64 FSREST COMMISSIONER'S REPORT. 



NATURAL SEEDING. 



The spruces and larches, native and foreign, scatter their seeda 

 without our aid, and these spring up in pastures and wild lands gener- 

 ally. A few trees of the Norway spruce (Picea excelsa), of the 

 black spruce (P. nigra), and Eurt^pean larch, set in the grounds of 

 the writer, when small, thirty years ago, have attained a diameter 

 of eighteen inches, and are seeding a neigh 'or's pasture and wood- 

 lot in all directions. If not dug up for ornamental planting, they 

 would soon cover the ground with a beautiful forest. These seeds 

 mature annually, and are carried by the winds, so that the young trees 

 may be found at a distance of a hundred rods. The seeds of the 

 pine, arbor-vitae (Thuja accidentalis) , elm (Ulmus Americana), 

 maples, ashes, and birches are sown in the same way, only a small 

 percentage of which ever germiuate. 



Other trees produce seeds too heavy to be widely scattered in 

 this way, and are dependent on the agency of birds and small ani- 

 mals for their dissemination. Among these are the oaks, hickory, 

 walnut, cherry and beech. 



The hedge-rows by the sides of fences are the result of seeds 

 dropped by birds, and secreted by squirrels for winter food. It is 

 not uncommon to see the ground under hickories in the forest 

 thickly set with young trees, the nuts having fallen and been cov- 

 ered by leaves. 'J hey have been placed in just the condition best 

 suited to their preservation, gern)ination and growth. The much of 

 leaves has prevented diying, the shells have been opened by frost, 

 and the young plants have been screened from the hot sun and dry- 

 ing winds — all conditions most essential to success in growing 

 seedlings of nut bearing tr es 



Old lumbermen tell us that white pine (Piiuis s'trobus) is the 

 most rapid and profitable growth among all our forest trees, and 

 it is certain that it is the one most easily propagated 



The pitch pine (I'inus rigida) and red pine (f inus resinosa) will 

 flourish on even poorer soil, if possible, than the white pine. The 

 pitch pine plains are among the poorest soil of our State, yet they 

 seem well suited to the giowtb of Ihe difft n lit species of pine. 

 They will grow in t\>e most barren drift, and on the moraines and 

 knolls composed of coarse gravel and k t■k^. f i< ni which nearly 

 every vestige of clay, loam, and vegetable njalier have been washed 

 in past ages. 



