52 Forestry Quarterly. 



the forest floor — these species were reproducing almost entirel}' on 

 the old, decaying tree trunks lying in the forest, and these trunks 

 were themselves pine, spruce, and hemlock. They were not repro- 

 ducing on old, decaying beech, birch, or maple trees. Occasionally 

 an old hemlock was found literally covered with little spruces and 

 hemlocks, while on the forest floor not a small tree of these species 

 was to be found upon the quarter-acre. Patches of young spruces, 

 from one to five or six feet high, were found apparently as if they 

 had germinated on the forest floor, but upon close examination 

 these were generally seen to be arranged in rows, which would in- 

 dicate that they had come from some such seed bed as old logs. 

 Frequently, too, the undecayed knots of an old hemlock could be 

 kicked up along the row. 



It is true that these species were also found germinating and 

 growing on the forest floor. It was only, however, where the 

 mineral soil was exposed, and this is of rare occurrence in the 

 virgin forest ; usually it occurs only on steep slopes and at the 

 roots of upturned trees. Even in forests where lumbering has 

 been carried on, unless fire has burned off the humus, the mineral 

 soil is not much exposed. Skidding tears up the soil to only a 

 slight extent, not enough to warrant the assumption that a seed 

 bed will thus be furnished to reproduce the softwoods in sufficient 

 numbers to keep up a forest lumbered periodically. 



When fire goes through a softwood forest, leaving here and 

 there a seed tree, the young growth comes up in abundance, for 

 the reason that the fire not only burns off the humus, exposing 

 the mineral soil, but it leaves a covering of ashes just suitable, 

 when leached into the soil, for encouraging the growth of the trees ; 

 in fact, just the mineral matter that the burned trees took from the 

 soil, the fire driving off into the air only the elements obtained from 

 the air. Along the line of the Canada Atlantic Railway from Otta- 

 wa to Parry Soinid can be seen miles of young White Pine as dense 

 as it can stand, where the fire has left only here and there a tall pine 

 with foliage, among the many dead, desolate remains of the once 

 flourishing forest. 



Until spruce began to be lumbered for pulp, many large, defect- 

 ive trees were left in the woods by the lumberman, and even now 

 where pine is lumbered not all the trees are taken. It is well 

 known that defective trees often produce more fruit than those that 



