Barly Development of Chestnut Sprouts. 43 



sprouts had completed the third year's growth and were in dor- 

 mant winter condition. (October). (2) The present stumps 

 were 2nd to 4th generation sprouts. (3) The situation was site 

 II ; Type, Average Hardwoods. (4) Three grades of quality 

 of stump were made, viz., good, fair and poor on the basis of con- 

 ditions of external observations cited in the foregoing study. 

 Many stumps of grade "poor" had produced no sprouts of a 

 size assuring the participation in the later wood-crop, and all such 

 were not accepted in the count. The aim was thus to determine 

 if possible within narrower limits the effect resulting from disease 

 infection. The average of each of the three years' growth in 

 height of sprouts from stumps of each quality is shown in the 

 following table. 



Quality of Length of growth in height in feet. 



Stump. 1st year. 2nd year. 3rd year. Total. 



Good 4.88 2.23 1.9 9.01 



Fair 4.18 2.20 1.51 7.89 



Poor 3.97 2.0 1.23 7.20 



From these measurements it appears that the rate of growth 

 is better sustained during the years following the first in the 

 case of sprouts from the soundest stumps. Accompanying di- 

 sease in the stump, shown by unsoundness, the curve of the 

 upward growth flattens out comparatively soon. The high aver- 

 age of the curve for the poor quality stumps is due to the con- 

 ditions already stated, i. e. no measurements taken on stumps 

 which were so badly diseased that no sprouts were produced 

 promising a fair participation in the wood-crop. The effects of 

 disease are thus taken from a narrower source. 



Comparison of sprout growth from seedling and coppice 

 stumps. — The rates of height growth of sprouts from two classes 

 of stumps — coppice and seedling origin — growing side by side 

 under identical conditions, are suposed to be different. The 

 figures in table convey some idea of the actual amount of differ- 

 ence in growth. 



The study was made on a tract of Site I for Chestnut. It is 

 almost exclusively in such locations that seedling-trees occur at 

 all in Connecticut ; here, also, coppice maintains a relatively good 

 thrift for successive generations. In situations where favorable 

 soil factors prevail, the seed crops are generally more frequent 

 and larger, the seed vitality better and the early growth of the 



