DESTRUCTION AND REPRODUCTION OF FORESTS. 



209 



of lon^ and careful observation, are entitled 

 to much respect. 



"If an acre or two be cut down in the 

 midst of a forest, and then neglected, it will 

 soon be occupied by a growth similar to that 

 which was cut down ; but when all the tim- 

 ber, on tracts of great size, is killed by 

 fires, except certain parts of swamps, a very 

 different growth springs up ; at first a great 

 number of herbs and shrubs, which did not 

 grow on the land when covered by living 

 wood. The turfy coat, filled with the de- 

 caying fibres of the roots of the trees and 

 plants of the forest, now all killed by the 

 fire, becomes a kind of hot-bed, and seeds 

 which had lain dormant for centuries, spring 

 up and flourish in the mellow soil. On the 

 most barren portions, the blueberry appears 

 almost every where ; great fields of red 

 raspberries and fire-weed or French willow, 

 spring up along the edges of the beech and 

 hemlock land, and abundance of red-berried 

 elder and wild red-cherry appear soon after ; 

 but in a few years, the raspberries and 

 most of the herbage disappear, and are fol- 

 lowed by a growth of firs, white and yellow 

 birch, and poplar. When a succession of 

 fires has occurred, small shrubs occupy the 

 barren, the kalmia or sheep-poison being 

 the most abundant ; and, in the course of 

 ten or twelve years form so much turf, that 

 a thicket of small alder begins to grow, 

 under the shelter of which fir, spruce, hac- 

 metac (larch), and white birch spring up. 

 When the ground is thoroughly shaded by 

 a thicket twenty feet high, the species which 

 originally occupied the ground begin to pre- 

 vail, and suffocate the wood which shelter- 

 ed it ; and within sixty years, the land will 

 generally be covered with a young growth 

 of the same kind that it produced of old." 

 Assuming the above statements to be a cor- 

 rect summary of the principal modes in 

 which forests are reproduced, we may pro- 

 ceed to consider them more in detail. 



1st. Where the wood is merely cut down 

 and not burned, the same description of 

 wood is immediately reproduced, and this 

 may be easily accounted for. The soil con- 

 tains abundance of the seeds of these trees, 

 there are even numerous young plants rea- 

 dy to take the place of those which have 

 been destroyed ; and if the trees have been 



Vol. II. 27 



cut in winter, their stumps produce youn^ 

 shoots. Even in cases of this kind, how- 

 ever, a number of shrubs and herbaceous 

 plants, not formerly growing in the place, 

 spring up ; the cause of this may be more 

 properly noticed when describing cases of 

 another kind. This simplest mode of the 

 destruction of a forest, may assume another 

 aspect. If the original wood have been of 

 kinds requiring a fertile soil, such as maple 

 or beech, and if this wood be removed for 

 example, for firewood, it may happen that 

 the quantity of inorganic matter thus re- 

 moved from the soil may incapacitate it, at 

 least for a long time, from producing the 

 same description of timber. In this case, 

 some species requiring a less fertile soil may 

 occupy the ground. For this reason, forests 

 of beech growing on light soils, when re- 

 moved for firewood, are sometimes succeed- 

 ed by spruce and fir. I have observed in- 

 stances of this kind, both in Nova Scotia 

 and Prince Edward Island. 



2dly. When the trees are burned, with- 

 out the destruction of the whole of the ve- 

 getable soil, the woods are reproduced by a 

 more complicated process, which may occu- 

 py a number of years. In its first stage, 

 the burned ground bears a luxuriant crop 

 of herbs and shrubs, which, if it be fertile 

 and not of very great extent, may nearly 

 cover its surface in the summer succeeding 

 the fire. This first growth may comprise a 

 considerable variety of species, which we 

 may divide into three groups. The first of 

 these consists of herbaceous plants, which 

 have their roots so deeply buried in the soil 

 as to escape the effects of the fire. Of this 

 kind is a small species of Trillium, whose 

 tubers are deeply imbedded in the black 

 mould of the woods, and whose flowers may 

 sometimes be seen thickly sprinkled over 

 the black surface of woodland very recent- 

 ly burned. Some species of ferns, also in 

 this way occasionally survive forest fires. 

 A second group is composed of plants whose 

 seeds are readily transported by the wind. 

 Of this kind is the species of Epilobium, 

 known in Nova Scotia as the fire-Aveed or 

 French willow, whose feathered seeds are 

 admirably adapted for flying to great dis- 

 tances, and which often covers large tracts 

 of burned ground so completely, that its 



