat's blood.
It is also mentioned in the legends about the crucifixion of Christ: alder branches were broken during the scourging of Christ, for which Christ blessed this tree.
Among the southern Slavs Alder is used in folk medicine, "living fire" is carved from it.
In the Russian North, it was customary to leave a sacrifice to the field or forest spirits on an alder - usually in the form of bread and salt.
Because of its red color, alder has become a magical amulet. Like everything bright, red bark attracts the eye and, accordingly, protects from the evil eye.
Even if the bark is hidden in a pocket, a person is reliably protected. Hence the popular sign of putting pieces of alder in the pockets of the newlyweds in order to protect the newlyweds from spoilage. Its branches are stuck along the edges of the field to protect against hail and bad weather; they bathe in the water that bathes the roots of the alder in order to protect themselves from diseases.
When you have a fever, you need to go to the forest and sit on a freshly cut Alder stump, and then the fever will pass into the tree. The Poles believed that the water washing the roots of Alder turns black; if you bathe in such water, the body will turn black, but at the same time the person will be saved from all diseases.
In Poland, on Trinity, Alder branches were used to decorate houses to turn away thunderstorms and hail. The Poles stuck Alder branches into barley crops so that moles did not tear the soil, and also placed Alder branches under sheaves to protect them from mice. Belarusians believed that Alder could protect households from visiting the "walking dead", since it had "the red blood of Satan." For the same reasons, in Polissya, people planted Alder near their houses, so that "the devil would not become attached" to a person. The Slovaks put a piece of alder leaf in the shoes of newlyweds going to the crown.
hazel the western and southern Slavs have a sacred tree. Hazel belonged to the “blessed” trees, in which “thunder does not strike”: during a thunderstorm they hid under it, branches. Crosses made of hazel were used to decorate houses, stick them into fields and outbuildings, especially on St. George's Day, on Ivan Kypaly; it was believed that a thunderstorm would bypass the places protected by hazel. At the same time, it was believed that thunder and thunder, not having power over the tree itself, had a detrimental effect on its fruits. Nuts deteriorate, blackening, as if burning from the inside. Due to its status, hazel was widely used as a talisman against evil spirits. Demons. Bulgarians expelled those who sent insomnia to children, bypassing the cradle of a child with a lit walnut branch. Branches of hazel were protected from pysalok. Hazelnut was an effective amulet against snakes and mice. The Bulgarians believed that snakes are not only afraid of hazel, but also die from it. Czechs and Slovaks planted branches of hazelnuts in barns, beat them on the walls of houses and storerooms, thus driving mice out of there.
The southern Slavs did not plant hazel, believing that when its trunk is equal to the neck of the person who planted it, it will die.
Slovenes during Christmas fortune-telling, calling evil spirits to the crossroads, outlined a magic circle around themselves with the help of a hazel branch. Therefore, on the eve of Trinity, people avoided picking hazel branches, fearing to disturb the souls of the dead. On Ascension or Spiritual Day, they decorated houses with hazelnut branches, laid them on the floor in the house and in the church, knelt down on them, prayed, and, pressing their ears to the hazel branches, listened to them. It was believed that in this way you can hear the dead and even talk to them. At the end of the day, these walnut branches were taken to the cemetery, they swept the graves with them, so that in the “other world” the soul of the deceased could hide in their shadow.
Christmas divination speaks about the connection between the hazelnut and the cult of ancestors. It was believed that an empty nut portends death and a hungry, lean year, and a full one - well-being and health.
Rosehip protected the newlyweds from the action of harmful forces. In Croatia, three rosehip thorns were stuck into the groom's hat, which protected him from the evil eye; after the wedding, the bride's veil was thrown on a wild rose, to which she bowed nine times.
In Serbia, to protect a child from a witch, the rose hips were sewn into his clothes, placed next to him; In Bulgaria, it was forbidden to dry the diapers of a newborn on a wild rose, so that the Samodivas living under it would not harm him.
In Croatia, rose hips were kept in the house so that the plague would not enter it. So that the witch would not take away the milk from the cows, on St. George's Day, they decorated the doors of the house with rosehip branches, stuck them in front of the entrance to the house and into the barn. Rosehip protected both people and livestock from snakebite, for example, the Poles fumigated cattle and shepherds with smoke from rosehips before being pastured to pasture.
It was believed that rose hips give fruitful power, so rose hips often performed in ceremonies in tandem with fruit trees. In Poland and Slovakia, as many rose hips were baked into Christmas bread as the number of heads of cattle the owner had: it was believed that the animals would not get sick, and the cows would give more milk. In the Czech Republic, cattle were fed rose hips at Easter.
The Kuban Cossacks have a legend that rose hips grew out of the blood of a girl who, not wanting to marry the unloved, stabbed herself with a dagger. In autumn, this bush dressed in an outfit of red berries, but only a kind person could pick them. If an evil person approached him, the bush bristled with thorns and did not let him pick a single berry.
In folk medicine: diseases were referred to him, water after treatment was poured under a wild rose bush. At the same time, the rosehip could give health, for which an exchange was made between the patient and the rosehip bush: the patient took away the red thread that hung on the rosehip during the night, and entangled the bush with a yellow thread that hung around his neck for a day and said: “I give you a yellow thread , and you give me a red thread. The disease passed to the wild rose, and the life-giving power of the wild rose - to the patient. In Bulgaria, a patient with epilepsy was measured with a rosehip rod, which was buried in the place where the seizure occurred. In gratitude, the sorceress hung a red thread with coins strung on it on a wild rose and left a cake, wine, oats and three horseshoes under a bush. In Serbia, a sick person, in order to get rid of the disease, crawled through a split rosehip rod, which was then tied with a red thread.
Rejuvenating apples, according to Russian legends, had great power: they could not only give health and youth, but also restore life to the dead. They grew up in a distant land, and were guarded by evil giants or dragons. In Slavic mythology, griffins and basilisks guard all approaches to the Iry garden, the Alatyr mountain and the apple tree with golden apples. Whoever tries these golden apples will receive eternal youth and power over the universe. And the apple tree itself with golden apples is guarded by griffins and the dragon Ladon himself.
It has been known since ancient times that the apple tree is a tree of female power. The fruits of the apple tree have long been used as a love spell.
Apples and branches of an apple tree play an important role in the wedding ceremonies of the Slavs. The apple acted as a love sign: the guy and the girl, having exchanged fruits, expressed mutual sympathy, publicly declared their love. Apple, adopted by a girl during matchmaking - a sign of consent to marriage. The southern Slavs are invited to a wedding, bringing apples home
An apple branch is used in the manufacture of a wedding banner, a tree; apples are strengthened in the bride's wreath. Belarusians, Poles and Ukrainians stick branches of an apple tree into a loaf, and Russians into a baked wedding chicken. Among the southern Slavs, going to a wedding, the bride took an apple with her; in the church after the wedding, she threw an apple behind the altar in order to have children.
Apples were given to newlyweds so that they would have many children; on the wedding night, one apple was placed under the feather bed, and the second was broken in half, and each of the newlyweds ate half. An apple is a symbol of the bride's chastity: it was placed on a wedding shirt or instead of it in a sieve. Under the apple tree, the southern Slavs performed a ritual shaving of the groom before the wedding; when changing the headdress of the bride to the headdress of a married woman, the veil was removed from her head with an apple branch and thrown on the apple tree.
Among the southern Slavs, on Christmas and New Year's, the youngest member of the family brought an apple tree branch into the house, it was stuck into the Christmas roll; all households and cattle were hit with an apple twig, and then they were thrown onto an apple tree.
The apple is the embodiment of fertility: it was placed in the seed grain so that the wheat was born large, like apples, and to protect the crops from being stripped.
The last Apple was not plucked from the tree: it was left on a branch so that next year there would be a harvest.
In Slovakia, a young housewife, having come to a new house, turned over a basket full of apples so that there would be abundance in the household.
From infertility, an apple, which was born after the secondary flowering of the apple tree, or the first on a young tree, and also hung on the apple tree for a long time, helped.
The apple is associated with the world of the dead and plays a significant role in funeral rites: it was placed in a coffin, in a grave, so that the deceased would take it to the "other world" to their ancestors. In Bulgarian beliefs, Archangel Michael took the soul to heaven only with an apple. The apple on the table on Christmas Eve was intended for the dead, so in Poland, fearing the revenge of the ancestors, it was forbidden to take apples from the Christmas tree.
The apple tree acts as an intermediary between the two worlds, as a link in bringing the soul to the world of the ancestors. In Serbia and Bulgaria, a small apple tree was carried in front of the coffin, planted on the grave (instead of a cross), so that the dead could communicate with the living through it. It was believed that the tree was on the way with the deceased until his very transition to the “other world”. When the apple tree withered, it meant that the soul had reached paradise.
It was believed that before the Apple Savior, i.e. before the consecration of apples, mermaids live on the apple tree, damn. Apples were consecrated in the church on the Transfiguration (Apple Savior) and only after that they were allowed to eat.
In addition, apples are used to remove warts, rather by magical than medical methods. A five-pointed star is visible in an apple cut horizontally in half, and the wood and flowers of the apple tree are used in love witchcraft.
At the same time, the pear was treated as a habitat for evil spirits: in Macedonia, a wild pear is included in a number of trees called “Samovils”, it was forbidden to sleep, sit, tie a cradle to it, etc. under it. In Polissya, they were afraid to stand under a pear tree during a thunderstorm. According to Serbian beliefs, on the Pear (growing in the field, with a dense crown, crooked), veshtitsy and challahs lived, witches gathered at night, strigs danced; during the ritual expulsion from the village of Chumy, a victim was left for her on an old pear tree. Under the pear tree lived a grass snake that sucked milk from a cow every evening. The treasure was buried under a pear or a pear was planted in the place of the buried treasure. In many Slavic zones, a dry pear, like a willow, was considered the habitat of the devil, so old trees were not cut down for fear of incurring a loss on the farm.
In the Ukrainian spell tradition, the pear is associated with the world tree (oak) and is the tree of the anti-world, the tree of evil and barrenness, and is opposed to the apple tree.
Branches, fruits, wood, ash from a pear served as a talisman and were used in producing magic. The shaft of the wedding banner was made from the bough of a pear, the Ukrainians stuck a pear branch into the wedding loaf. When the bride was driving to the crown, dried pears were scattered at all crossroads; in Polissya, the mother showered the groom with pears so that he would be rich; in Plovdiv, it was believed that a barren young woman should have eaten a pear that hung on a tree the longest. In order for the newborn to be healthy, pear branches were placed in the first font, water was poured after bathing under the pear tree. The first fruits were consecrated and distributed to neighbors for the mention of the soul.
In calendar rituals, branches and a pear tree were more often used. In southwestern Bulgaria, in Macedonia, a pear was cut down for a badnyak, sometimes wild - because of its abundant fruiting, so that the house was prolific and rich. With a pear branch, the polyaznik stirred the fire in the hearth, pronouncing good wishes; the hostess took her to the chicken coop so that the chickens would rush well.
In Serbia, warts and abscesses were treated by rubbing them with the fruit of a pear, after which they were thrown onto the road with the words: “Whoever takes me, who bites me off, on that illness, on me health.” The disease was “hammered” into the pear in a hole drilled in the trunk; in northern Bulgaria, under a pear tree, the shadow of which does not fall on other trees, the childless were treated. To ensure your health whole year, on Ivanov's day they climbed through a wreath twisted on a pear branch.
The Slavs treated fruit trees with particular trepidation, since in folk tradition they were the center of fruitful power.
The fruit tree often acts as a mythological double of a person. In ancient Slavic traditions, the custom is known to plant a fruit tree at the birth of a child so that it grows and develops like a tree, and the tree, in turn, will bring a rich harvest of fruits. In the event of a child’s illness, this tree was used to guess about his fate: if the tree began to dry, the child could die and vice versa.
An apple tree uprooted in the garden foreshadowed the death of the owner or mistress. In Polissya, after the death of the owner, it was customary to cut down a pear or an apple tree.
Almost everywhere the fruit tree was associated with feminine. This is even evidenced by the fact that in the Slavic languages everything fruit trees- feminine in the grammatical gender of their names.
According to beliefs, in order to get rid of infertility, a woman had to eat the first buds, flowers or fruits from a fruit tree, and also crawl under branches bent to the ground, saying at the same time: “Just as you are not barren in your kind, so I will not fruitless in her
A pregnant woman was forbidden to climb trees, pick fruits, or even touch a fruit tree, otherwise the tree, according to legend, could dry up.
Water was poured under the fruit tree, in which the woman in labor washed herself; it was she who was tried to be treated with the first fruits of the new harvest.
All Slavs know the ban on felling fruit trees. Cutting them down was considered a sin. Violation of this rule could cause death, injury, drought.
Fruit trees were practically not used in healing magic, in particular, illnesses and “lessons” were not “transferred” to them.
The wood of fruit trees was widely used for the manufacture of amulets.
In general, we can say that all fruit trees have a positive effect on a person.
Information about magical properties trees remained in the minds of the Slavs only echoes. They can be found in fairy tales, epics, warnings. Sometimes you can hear: “Do not hide under a tree in a thunderstorm!”, “Do not dry laundry on the branches of a tree!”, “Do not break a tree!”. The warnings are still alive in our memory, but why one should not do this or that, no one or almost no one knows. Under the influence of Christianity, some ideas about the magical properties of plants and the causes of these properties have changed, some have been lost. Therefore, in this chapter, I pursued the goal of collecting information about the magical properties of trees in the life of the ancient Slavs, and tracing the role that they played in the life of our ancestors.
According to OST 56-108-98, the following terms are distinguished:
Seedlings are plants of tree species up to one year old, formed from seeds.
Self-seeding are young woody plants of natural seed origin at the age of two to five, and in the conditions of the north up to ten years.
Undergrowth is the young generation of the forest, capable of entering the upper tier in the future and taking the place of the old forest stand, under the canopy of which it has grown. The undergrowth includes a generation of woody plants older than two to five years, and in the conditions of the North - older than ten years, before the formation of a young growth or a layer of a forest stand.
Young growth includes viable, well-rooted trees of the main species with a height of more than 2.5 m and a diameter at chest height below the release diameter established in the regional felling rules, capable of participating in the formation of a plantation, and therefore felling of such trees is prohibited.
Undergrowth is of seed and vegetative origin.
Seed reforestation is considered the most perfect, allowing new generations of trees, as a result of the splitting of traits, to successfully improve following a changing environment.
Vegetative renewal, in its essence, is an absolute copying of the properties of the parent organism with no genetic differences. This reduces the adaptive capacity of the new generation of such plants. Among tree species, almost all deciduous trees are vegetatively renewed, unlike conifers. At the same time, new individuals appear from the vegetative organs of the parent plant: dormant and accessory buds on the trunk, branches, roots. This ability is used in forestry to breed especially valuable clones or individual specimens. The formation of adventitious roots on the shoots of conifers in a natural setting is a rare occurrence. Therefore, vaccinations are used for their vegetative propagation.
The process of accumulation of undergrowth under the canopy of a forest stand is called preliminary renewal, i.e. renewal that occurs before the felling of the forest (before its death). The undergrowth under the canopy is called pre-generation undergrowth.
The regeneration that occurs after felling the forest is called subsequent. Accordingly, the undergrowth that appeared after felling is called the undergrowth of the subsequent generation.
The undergrowth of all tree species is subdivided:
In height - into three categories of fineness: small up to 0.5 meters, medium - 0.6-1.5 meters and large - more than 1.5 meters. Young growth to be preserved is taken into account together with large undergrowth;
density - into three categories: rare - up to 2 thousand, medium density - 2-8 thousand, dense - more than 8 thousand plants per 1 hectare;
by distribution by area - into three categories depending on the occurrence (the occurrence of undergrowth is the ratio of the number of registration sites with plants to the total number of registration sites established on a trial plot or cutting area, expressed as a percentage): uniform - occurrence over 65%, uneven - occurrence 40-65%, group (at least 10 pieces of small or 5 pieces of medium and large specimens of viable and closed undergrowth).
Viable undergrowth and young growth of forest plantations of coniferous species are characterized by the following features: dense needles, green or dark green color of needles, pronounced whorl, pointed or conical symmetrical dense or medium density crown with a length of at least 1/3 of the height of the trunk in groups and 1/2 stem height - when placed alone, growth in height over the past 3-5 years is not lost, the growth of the apical shoot is not less than the growth of the lateral branches of the upper half of the crown, straight intact stems, smooth or finely scaly bark without lichens.
Undergrowth growing on dead wood and young growth of forest plantations of coniferous species can be classified as viable according to the indicated signs if the dead wood has decomposed and the undergrowth roots have penetrated into the mineral part of the soil.
The viable undergrowth of forest plantations of hardwood species is characterized by normal foliage of the crown, stems proportionally developed in height and diameter.
Paragraph 51 of the Timber Harvesting Rules indicates “When cutting mature, overmature forest plantations, the undergrowth of forest plantations is preserved by economic and valuable breeds on areas not occupied by loading points, routes of main and apiary trails, roads, industrial and amenity sites, in the amount of at least 70 percent for clear-cutting, 80 percent for selective felling (for mountain forests - 60 and 70 percent, respectively) ".
In connection with this requirement, if there is a sufficient amount of viable undergrowth in technological map development of the cutting area indicates the need to preserve it over the entire area of the cutting area or in its parts with a clump arrangement of undergrowth. Undergrowth felling is allowed:
when cutting through sights;
when cleaning hanging and dead trees;
· in the territory of the upper warehouses and loading points;
on logging roads;
on skid trails;
in places of installation of mechanisms;
· when mechanized felling of trees within a radius of up to 1 m from the felled tree;
· on trails up to 3 m long for the feller to move away from the tree.
Paragraphs 13 and 14 of the Reforestation Rules state:
Measures to preserve the undergrowth of forest plantations of valuable forest tree species are carried out simultaneously with the felling of forest plantations. Cutting in such cases is carried out mainly in winter time on the snow cover with the use of technologies that ensure the preservation of the amount of undergrowth and young growth of valuable forest tree species from destruction and damage not less than that provided for during the allocation of cutting areas.
Viable undergrowth and young growth of pine, cedar, larch, spruce, fir, oak, beech, ash and other forest plantations of valuable species in their respective natural and climatic conditions are subject to conservation during felling of forest plantations.
Undergrowth of cedar, and in mountain forests also undergrowth of oak and beech, are subject to accounting and conservation as the main species for all felling methods, regardless of the number and nature of its distribution over the cutting area and the composition of the forest plantation before felling.
To protect the undergrowth of the main forest tree species from unfavorable environmental factors in clearings, more successful growth and the formation of forest plantations of the desired composition, the undergrowth of associated forest tree species (maple, linden, etc.) and shrub species are fully or partially preserved.
In pine forests growing on sandy loamy soils, the undergrowth of spruce forest plantations is preserved, provided that the spruce plantation does not reduce the quality and productivity of the stand. When restoring pine and spruce forest plantations, undergrowth, if necessary, is preserved in the clearing to protect the soil and form stable and highly productive pine and spruce forest plantations.
Stricken harmful organisms, underdeveloped and damaged during logging, undergrowth must be cut down at the end of logging operations.
When carrying out selective cuttings, all undergrowth and young growth under the forest canopy are subject to accounting and conservation, regardless of the number, degree of viability and nature of their distribution over the area.
To determine the amount of undergrowth, coefficients for converting small and medium undergrowth into large are used. For small undergrowth, a coefficient of 0.5 is applied, for medium - 0.8, for large - 1.0. If the undergrowth is mixed in composition, the assessment of renewal is made on the basis of the main forest tree species corresponding to the natural and climatic conditions.
Accounting for undergrowth and young growth is carried out by methods that ensure the determination of their number and viability with an error in the accuracy of determination of no more than 10 percent.
In all cases, it is necessary to observe predetermined distances between the sites on the sights and counting tapes. On plots up to 5 hectares, 30 accounting plots are laid, on plots from 5 to 10 hectares - 50 and over 10 hectares - 100 sites.
At present, it is believed that of all the measures to promote natural reforestation, the most effective is the preservation of undergrowth, i.e., the emphasis is on preserving the results of preliminary reforestation. To preserve the undergrowth, special methods of harvesting wood have been developed (“Kostroma method” with mechanized felling, the shuttle method with VTM, etc.), which allow you to save up to 65% of the undergrowth available in apiaries, but significantly reducing the productivity of the main work.
The preservation of undergrowth and young growth during logging ensures the restoration of forests on clearings with economically valuable species and prevents undesirable change of species, reduces the period of forest restoration and the time for growing technically mature wood, reduces the cost of reforestation, and contributes to the preservation of the water protection and protective functions of forests. In the scientific literature, for example, in the works of prof. V.N. Menshikov, there is evidence that this method of promoting reforestation can reduce the turnover of felling the main species by 10–50 years.
However, as practice shows, the primary focus on the conservation of undergrowth is not always justified for the following reasons:
· on most of the forested flat lands of the forest fund of the Russian Federation, the main species are conifers;
· in forests where light-loving conifers (pine, larch) are chosen as the main species, the undergrowth of these species is almost absent due to their inability to develop normally under the maternal canopy;
In forests formed by shade-tolerant conifers (spruce, fir), there is a large amount of undergrowth, however, according to our observations and according to other researchers, a large amount of undergrowth preserved during logging dies in the first 5–10 years after clear-cutting due to a sharp change in the microclimate and the light regime after removal of the maternal canopy (burning of the needles and neck of the root, squeezing the roots, etc.). Moreover, the percentage of dying undergrowth directly depends on the type of felling, and, consequently, on the type of forest that preceded it;
· Undergrowth dying within 1–2 age classes clutters up the cutting area, increasing its fire hazard and increasing the risk of forest damage by pests and diseases.
In connection with the foregoing, it can be argued that in certain types of forest, with a focus on natural reforestation, the refusal to preserve undergrowth, with the obligatory leaving of seeding sources, can give more positive than negative results for the following reasons:
· logging technologies without undergrowth preservation are more productive than technologies with its preservation;
· refusal from a strictly defined network of apiary skidders means that the load work of skidding routes (one track) can be significantly reduced (depending on the distance from the upper warehouse, the stock of forest per hectare and the load capacity of the skidder), which will improve the forest soil due to its mineralization, as well as bringing the density of the soil to the optimum for the development of seeds, i.e., improving the conditions for subsequent natural reforestation);
· when cleaning cutting areas from logging residues, it becomes possible to use high-performance rake-type pick-ups;
Refusal to preserve undergrowth will make it possible to use the technology of skidding trees more widely, dramatically increasing the productivity of tree delimbing operations (when using mobile delimbing machines), will allow concentrating most of the logging residues in the upper warehouse, greatly facilitating their further utilization and reducing the laboriousness of clearing cutting areas.
In a number of scientific publications devoted to the success of natural reforestation, it is noted that 15–95%, and sometimes 100% of the preserved viable undergrowth of coniferous species, die in the clearings in Western and Central Siberia. The same data were obtained on some types of cuttings for the conditions of the North-West region of the Russian Federation V.I. Obydennikov, L. N. Rozhin. They note that “the mortality of spruce undergrowth (20 years of age at the time of felling) for a five-year period after clear-cutting (in the conditions of Krestetskoye LPH) amounted to 18.5% in the emerging forb-reed type of fellings, and 57% in the reed-reed grass type, 3%, in sitnikov - 100% .
In addition, as a result of large-scale studies conducted in the 80s of the twentieth century, it was found that, in general, in the North-West region, the area of forest plantations with a sufficient amount of undergrowth of the main species for sustainable reforestation does not exceed 49.2%, moreover, in some areas it does not exceed 10% (Novgorod - 9.0%, Pskov - 5.9%).
The above facts allow us to state that the preservation of undergrowth on large forest areas is unprofitable due to poor prospects for its development or its insufficient quantity. In this case, subsequent natural reforestation comes to the fore, based on the obligatory preservation of seeding sources and supported by such assistance measures as soil preparation, clearing of cutting areas, etc.
From the point of view of subsequent natural reforestation (germination of seeds that have fallen into the soil), the condition of the soil will be one of the main factors affecting the success of this process. It is also obvious that the use of machines and mechanisms to perform special technological operations to prepare the soil for natural reforestation will increase the cost and complicate the logging process. Therefore, when carrying out logging operations, it is necessary to strive for such an impact on forest environment, in particular, on the soil of the cutting area, which would provide optimal conditions for subsequent reforestation.
This approach is reflected in the Timber Harvesting Rules, paragraph 56 of these rules states: “In lowland forests, during clear felling without preservation of undergrowth in conditions of forest types, where soil surface mineralization has a positive value for reforestation, the area of trails is not limited. Types (groups of types) of the forest, where such felling is allowed, are indicated in the forestry regulations of the forestry, forest park.
At the same time, there are no more specific indications in the regulatory documents in which cases it can be considered that the mineralization of the soil surface has a positive value for reforestation.
Undergrowth care
After completion of logging operations during summer harvesting and after snow melting and soil thawing during winter felling, the preserved undergrowth is trimmed and cared for. Undergrowth and young growth are freed from logging residues, the root systems of plants that have broken contact with the soil are pressed to the ground. Broken, shrunken and severely damaged specimens during the logging process are cut down and removed from apiaries or landed along with logging residues.
After the main mortality, after 2-3 years, shrunken, severely damaged individuals of the main species are removed, for example, those with peeling of the bark wider than 2 cm, undergrowth of unwanted species or their trees of subsequent renewal and shrubs that interfere with the growth of the main species. In the first year after felling, such work should not be carried out, because unwanted tree and shrub vegetation acts as a protection for undergrowth from the sun, frost, and wind, which increases the total evaporation. Undergrowth care, as a measure of promoting natural reforestation, is especially necessary for light-loving species: pine, oak, larch.
Under conditions of normal moisture supply, reliable (light) undergrowth increases not only transpiration, but also photosynthesis, metabolism increases, root respiration is activated, which contributes to the development of the root system and assimilation apparatus. It is important that from the buds laid under the forest canopy, needles are formed in clearings, which are close in anatomy and morphology to the light one. New needles also arise from dormant buds.
Even in the second half of the XIX century. Russian foresters drew attention to the need to preserve undamaged trustworthy undergrowth, as it relatively quickly adapts to new environmental conditions and forms a highly productive plantation in the future.
Various experiments on the conservation of undergrowth have shown that spruce and fir undergrowth over 0.5 m high, preserved in the clearing, surpasses in growth the undergrowth of deciduous species that appears next to it.
The presence among many thousands of specimens of deciduous undergrowth of only a few hundred specimens of coniferous plants up to 1.5 m high ensures the predominance of conifers. In suborya and ramen high-productive forest types, 40-60 years after the felling of the parent stand, large trees grow from which sawlogs can be obtained. With subsequent renewal, such assortments are obtained in stands only after 80 years or more. After 50 years, for example, after deforestation in the Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, under favorable environmental conditions, a forest massif was formed from the preserved spruce and fir undergrowth with reserves of 200-400 m 3, and in some areas up to 500 m 3 / ha.
It has been established that the natural renewal of the main forest-forming species- pines and spruces in taiga zone the European part of the USSR, subject to certain technological methods, felling is provided for approximately 60-70% of the areas of felling, in the zone mixed forests by 25-30% and in forest-steppe zone where to influence climatic factors an intensive anthropogenic impact is added, on 10-15% of the cleared areas.
This takes into account both the preliminary and subsequent renewal of valuable coniferous and deciduous species. In the taiga zone, for example, the most favorable conditions for the preliminary renewal of the main rock are created in lichen, heather, lingonberry and bilberry forests, as well as in lingonberry and bilberry spruce forests. In the pine forests of green moss and oxalis, spruce undergrowth predominates in the composition of preliminary renewal. Trustworthy spruce undergrowth is abundant under the canopy of deciduous (birch and aspen) and deciduous-conifer plantations.
The safety of the undergrowth left in the cutting area largely depends on its age and condition. The undergrowth formed under the canopy of high-density plantations has the greatest mortality. When removing the upper canopy under these conditions, the loss of spruce undergrowth up to 0.5 m high is 30-40%, with a height of 0.5 m and above - 20-30%. The undergrowth of a group location and freed from the canopy in the autumn-winter period has the greatest safety.
In the zone of mixed forests, successful natural regeneration of pine is observed only in lichen forest types. In heather forests and lingonberries, renewal takes place with a partial change of species. With natural regeneration in blueberry pine forests, moss and sphagnum, the participation of conifers is 15-30%. In forests of the green moss type and sorrel forests, pine is completely replaced by deciduous species. Renewal of spruce forests in this zone is even less satisfactory.
Every year, during clear-cutting in the forests of the USSR, viable undergrowth is preserved on an area of 800,000 hectares, i.e., on 1/3 of the area cut down. The largest areas of reforestation due to preserved undergrowth are in the northern and Siberian regions, where coniferous forests predominate and industrial reforestation is still poorly developed.
Mandatory for all loggers are the Rules for the Preservation of Undergrowth and Young Growth of Economically Valuable Tree Species in the Development of Cutting Areas in the Forests of the USSR. Technological processes for the development of logging sites are subordinated to the preservation of undergrowth. For example, a method of felling trees onto a lining tree is used.
At the same time, the cutting area is divided into apiaries 30-40 m wide, depending on the average height of the forest stand. In the middle of the apiary, a portage 5-6 m wide is cut through. The forest felling on the portage begins from the far end, the trees are cut flush with the ground. After the preparation of skid trails, the forest is cut down in strips from the far ends of apiaries.
Before proceeding with the development of the side strip, the feller selects a large tree and cuts it at an angle of 45 ° to the border of the apiary. Trees closer to the portage are felled at a lower angle.
Trees, starting from the portage, are felled onto the lining tree with their top to the portage (fan) so that the crowns of other trees fit one on top of the other. The butts of the cut trees should lie on the underlayment tree. The number of trees felled on one lining "slime" tree is the trip load on the tractor.
After felling the trees, the tractor driver drives up to the portage, turns around, chokes all the trees, including the lining, and takes them to the upper warehouse. At the same time, the butts of fallen trees slide along the lining tree, bending down somewhat, but without damaging the undergrowth of valuable species. During this time, the feller prepares the next cart. After sending two or three wagons, the feller goes to another apiary, from where he also sends two or three wagons. After 25-30 m 3 of wood is skidded to the upper warehouse, large-package loading onto mobile transport is carried out using a skidder.
Labor productivity in logging using this method is increased due to the lightweight chokering of the whips. Branches cut off during felling remain in one place near the portage, where they are burned or left to rot. Labor productivity increases by 10-15%, and most importantly, up to 60-80% of coniferous undergrowth 0.5-1 m high is preserved.
When using feller bunchers LP-2 and chokerless skidders TB-1, the technology changes somewhat, and the amount of remaining undergrowth sharply decreases. The amount of preserved undergrowth also depends on the cutting season. In winter, more small undergrowth remains than in summer.
Preservation of undergrowth during the development of cutting areas with narrow strips was started by the Tatar experimental station. A cutting area 250 m wide is divided into narrow strips 25-30 m wide, depending on the average height of the stand. The width of the portage is 4-5 m. The skid trails are cut along the borders of narrow belts. Trees in ribbons are felled without a lining tree, with their top on the portage, at an acute, possibly the smallest, angle to the portage. At the same time, the feller retreats into the depth of the belt, distributing the trees into the right and left skid trails.
Skidding is carried out by a skidder with crowns forward without turning the trunk in the direction in which the trees are felled. The cutting area development technology changes somewhat when using the TB-1 skidder without choker.
Quite viable undergrowth remains on the tapes, with the exception of those specimens that are damaged when trees fall. Small, medium and large undergrowth is preserved.
Portages 4-5 m wide are left uncultivated. They are self-seeding. Broken branches and tops torn off during chokering remain on the portages. During the operation of the tractor, they are crushed, mixed with the soil, where they rot. The undergrowth is preserved thanks to a well-organized logging site. The skidder passes only along the portage, the felled tree is not turned around during skidding, but is pulled out at the angle to the portage at which it was felled.
When developing logging sites in the Skorodumsky timber industry enterprise, the entire area is divided into apiaries 30–40 m wide. The cutting of apiaries begins with cutting down trees in the central middle lane 12 m wide. The whips are skimming over the top. On the side strips, trees are felled at an angle of no more than 40 °. With this technology, the preservation of undergrowth is ensured due to the proper organization of the cutting area.
The preservation of undergrowth is of great importance in the rotational logging method, when workshop sites work on shifts remote from the central settlements - temporary settlements with a period of basing in one place up to 4 years. These are the cases when difficulties arise due to the lack of roads, severe swampy terrain, the island location of cutting areas, or when it is imperative to use the natural forces of the forest for self-renewal.
Preservation of undergrowth during the development of cutting areas in the mountains. In spruce, spruce-fir and fir-beech mountain forests growing on slopes, gradual two- and three-stage mechanized felling, as well as selective cutting, are used. In the Urals, in forests of group I, on slopes up to 15° in the southern regions and up to 20° in the northern regions, in drying and soft-leaved plantations without undergrowth, clear-cutting is allowed with direct adjoining cutting areas.
In beech forests good results obtained during gradual felling, when skidding is carried out by air installations. In order to reduce damage to undergrowth and young growth, felling in mountain forests is carried out along the slope in the direction from top to bottom.
When air skidding forests with assortments, up to 70% of undergrowth is preserved in summer logging and more than 80% in winter.
Great attention should be paid to the method of preserving undergrowth in mountainous conditions during the development of logging sites based on an aerostatic skidding unit (ATUP), developed and applied for the first time in the USSR by V. M. Pikalkin in the Khadyzhensky timber industry enterprise of the Krasnodar Territory.
The technology of work is as follows. An ATUP is installed over a section of a mountain forest that is inaccessible to ground skidding equipment. A feller with a gasoline-powered saw is located at the logging site, and a winch minder is at the control panel. The tree assigned to the felling is chokered at the base of the crown with a special choker fixed at the end of the skidding rope descending from the cable-block system of the balloon. A chokered tree is cut down by a feller.
By radio signal, the feller turns on the lifting mechanism of the cable-block system and the sawn tree is lifted into the air above the tops of the forest. Then, with the help of a special winch, the tree is transferred from the stump to the line of the main logging road, where it is laid on a truck that delivers the cut trees to the lower warehouse.
The balloon skidding installation consists of balloons, a winch and a cable-block system. Trees are lifted from the stump by a balloon, and moved using an installed winch.
Advantages of developing logging sites in mountainous conditions on the basis of the ATUP installation: undergrowth, undergrowth and the second layer of valuable species are completely preserved; damage to trees remaining on the vine is excluded; the fertile soil layer is completely preserved; labor force and equipment are saved, costs per 1 m 3 of harvested wood are significantly reduced; Ripe and overmature wood is used for the national economy, located in inaccessible and inaccessible mountainous areas, where it is impossible to use conventional ground skidding equipment, and the construction of air skidding installations is expensive. The balloon-skidding plant allows you to perform any type of cuttings for the main and intermediate use with a good silvicultural effect.