Early Development of Chestnut Sprouts. $7 



for water by the new generation is exceedingly light; moreover, 

 the stump and roots at the outset hold a good store of moisture 

 and food materials. In such a state of inactivity, roots can main- 

 tain for only a brief period of time their potential capacity for a 

 renewal of functional activity. While in this condition, there are 

 many species of insects, bacteria and fungi ready to effect the 

 early destruction of all living tissues in the root. 



Those portions of the old root system, however, which are 

 early brought into functional activity by the demands of the new 

 sprouts, survive the first year, which appears to be the most criti- 

 cal period during the process of readjustment. -During the fol- 

 lowing years, with the enlargement of the aerial portion of the 

 sprout or colony, comes a corresponding increase in the demand 

 for soil moisture. This demand is met either by an extension of 

 the old root system previously appropriated by the young shoot 

 or by the production of new roots near the base of the shoot. 



Low-cut stumps tend toward a deeper point of origin for the 

 sprouts, and such show a greater tendency to develop new 

 lateral roots, thus becoming in a measure independent of the roots 

 of the parent which in so many cases are in a degenerate condi- 

 tion. 



Relation of Age to Sprouting. — As is to be expected, there is 

 an age-predisposition with respect to the production of sprouts. 

 Chestnut is subject to far wider limits in this respect than the 

 majority of coppice species. Local study in Connecticut, where 

 50 to 60 years is the average rotation in practice, failed to fix 

 upon the maximum or the optimum age. Up to this age, the 

 number of sprouts generally was directly proportional to the size 

 of the stump in circumference. 



In the northern Pennsylvania tract, however, where seedling 

 trees of various ages and sizes had been recently cut, the relation 

 was clear. Fresh stumps, 80 to 170 years old, produced a full 

 thicket of short, spindling sprouts, while neighboring stumps 

 in age from 30 to 60 years, bore a much smaller number of tall, 

 stout sprouts. Evidently some point below 60 years may be re- 

 garded as the optimum age. 



The figures in the following table are quoted from results ob- 

 tained by Mr. Raphael Zon on the Chestnut in Maryland. The 

 number of sprouts in relation to the diameter of the stump is 



